Are You Daffy About Daffy?, Part One – A Stock Worth Investing In

 

Almost all home cooks, including yours truly, are guilty of paying no mind to one of the most delicious meats readily available in all supermarkets…DUCK!  When I go out to eat and see duck on the menu, I almost always jump at it, which makes sense since I never prepare it myself.  Every time I go to the store I end up cycling through the following steps when perusing the butcher section:

 

1. Look at the whole ducks
2. Think about all the various dishes I could make with duck
3. Slowly reach for the plumpest, tastiest looking bird
4. PANIC
5. Start psyching myself out and convincing myself that I actually want to cook chicken
6. Look back and forth at the ducks and chickens
7. Buy chicken

 

Well this week I did not allow myself to panic.  I reached for a duck and actually ended up getting one.  I promptly brought it home and broke it down into its various parts, knowing full well what I was going to do with each and every one.  Today’s post will focus on what to do with the carcass of the bird after having removed all the delicious meat and fat.

 

 

Butchering a duck is very similar to butchering a chicken.  I removed and reserved the neck and innards that were found inside the cavity of the duck.  I cut off the wings, split them at the joint, and added them to the innards and neck.  Lastly, I removed the breast meat, followed by the legs.  The dish that I had in mind when purchasing the duck was duck confit, which requires the use of the legs and fat from the duck.  Since I knew that I needed all the fat I could find on the bird to make a rip roaring duck confit, I ended up removing the skin and fat from the breast meat, which is not traditional by any means.  I just wanted to make it clear that if you do not plan on making duck confit but want to cook the duck breasts separately, you should keep the skin and fat intact.

 

 

Since I removed the fat from the breasts, I am not going to be writing a post about preparing seared duck breasts.  The legs and fat have been set aside for now, but their fate is sealed…confit!  That leaves the carcass, wings, innards, and neck, which always brings up one and only one thought in this guy’s mind…stock.  While there are a million and one great reasons to make your own stocks, here are my top three:

 

1. Compared to homemade stock, the store-bought alternative taste like water from the Long Island Sound
2. Throwing away the carcass and scraps is wasteful
3. Simmering the carcass and scraps for hours softens all the tidbits of meat attached to them, which can be pulled off after cooking and turned into mean sandwiches

 

Ingredients -

 

1 duck carcass, including wings, neck, and innards

1 chicken carcass

1 small bunch of parsley, or half of a large bunch

4 cloves of garlic, halved, skins on

3 shallots, halved, skins on

1 Spanish onion, halved, skins on

4 carrots, not peeled, cut into 2 inch chunks

Small handful fresh thyme sprigs

Water

 

Before I proceed to the instructions, I want to make it clear that you can customize your stock any way you like.  If you do not want to use duck, then use two chicken carcasses.  If you do not have shallots, use 2 Spanish onions.  Just use the ingredients list above as a template to which you can add and/or subtract ingredients.

 

 

Add all ingredients, except the water, to a large stock pot or Dutch oven.  You can leave the skins/papers on the garlic, shallots and onions because they are going to be strained out anyway, so save yourself the trouble of removing them.  Also, the skins add to the color of the finished product.  Add enough water to just barely cover the bones and veggies, then put over high heat and bring to a boil.  Reduce to a simmer and cook, partially covered, for a couple of hours.  Foam will appear on the surface of the stock during the first half of the cooking process.  You can skim this off as it develops, or just leave it.  I did not skim off the foam from mine and my stock turned out great!  The chicken carcass that I used was one that I had in the freezer from the last time I roasted a chicken.  You should definitely freeze the bones left over from big roasts so that they can be turned into delicious stock whenever you have the time to do so.

 

 

When the veggies and carcasses have become quite soft and the stock looks rich and colorful, remove from the heat and strain through a fine strainer, or a colander with a couple layers of cheesecloth in it.  SAVE THE CHICKEN AND DUCK PARTS!!!  There is a ton of meat that can be pulled from the bird carcasses…meat that is super tender, well flavored, and amazing when mixed with some BBQ sauce or mustard and slapped on some tasty bread or a biscuit. 

 

Put the strained stock in the fridge for a few hours, or until well chilled.  This is an important step, because as the stock chills, the fat on the surface will solidify, making it very easy to remove.  Also, the gelatin in the bones will cause the chilled stock to become Jello-esque, which is pretty cool.  Slip some canned fruit and marshmallows into it and you’ve got yourself one killer Jello salad!  Once the fat has been removed, the stock should keep in the fridge for about a week, or can be frozen to be used at a later date.  I like to freeze my stock in resealable freezer bags that have a description of the contents and the date scribed on the side.

 

 

To add some additional flavor and complexity to the stock, you can brown the chicken and duck parts prior to adding them to the stock pot.  I chose not to do this, quite frankly in the interest of time.  Also note that this stock does not have any salt in it.  I do not like to add salt to homemade stocks because I want to be able to easily control the amount of salt in the dishes that I end up using the stock in.