Duck, Duck, Goose: Recipes and Techniques for Cooking Ducks and Geese, both Wild and Domesticated (240 pages, Ten Speed Press, $24.99 U.S., $27.95 CAN), a new waterfowl cookbook by award-winning food blogger, journalist and author Hank Shaw, hit stores in early October. I received a review copy several weeks before the official release of Duck, Duck, Goose, and I hoped to prepare a recipe or two from the book before writing a review. After digging through two freezers, however, I realized I had no ducks or geese to prepare. Alas, I waited until Delaware duck season opened on October 25 so I could procure the most important ingredients called for by the recipes.
Atlantic flyway waterfowl hunters who hunt in close proximity to the Delaware Bay and Chesapeake Bay harvest their fair shares of ducks and geese (both Canada geese and snow geese), but few give much thought to preparing their harvests. If any of us consider basic roasting of a blandly seasoned whole goose or broiling duck breasts smothered in cream of mushroom soup as fine waterfowl recipes, then it’s easy to understand why we need’s Shaw’s latest book.
In addition to offering more than 80 recipes for cooking wild and domesticated ducks and geese, Shaw provides education, insight and instruction on topics such as differences in duck and goose breeds, field care, plucking, hanging and dry aging, breaking down the birds, and pairing duck and goose with wine and beer. Shaw even provides useful information regarding serving duck breasts rare to medium and why it’s safe to eat duck breasts that are not well-done.
Duck, Duck, Goose is logically organized in five main sections: Basics, Whole Birds, Pieces, Extras (e..g., giblets, eggs), and Stock, Glace, and Consomme. While paging through the book in my quest to find recipes to try, I noticed that several recipes called for duck stock. Therefore, I decided to follow Shaw’s recipe for basic duck stock and then used the stock in his recipe for duck breast with black currant sauce (which incorporated Shaw’s instructions for pan searing duck breasts).
Shaw’s basic duck stock recipe is a little different from other stock recipes I’ve used. The recipe used duck carcasses, innards and even feet and called for some roasting prior to stockpot cooking. After cooking and straining, the result was a flavorful, clear stock. I used some stock when preparing the duck breast with black currant sauce and froze the rest. (Shaw also provides tips for canning and freezing the stock.)
Using wood duck breasts, I followed the Duck, Duck, Goose recipe for duck breast with black currant sauce. The ingredients were relatively easy to find at my local supermarket (although I had to substitute a blackberry liqueur for cassis), and the recipe (ranked as a 2-star difficulty by Shaw) was easy to follow. The medium-rare duck breasts had a superb, somewhat sweet flavor that even my 13-year-old kids enjoyed.
For additional information about Hank Shaw and Duck, Duck, Goose, see http://honest-food.net.