Experiment # ?? Plain dry-aged duck

[Scott Mark]

I’m not sure how the timing will work, but I’ve got about 35 lbs of duck breast on order. I plan to age some of it as an experiment. Especially if I can use the Dinner Party bags to do it. 😉 Maybe I’ll put in a bunch of pairs and pull one each week and try to understand what the (unscientific) optimal aging period would be.

Or I could put in one pair each week, and pull them all at the same time, and have a direct competition. They’re frozen to begin with so as long as I treat them equally I expect that the results are reasonably fair.

And I expect that some good eating is on the horizon.

[Charlie]

why do you have 35 lb of duck breast on order when your are not sure what you will do with them?

there is no competition here, and you are not required to experiment for the forum.

c-ya B)

Charlie

[Scott Mark]

It’s just that most of it will probably not be dry-aged and doesn’t really apply to the forum.

Cheers!

[Scott Mark]

Clam Digger wrote:

quote :

why do you have 35 lb of duck breast on order when your are not sure what you will do with them?

there is no competition here, and you are not required to experiment for the forum.

c-ya B)

Charlie

Actually, 35 lb of boneless duck breast. Some of it will be aged as “prosciutto” and some of it will be cooked and served. And 45 lb of bone-in duck breast, much of which will be turned into “confit”. That’s going to be an endeavor, because it’s one single bag of frozen bone-in duck breasts, all stuck together and frozen. It won’t be simple to pull a few and try an experiment (of making confit, not of dry-aging.)

There’s still plenty of room to experiment, whether or not it’s required.

[Ron Pratt]

not trying to be a wise guy, but why would you buy a 45 pound solid chunk of duck breasts? I could understand getting a good price on say a box containing 45 pounds of individually frozen or 4 to a package frozen or such…but a block all frozen together? Just curious – that’s all…

[Scott Mark]

RRP wrote:

quote :

not trying to be a wise guy, but why would you buy a 45 pound solid chunk of duck breasts? I could understand getting a good price on say a box containing 45 pounds of individually frozen or 4 to a package frozen or such…but a block all frozen together? Just curious – that’s all…

That’s a very good question!

Normally, it is in “fresh” condition when sold like that, and I would repackage it before further processing or freezing. But they don’t do retail sales the day I was able to be there, so somebody picked up the box for me and put it in their freezer.

Beggars can’t be choosers. I was paying something under $3 / lb.

[Ron Pratt]

got it! BTW you must have a lot of refrigeration and freezer space available…isn’t a 45 pound box of frozen duck with bone in a pretty size-able box?

[Ron Pratt]

toasty wrote:

quote :

I was paying something under $3 / lb.

domestic or wild? $3.00 is really cheap in our market.

[Scott Mark]

The box takes up an entire shelf of a standard upright freezer, about 22″ x 16″. I have two boxes, stacked, one of bone-in and one of boneless. I didn’t take a picture of that.

Domestic, farm-raised duck. $3/lb (bone-in, though) is an excellent price – which is why I bought an entire case of each! The boneless was $5.07 I think.

Duck confit pot-stickers, YUM!

[Charlie]

That’s a good deal! B) Charlie

[Scott Mark]

RRP wrote:

quote :

got it! BTW you must have a lot of refrigeration and freezer space available…isn’t a 45 pound box of frozen duck with bone in a pretty size-able box?

Yes. Pretty large box. 18″x24″x6″ I’m fortunate to have friends and relatives in the food industry who are willing to indulge me with some extra freezer space and some advice on what to do with bulk food. And they like my stuff, so it’s a good two-way street.

I’m a little — sad isn’t the right word. Nor disappointed. Regretful? I wish that my favorite duck supplier also did foie gras. But they don’t. Straight duck, and I think they supply a good portion of the restaurants in USA. But for foie gras, I have to go to D’Artagnan. Consider that I could buy 10 ducks for the price of a single foie from D’Artagnan. Owch.

Getting back to the “experiment” theme — I’m still concerned about the thinking that dry-bagging is only for beef. (And this is a very ironic thing. Dry-baggers are a fringe element, and now I’m talking about aging other meats: a fringe WITHIN a fringe.) I’ve got venison and pork and duck aging. I’ll be doing lamb when I have space.

I feel like we, as a group, aren’t pushing the envelope, the boundaries, enough. I agree that the scientific literature indicates that some kinds of aging are not a good thing. But I feel that restricting ourselves to beef is overly limiting. The Compart-Duroc people are aging pork – they wouldn’t be doing it if people didn’t like the result. So I’m aging a pork loin. Someday, I’ll probably be aging a “T-bone” / “Porterhouse” bone-in pork sub-primal. Someday. They can make a profit so I can probably enjoy the same thing.

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