Duck breakfast


Something frozen in a previous age, the Cretaceous probably, I thought it might be a dinosaur egg but it turned out to be a potato. Now I remember, they were boiled in salt water and frozen to avoid them growing branches as they do when neglected, which is why they are rarely picked up by the sack, even a small 5LB sack tends to go old. 

The idea today is to fry potato in duck fat reserved from Christmas to see if duck fat is all that it is cracked up to be, and to learn for myself what those French-trained cooks are on about. 

The plate includes duck itself, also reserved from Christmas. 






3 comments:

Rob said...

Re stacked focus in Photoshop, remember you want to Auto-Align the layers before you Auto-Blend them. That may obviate your perceived need to warp them.

Did you conclude that the duck fat was a useful medium for frying the potatoes? I think it does a real good job. Also mighty useful for confiting duck legs.

Chip Ahoy said...

Yes, Rob, the layers were all auto aligned. That's part of what takes Photoshop so long, I suppose locating the edges. It aligns the entire picture, and that's the part I don't have to do at all. Whereas Photoshop's stacked focus masks off unused portions, I simply ignore them altogether then tug at the edges until they align. Since the edges are feathered, the alignment is very easy.

Thank you for introducing me to this. It broadened my perspective immeasurably. I'm having a lot more fun with it.

Yes, the duck fat is worth having around. I'm not done experimenting with its wonders to behold. I never tried confit for anything. That's basically storing something in fat, right?

Rob said...

Confit is not so much storing in fat, though that's a second step, but poaching in fat. Then you can chill and store it with the fat, which is a great way of preserving it. But that assumes you won't have scarfed it down soon after it poaches. Duck legs confit are good hot (you can sear the skin in a hot skillet after confiting, or discard the skin after confiting, but you probably want to keep the skin on while the confiting takes place, because it continues to render fat), good cold in a salad, and what some consider an essential ingredient of a cassoulet.

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