Duck stuffed

It’s day two of the duck project, and I have to say – whoever said it’s easier to bone a duck than to stuff it was utterly wrong.

Today was stuffing day, but first of all, I spent about an hour with a pair of tweezers simply getting rid of any remaining feathers in the duck’s skin (a job I loved, I am a pervert like that). When it was beautiful and kind of clean, I proceeded with the stuffing itself.

Now, the original recipe wants some lean pork fat in the stuffing, but I skipped this (I know, sin…). So it contained minced veal, minced pork, reduced cognac, finely chopped onions sautéed in butter, thyme and seasoning. Oh, and a splash of port.

After this was ready, the inside of the bird was rubbed with cognac, port, salt and pepper, and then in came the stuffing in a massive heap. Finally, the bird was sewed together – this was rather exciting, also very sticky and slimy because of all the duck fat. But finally it was managed, and in the end, tied together. Now it looks picture perfect, just like the book says:

All that’s left today is to brown the meat on all sides and then cook it in the oven for about 20 minutes, as a preparation for tomorrow. Originally, this is not said in the book, but this is twice the size of the bird in the recipe, and if we cooked it straight in the pastry, the latter would burn and the inside would probably stay raw.

Knackered, naturally, but this is getting exciting now!

Final report tomorrow 🙂 Fingers crossed!