Duck Fat Roasted Potatoes
I don’t get it. What’s the duck fat fuss all about? I’ve tried it with potatoes twice now and am trying hard to convince myself that it’s all that. A few weeks ago I bought a $5 half pint of duck fat at my local Wegman’s and fried potatoes with it. Actually, I fried a few potato “coins” (a few was all I could do with the little tub of fat) as suggested by Casey @ Good.Food.Stories. The potatoes were fried to golden perfection and they were good, as fried potatoes always are, but I didn’t get the magic of duck fat.
But you know me by now, and one mediocre experience wasn’t enough to stop me. It energizes me. It challenges me. It makes me defiant. Nope. Duck fat wasn’t going to get the best of me. I was going to go full bore the next time. I was going to render my own duck fat. So, with shopping cart at the ready I made my way to the poultry section of my local Wegmans and played with a few of the “hermetically” sealed packages of duck before putting one in my cart.
It’s important not to cut into the meat of the duck when piercing the skin and I took my time, but I let the duck roast far too long and I didn’t truss it, so it’s not very attractive, but the color of the skin is good. I was looking for the most fat I could get out of that expensive bird. Duck is something I really can no longer afford, but it had been in my head for months and I was powerless when I strode past the bin that had a variety of duck fat, duck breasts and whole birds, so my cup of rendered duck fat had to be spent wisely.
The recipe in Mastering the Art of French Cooking for roasting a duck is easy and although I thought propping that thing up on it’s side for an hour — 30 minutes on each side. I had to come up with a way to prop it up and the onions worked like magic. I’m really not sure how else someone could prop a duck on it’s side?
But this is my question — is duck fat that much better than chicken fat? Chicken fat on a board of matzo is nothing new to me and chicken fat in matzo balls is simply sublime. Why don’t we hear of anyone raving about the virtues of chicken fat fries? I think I’ll try it the next time I simmer a batch of chicken soup. On Tuesday I made Chicken Breasts with Kumquat-Honey Sauce and used a tablespoon of duck fat in lieu of the butter at the end. Did it make a difference? I’m not so sure.
Have you ever used duck fat? Did you think it was the best thing ever? How did you use it? Should I try something different with what I’ve got left?
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Actually I am all about the duck fat. I love the duck fat and potatoes when they are fried together. Lucky for me, my favorite french restaurant in Humble, Texas, Chez Nous will give you duck fat if you ask. Sorry, that was a shameless plug for them. I *love* their food.
I wonder what matzo balls with duck fat would taste like. I have a pint of it in my refrigerator now. I am honestly not wild about duck meat, to me it is a little gamey, but when its fat is combined with potatoes, well I love it.
Hmmm… I stil have duck fat in the fridge. Might just have to give it a try in matzo balls. I will make soup with the leftover carcass from the chicken I’m going to roast tomorrow. We don’t have a French restaurant anywhere in sight. All we have are chains. And that’s why I cook like a madwoman everyday.
Hi Fran,
I got my chicken fat from skimming the top layer of fat off jelled broth that I made with a roasted chicken carcass.
My duck fat story is strange — I had leftover Chinese BBQ duck from the New Year so I made a broth and skimmed the fat off the top. I used that for the potatoes, but Owen didn’t like it — probably because he could still taste the 5-spice powder. I have to admit, it was a little weird. However, the duck broth was fabulous. Made soup with Chinese cabbage, tofu and shiitake mushrooms.