Duck Breast Prosciutto

By Josh Burroughs
Category: Food & Beverage
Time Required: 7 to 10 days
Difficulty: Easy

Duck is a wonderful and versatile meat. This simple recipe for curing and drying the breast meat produces a ham remarkably similar to a good prosciutto but only takes about a week. This guide will cover all the steps to cure and dry the ham and some tips on eating it.

While this recipe can be made with grocery-store duck, it’s best when made using pastured duck from a local farm. When left to their own devices farm ducks have a pretty varied diet and will eat a wide variety of grasses, bugs, minnows, etc., in addition to their feed. This not only contributes to the well-being of the duck, it also greatly improves the flavor and texture of the meat. With a simple dry-cure recipe like this that difference is greatly amplified.

Steps

Step #1:

First step is to acquire a whole duck. Pastured duck from your local farmer's market is your best choice if you can swing it. Otherwise, organic free-range duck from the grocery store is a good second choice.
Once you have the duck you'll need to take it apart. It's very similar to jointing a chicken. Look for the natural seams/membranes when removing the breasts and just try to slide your knife in between the seams. The goal is to more-or-less peel the breast off the carcass rather than slice the meat. Take care to leave the skin on. Remove the thighs and drumsticks together; find the joint under the skin and poke your knife point in to sever the tendon, then carefully carve out the leg from the body. If you're careful you'll mostly cut skin and connective tissue and barely touch the meat.
Trim any extra skin from the breasts so they match the picture.
Picture Key - clockwise from top left: breasts, wings, fat + skin, legs, breast tenders.
Note the rich red color of properly raised duck. Raw, it looks and smells remarkably like grass-fed beef.

Conclusion

I love this recipe because it's so simple to make and requires no exotic equipment or ingredients but it tastes superb. For just a few hours of time spread out over a whole week you can enjoy a unique delicacy that you'll not likely see for sale anywhere.

Be sure to save the rest of the duck I had you take apart; it's all useful and delicious. The breast tenders can be grilled or sautéed for a quick snack. The carcass and wings can be roasted and then boiled for stock and you can render the extra fat for a fantastic, trans-fat-free cooking oil. The legs, of course, can be grilled or roasted or, even better, prepared confit. Check back for future guides on all these recipes.