Displaced Texan

Forgot to post this earlier...ducky goodness hanging in the refrigerator. I used one of those 3M hooks with the removable adhesive to hang the cheesecloth bags. I have no idea why the pic posted sideways....no, it’s not defying gravity.

The ‘Estrogen Channel’.....thankfully my wife only watches it when I’m out of town.

In this case, we are not smoking anything. This is a dry cured meat. No cooking required.

Hey, what do you know, Bathhouse Barry has a convenient set of handles...

There ain’t no cure for what you have, Handy

Hey Dirty, I did a brisket thread a year or so ago...but I’ll do another one for the April meet.

While I have never cured fish, I would think it’s a similar process.

Howdy y’all! There are a few of you out there who enjoy my cooking threads, so I thought I’d share this with you. This is something completely new for me, and, it’s kinda neat, and I thought y’all might like it! Many years ago, our annual family trip took us to colonial Williamsburg for a few days. I got to see and learn quite a bit about how they did things back then. I found all of it interesting, especially how they preserved meat. As part of the behind the scenes cooking seminar we took, I sampled a ham that was dry cured well over 150 years ago. It was absolutely amazing...! I have always wanted to try curing my own meat, but never got around to it. Recently, I ran across an article on how to dry cure a duck breast....well, I LOVE seared duck breast, so I thought this might be tasty! Best part...it’s easy! I had a few duck breasts in the freezer already, so I figured I’d give it a try! Keep in mind, there are no immediate results when you dry cure meat, it takes time...so hang with me (pun intended). I thawed a couple of duck breasts out and patted them dry with paper towels. The article said to leave the skin (and of course, the lovely duck fat) intact. I used 1 1/2 cups of coarse kosher salt per duck breast. To this, I added some ground thyme and rosemary, about 2 tsp per breast. You can use fresh herbs, but I didn’t have any on hand. Mix the salt and the herbs, and coat the duck breast in the salt mixture. Place the salt mixture in a plastic zip lock bag, and put the breast in it. Remove all the air, and seal it up. Stick it in the refrigerator for at least 24 hours. After the breast has sat in the salt mixture for at least 24 hours, take it out of the bag and rinse the salt off of it. You’ll see that the breast has already lost a lot of moisture, and is much more dense. Pat the meat dry, then coarse grind some black pepper on both sides. With your fingertips, kinda push the pepper into the skin. Wrap the breast in either muslin or cheesecloth, tie it off at both ends, and hang it in a cool, dry place. You can hang this in your refrigerator (that’s what I did). Most dry cure recipes I have read say that you are supposed to weigh the meat before curing, and when it’s lost at least 30% of its original weight, you’re good to go. This particular recipe said because this is a rather small piece of meat, weighing it should not be a concern, that it will be properly cured after a week. I just put my duck breasts into the refrigerator yesterday, so we have a week to wait. To show you what it’s supposed to look like, I’ve posted a pic of the cured duck from the article I read. The meat is supposed to be sliced thin, as it should be a bit salty, and bold flavored, kind of like a prosciutto. I can think of a number of ways to serve this, but I think I’ll keep it simple and try it with a nice cheese platter. We’ll check on the duck in a week, and see how it looks!

Roger that.

Wow. I can’t believe I’m going to say this out loud, but I actually AGREE with AVB that Budweiser is swill. If you’re going to drink beer, at LEAST drink a decent one!

Properly prepared, frogs legs are divine cuisine!

It’s getting pretty sporty over there. Like Zeke says, they are voting differently now! Keep a close watch on this.

Please Santa, put one under my Christmas tree!

Yes and yes.

Wow, $10-12K for a Jeep with 215K/miles?

Nah, but I make sure I give your mom a good ride before I do.

Ha! Its a long story how I stumbled upon it, but I love to cook and get some ideas from that site, as well as DIY instructions too.

That’s Vermin. No offense to our Vermonters here.

Laugh it up, I’ll just have to put you back in your place next clays shoot!

Let me help you with that: https://pin.it/viqycw6pom6kwy