Duck Pastrami

This duck pastrami is made with domestic duck.

Prep time is quick and easy, but the duck cures for a week and the you need to be around for the smoking part. So plan a week out from when you have some free time.

Ingredients

Duck Breasts.
Cure - We used Bradley's - but any brine cure will work.
4 tbsp Coriander seeds whole (toasted in dry pan)
1/2 cup Cognac (or whisky, brandy etc)
Whole black pepper corns.

Coating

Honey
Dried Chili flakes. 2-3 tsp.
Coriander seeds whole (toasted in dry pan). 4 ish tsp.
Whole black pepper corns. 4 ish tsp.

Method

1. Cure the duck breasts. with Bradley Sugar Cure, using the brine method as keep the duck moist (rather than dry cure).

To add to the brine mix:

1/2 cup of Cognac ( or brandy or whiskey)
Pepper corns
Toasted Coriander seeds about 4 tbsp
A sprig or two of thyme.

Add all ingredients together and mix well.

Add the duck breasts to a zip lock bag pour in the cure mix. Remove all of the air from the bag before sealing. Double bag the lot and put in a plastic container in the fridge for 6-7 days.

2: Dry the Duck

Remove the duck from the cure and rinse well in cold water, but try to minimise wetting time.

Dry the duck immediately to get rid of the excess moisture. I use a clean dry tea towel, just wrap up the breasts and then put the tea towel in the wash immediately afterwards. You can use paper towels but you tend to spend a lot of time picking paper of the duck afterwards.

Hang the duck on meat hooks and dry in the smoker or oven with the door open at a very low heat (60 degrees) for an hour or until the outside is shiny (pellicle achieved). Do not introduce any smoke at this stage.

Remove from the smoker and coat.

Grind the Chili, Coriander seeds and Black pepper in a mortar and pestle.
Soften a couple of tbsp of honey in the microwave and brush over the duck.
Allow the honey to go tacky and then coat well with the ground spice mix.

3: Smoke the Duck

Hand the duck in the smoker and cold smoke for 3 hours.

After three hours increase the heat to 160 degrees C and continue to smoke for 1 hour.

Leave duck to cool and chill in the fridge for at least 12 hours for the flavours to mellow.

4: Eat

You could do anything with this - but the way we ate it was pretty much perfect.

Black sesame rice crackers
Good Brie cheese
Duck Pastrami
home made chutney
Fresh Coriander leaves.

Thanks to Jamesd for the inspiration for this recipe. For the original forum post click here.