As many dedicated BS’ers know, I work with a lot of passionate foodies. This recipe came from one of those foodies and I promise it doesn’t disappoint. It’s also relatively easy to make and can be used to brine almost any type of poultry from duck, chicken, turkey, etc. Brining slowly cooks the meat, allowing the enzymes in the meat to be broken down by the salt; resulting in a vary savoury, moist dish. I matched this dish with an excellent blue cheese gravy. The gravy itself it to die for – packed full of goodness! But let’s get crackin’ to the recipe:
Create the following brine in a large pot (I used my slow cooker), and place inside two ducks (I was using wild mallard ducks that my Uncle Waz shot). Brine for the ducks for 8-12 hours:
- 2 gallons of water
- 2 cups kosher salt
- 1 cup sugar
- 6 whole peppercorns
- 2 bay leaves (torn into pieces)
- 1 1/2 cups Saskatoon berries (or blueberries)
- 1/2 white onion (quartered and broken up)
- 1 whole garlic head (separate cloves and unwrap)
Drain the brine, pat the ducks dry and place onto pan (make sure to have something that the ducks can “sit” on so they don’t sit on their own juices – ie. cooling rack, vegetables, etc.). Cover with butter (1 cup melted to use over 25 minutes) and place into 500ºF oven for 25 minutes. Occasionally baster the ducks with butter.
After the 25 minutes has past, remove ducks from the oven and lower the heat to 250ºF. Bast the ducks with butter then season with fresh ground pepper and fleur de salt, cover with aluminium foil and place back into the oven for another 25 minutes. Once cooked, serve up & enjoy!
However – if your ducks are wild caught/shot, be sure to watch out for bullets. See below for a picture of a bullet that was found in one of the duck breasts.
Carlene
(P.S. Apologies in advance for limited posts – I decided to run another half marathon in a few weeks, so my evening and weekends are filled up with training!)
Those are not “bullets.” It is called shot.