Making Duck Prosciutto (Recipe)
This post will be short and sweet. Excellent meat produces excellent product. During my first experiment with duck prosciutto, I realized that I am selling myself short by buying grocery store meat. So I went to my new favorite place, Rain Shadow meats in Seattle and bought myself some serious Muscovy duck breast. I paid a pretty penny for 2.5 pounds of duck and I can not afford to make this a monthly habit, but the results were fantastic.
Ingredients:
1.134 kilograms (2.5 pounds) duck breast
1300 grams kosher salt
Several sprigs of thyme (to taste)
2-3 juniper berries (trust me, you don’t want to use much more)
Application:
The goal here is to completely cover the duck in herbs and salt. I used a plate for each duck breast half. Spread about 350 grams of kosher salt down on each of the plates. Grind the juniper berries in a spice grinder and sprinkle it equally over the two plates. Next, place the thyme sprigs down on the salt. Lay the duck breasts skin side up on the salt and herb mixture. Use the remaining salt to cover the duck breast. Wrap tightly with plastic wrap. Note: Don’t be stingy with the salt, salt is cheap!
Place the duck breast in the refrigerator for 24-48 hours. Since the duck breasts were huge, I cured it for 48 hours. After 24-48 hours, rinse the salt and herbs off the duck breast. Dry them off, wrap in cheese cloth and hang in curing chamber for 10-14 days. Because of the duck’s size, I chose to hang the duck longer (14 days) to make sure it was done.
To store the duck prosciutto, wrap tightly in plastic wrap and store in refrigerator. To serve, just slice thinly. Enjoy.
Notes from the Lab 3 (Baking) and Working on Pizza Perfection (Part 2, More Dough)
Confession: I only wanted to make my own bread because I wanted to create better pictures for my blog. Don’t get me wrong, I have always thought that bakers were really cool. They got up early and made bread, bagels, pastries and a bunch of yummy things we all love to eat. It also seemed easy, you take flour, yeast, water and mix it in bowl. Then, you take the dough, throw it in the oven and you have bread. Bakers are still very cool and very smart, but take it from me, baking ain’t easy (Nod to Ice T). Unlike cooking where one can freestyle with the ingredients and still make great tasting food. With baking, precision and attention to detail is important. So here are my suggestions for people who want to bake well:
Buy a digital scale that measures in grams and ounces: Using the measuring cups that you find at most stores measure in volume and the cups vary in size. This leads to often inaccurate measurements and could mess up your dough.
Embrace science, learn the metric system, and measure by weight: Professional bakers measure by weight and figuring out percentages is easier using Base 10 (metric/grams) vs Base 16 (US/ounces).
Study and practice: So much about baking is instinct and experience. Even though the recipe calls for x, look at your dough. How does it feel and smell? Does it need more flour?
Taking what I have learned above, I have decided to revise my pizza dough recipe. My adjustments were adding additional water, kneading a little longer, and using the paddle attachment to mix before using the dough hook.
Pizza Dough
Ingredients:
800 grams “00″ flour
504 grams warm water (63% hydration)
8 grams yeast (1%)
8 grams sugar (1%)
8 grams kosher salt (1%)
Application
Combine yeast, water and sugar at let it sit for about 15 minutes (or foamy).
In a Kitchen Aid mixer, combine the flour and salt. While using the paddle attachment, slowly add the yeast, water, and sugar mixture to the dry ingredients. Mix until the dry and wet ingredients are thoroughly incorporated. Using the dough hook, mix the dough until it forms a ball and knead for about 5-10 minutes after. This recipe creates five (8 oz) 227 gram, dough balls plus a 114 gram (4 oz) dough ball.
I have been using this recipe for about a month and my dough has been consistently good. Next step in the process is to create a unique flavor to the dough. Maybe different flours or a preferment? Any ideas?
