Sous Vide Duck Breast with Ginger & Orange

Epicurean Exploits - Food and Recipes
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I’ve been playing around with variations on this idea for the last 6 months or so and this was my most successful iteration so far.

One duck breast, zest from one tangerine (or orange), some sliced fresh ginger, one or two star anise. Cook at 146F for about 6 hours.

Empty the juices and fat from the bag, skim away the fat. Pour the juices into a pan with a some demiglace and pomegranate juice to taste. Reduce.

Prick the skin and put the duck breast skin side up under the broiler for about 5-6 minutes to crisp it up and make it look appealing. The main downside to many sous vide dishes is that they don’t look as good as they taste so this is an important step.

Serve with a red fruited wine. It was an amazing match for the beautiful 2009 Brun Moulin a Vent.

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One of these days I’ll figure out how to do that. I’m a bit gadget phobic (for non cooking related gadgets).

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Sounds great, but is it really worth cooking one duck breast for six hours? I also cooked a single duck breast on Sunday for dinner (my wife is on a new diet). I scored the fat (cross hatch) and put it in a low cast iron skillet until the fat rendered (15 min.?) and left a thin crispy crust. Then cooked it on the other three sides (it was thick enough to stand on its sides) until cooked but rare. I sauteed potatoes in the duck fat (and still have several ounces of duck fat in the fridge that I poured off and saved) and made a pan sauce of chestnut honey, thyme, and balsamic vinegar. What does the sous vide get you that “old school” does not?

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Well, several things. One is that you do the prep hours ahead of time and have minimal work just before serving. Second, you could just as easily do it for 4 hours, or 8 hours, or 24 hours. I’ve been gradually increasing the time in the sous vide and it’s gotten better each time. Third because of the long slow cooking the flavors permeate the breast more thoroughly and the texture becomes more velvety. Fourth it scales well. It’s just as easy to do 4 breasts as one.

Which is not to say that sauteeing isn’t a great technique for duck breasts and one that I’m more likely to use when cooking for myself in general. But if you can make it to my next blind dinner you’ll get to compare the results yourself as the reason I’m working on this recipe is to serve it for my second course.

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I have had a lot of success with duck breast sous vide. Might I suggest…

This is the recipe I have used as a template. Not only do you get perfect duck, but you get duck bacon, and a new stash of duck fat! Though what I did was cook the skin on a pan with a rack and strained the rendered (and slightly cooled) fat through a double layer of cheesecloth.

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I’ve done it with the skin removed which has the advantage of yielding a bag full of duck fat for future use. I decided that for presentation purposes I prefer the look of having the skin on the breast. But I should try scoring the skin before putting it in the sous vide bag, that will probably yield an even crispier skin. Thanks!

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I certainly hope to make it. If you pick (and communicate) a date well in advance, my odds are better (though 5/1 and 5/8 are probably no good…).

I can see where the texture would be better. After all, you are effectively poaching the duck breast in its own fat for several hours. And it makes sense as a test so that you can ramp up volume (I can see how this would be easier than sauteeing a dozen duck breasts). But for single duck breast, that would have to be one tasty duck breast to go to the trouble.

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Oh, I agree that it’s generally not worth the trouble for one duck breast. But It makes multiple courses much easier for a dinner party since there’s minimal work/attention required. And it doesn’t set off my smoke alarm :slight_smile: