Grandma being just ducky

[franksolich]

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=236x72625

Oh my.

I've been staying away from Skins's island the past several days, working instead on the TOP PRIMITIVES OF 2009 and the TOP PRIMITIVE OF 2009, but curiosity finally drove me to drag out the boat and row over to Skins's island.

Grandma:

hippywife  (1000+ posts)        Mon Dec-21-09 07:31 PM
Original message
 
I picked up my ducks today!

Phentex  (1000+ posts)        Mon Dec-21-09 08:04 PM
Response to Original message
 
1. It's beginning to look a lot like Christmaaaassss!

Quack Quack! Enjoy!

I think I've been inspired by Rbrrrrrr's thread to do surf & turf for the main holiday dinner.

hippywife  (1000+ posts)        Mon Dec-21-09 08:22 PM
Response to Reply #1
 
4. Thanx, we will even tho we don't celebrate Christmas. Just a nice three day weekend calls for a great meal.

Enjoy your meal, sounds great! We're thinking of ordering our lobsters and clams for New Year's Day, maybe. I dunno.

Now, as we all figured out a long time ago, Grandma is afflicted with the "suppressed wife" syndrome.

Grandma grew up amidst a very large and loving family of Italianate origin in Ohio, a family that respected and honored traditions, especially sacred ones.

But at the age of 38 years, Grandma got a wild hair up her insides, and ran away to the wilds of northeastern Oklahoma, to marry the snarling bone-chewing Alfred Packer, the skinflint tightwad hippyhubby.

To placate Alfred Packer, to keep him calmed down, to keep him from making a dinner out of her, Grandma dumped everything about herself unpleasant to him--her values, her outlook on life and people, her tastes, her love for others--and adopted the bone-chewing Alfred Packer's rather nasty and vulgar attitude about things.

franksolich is always appalled at what women do, to keep a man.

elleng  (1000+ posts)        Mon Dec-21-09 08:10 PM
Response to Original message
 
2. How many? FOR how many?

hippywife  (1000+ posts)        Mon Dec-21-09 08:21 PM
Response to Reply #2
 
3. Two ducks just under 5 lbs. each.

For just the two of us. I like to have lots of leftovers when it's gonna be something this good.

Warpy  (1000+ posts)        Mon Dec-21-09 09:26 PM
Response to Reply #3
 
5. Don't forget to pour off the duck fat after the first hour of baking

Rendered duck fat will get you through the rest of the year. Try sauteed potatoes in it, it's divine stuff.

If I ever buy a duck for myself, it'll be mostly for its fat.

wildflower  (1000+ posts)      Mon Dec-21-09 10:12 PM
Response to Reply #5
 
6. I've never rendered before, but would like to try it

I've seen a few different methods out there and am trying to decide. What method do you use?

One concern is I like to season my poultry before roasting (for example, paprika, thyme, maybe a little onion or garlic powder). One time I saved the fat from that and tried it in a cake instead of butter. The taste was interesting.  I'm not sure if rendering would get rid of that.

Warpy  (1000+ posts)        Mon Dec-21-09 11:26 PM
Response to Reply #6
 
7. The first hour of cooking renders the fat from the duck skin

I don't know what recipe you're using, but most tell you to cut small slits in the skin at intervals to allow the fat to drain.

That duck is plenty fatty, so this doesn't dry it out.

You can season the skin afterward, if you want to. I've cooked ducks 90% or so and done the last 10% with a tea and spice smoking mixture in a wok. It stunk up the house, but it was SO good.

Rabrrrrrr  (1000+ posts)        Tue Dec-22-09 08:52 AM
Response to Reply #6
 
8. You have a couple options for rendering the fat

One is to just scoop up whatever dripped out while the bird is cooking.

One can also steam the duck before putting it in the oven - that gets rid of a fair amount of the fat, and will leave you with a mess of water and fat in the pan which is then easily separated. I've cooked ducks this way, and I like it. My preference is still for an oven roasted, non-steamed one, though.

You can also, after the duck is cooked and you've enjoyed of it whatever you care to eat, toss all the leftovers (especially any fatty parts, and absolutely any of the fat that you might have cut off before you ever cooked it) into a sauce pan (or crockpot), cover with water, and cook at a low temperature for a couple hours.

It will make a nice stock, and also render out more fat that can be scooped up off the top of the water.

However, if you are like me and consider the real reason to make a duck to have crispy, fatty duck skin that you eat in its entirety, there won't be enough of anything left on the **** with fat to make it worthwhile to try to render any more!

With either of these methods, any spicing that you've done on the duck won't be sticking around to flavor the fat in any sufficient way to worry about it, especially if you strain the fat through a sieve.

japple  (1000+ posts)      Tue Dec-22-09 09:19 AM
Response to Original message
 
9. Well, at least you won't have to kill them first! You gonna serve that with the lobstah? Seriously, I bet that would make a great salad combination: duck and lobster served on a bed of salad greens and topped with raspberry vinagrette dressing.

[Thor]

I have ZERO respect for anybody that boils or steams their meats before roasting, grilling or some other form of cooking. All that does is remove flavor out of the meat.

[franksolich]

I have ZERO respect for anybody that boils or steams their meats before roasting, grilling or some other form of cooking. All that does is remove flavor out of the meat.

To be honest, I've never even heard of that, boiling or steaming before cooking.

[Karin]

One time I saved the fat from that and tried it in a cake instead of butter.

Wildflower used poultry fat in a cake instead of butter?????  Has it occurred to any baker here to do that?

For once, I agree with Warpy, and she wasn't too much of a bitch about it:

Rendered duck fat will get you through the rest of the year. Try sauteed potatoes in it, it's divine stuff.

   It is quite good.  I haven't done a duck in many years though.

I wonder why hippywife has told her own little forum 10 times that she doesn't do Christmas?  Everybody knows by now, but she keeps repeating it.  I think she misses it, and I feel bad for her.   

[franksolich]

I wonder why hippywife has told her own little forum 10 times that she doesn't do Christmas?  Everybody knows by now, but she keeps repeating it.  I think she misses it, and I feel bad for her.

My own heart and soul and whole entire body weeps tears for Grandma.

Such a nice person, Grandma, doomed to silently sitting in a chair with her hands on her lap, trying to be nice, as hippyhubby Alfred Packer sits across the table, chewing on bones and giving Grandma the evil eye.

[crockspot]

I've been told that duck fat is nasty and useless, and should be disposed of.

[thundley4]

I've been told that duck fat is nasty and useless, and should be disposed of.

When I was younger, my dad would make plain noodles with duck added, add a little pepper and they were great tasting.

[Karin]

No, you've been told wrong, Crock.  Wrong, I tell you.  Ask any frog, it's quite prized. 

Frank, this might be TMI, but in my first marriage, I had to drag the man kicking and screaming through Christmas.  I got used to it, but it bugged me that it was necessary.  He couldn't abide the music or the movies, let alone the religious aspects, and I pretty much shopped for myself. 
Second husband much better in this regard. 

[franksolich]

Frank, this might be TMI, but in my first marriage, I had to drag the man kicking and screaming through Christmas.  I got used to it, but it bugged me that it was necessary.  He couldn't abide the music or the movies, let alone the religious aspects, and I pretty much shopped for myself. 

Second husband much better in this regard.

In between all the other stuff I'm doing right now, I think I'll amuse myself by writing a Christmas story about Grandma; fictitious of course, but based upon what Grandma has revealed, either wittingly or unwittingly, about herself during her years on Skins's island.

I think I can make it into a good read, and I suspect even Grandma would like it.

[The Village Idiot]

In between all the other stuff I'm doing right now, I think I'll amuse myself by writing a Christmas story about Grandma; fictitious of course, but based upon what Grandma has revealed, either wittingly or unwittingly, about herself during her years on Skins's island.

I think I can make it into a good read, and I suspect even Grandma would like it.

I just wrote a Christmas story!

http://www.conservativecave.com/index.php/topic,38149.0.html

[franksolich]

I just wrote a Christmas story!

http://www.conservativecave.com/index.php/topic,38149.0.html

And yours, sir, is much much much better than mine, about Christmas at Grandma's.

But it was the best I could do on short notice.

[The Village Idiot]

And yours, sir, is much much much better than mine, about Christmas at Grandma's.

But it was the best I could do on short notice.

Nooo.. your stories are always great. You are a much more natural storyteller than I am. Plus yours ring true.

[DumbAss Tanker]

I've been told that duck fat is nasty and useless, and should be disposed of.

Possibly info from a hunter.  Domestic ducks and about half the wild ducks are 'Puddle ducks' that eat plants, bugs, and all sorts of miscellaneous stuff including the odd fish, nothing wrong with the fat at all.  The other half of the wild ducks are 'Fish ducks' that eat fish almost exclusively, and the fish oil gets in their body fat, so you don't really want to keep it around and the meat is going to taste a lot more gamy to boot.

We had ducks when I was a teen and we occasionally killed and ate one, and later when I was a troop an old master sergeant with an Oriental wife and a large family took me under his wing in Germany, I ate duck dishes at his house fairly often.  Pretty tasty! 

[GOBUCKS]

Possibly info from a hunter.  Domestic ducks and about half the wild ducks are 'Puddle ducks' that eat plants, bugs, and all sorts of miscellaneous stuff including the odd fish, nothing wrong with the fat at all.  The other half of the wild ducks are 'Fish ducks' that eat fish almost exclusively, and the fish oil gets in their body fat, so you don't really want to keep it around and the meat is going to taste a lot more gamy to boot.

We had ducks when I was a teen and we occasionally killed and ate one, and later when I was a troop an old master sergeant with an Oriental wife and a large family took me under his wing in Germany, I ate duck dishes at his house fairly often.  Pretty tasty! 

You're right. Puddle ducks like mallards are borderline okay with me, but divers, like ringnecks, bluebills, and redheads are beyond hope. I once heard that divers could be prepared by stuffing them with dried horse manure. After baking until done, you would remove the stuffing, throw away the duck, and eat the stuffing. The taste would be much better than the duck.