Pato pt. 1

This week I bought a duck to prepare at home for the first time. My plan was to saute the breasts, make a sauce from the reduced stock, and make a rillete with the legs. A rillete is a slightly courser version of a pate, made from the confit of meat and its fat.

After removing the breasts and legs, I skinned the bird, being sure to remove all the fat. The fat and skin went into a pot with a cup of water. As the water boiled off and evaporated, I was left with cracklins (no thank you) and clarified golden duck fat, which is liquid at room temperature.

I sprinkled the duck legs with a salt mixture of allspice, peppercorns, bay leaf, thyme, and cumin seed and placed them in a colander for an hour to drain some of their liquid. They were then rinsed, patted dry, and put in a pot with the fat.

For the confit-ing process, the meat should be fully submerged but I didn't have quite enough duck fat. At least the top of the leg had its own fat to bathe in. They were slowly poached in the oven at a low temperature for three hours. When they were done, I pulled them from the liquid and let them cool. If I wasn't using them immediately, they could be stored in the fat for several months in the refrigerator.

For the rillete, I shredded the meat by hand, adjusted the seasoning, added fresh thyme, and mashed it with more duck fat to make a smooth, spreadable consistency. It's shown above in a cup with pink peppercorns and a parsley leaf.

Note: the chemical composition of duck fat is said to be closer to olive oil than to butter or lard.

-Kenny