Duck Pate from scraps describes a new low fat recipe for duck pate. Without any pork meat or -fat present. In this sense it is kosher and halal, assuming you can get your hands on ducks that were properly slaughtered. In a previous post, duck terrine was made in the presence of pork and pork fat. Virtually all commercially available duck terrines do this to save on cost and the pork fat helps the terrine to spread.
Here, we use self-rendered duck fat, and a concentrated, duck demi-glace, to make the pate spreadable and provide it with a deep taste. The meat scraps from the bones used for making the demi-glace are the only low cost meat used in the pate.
The art of making Duck Pate from scraps
The secret to this very spreadable pate with relatively low fat content is the use of a concentrated duck demi-glace for moisture and depth of taste. We start with cooked duck meat that is scraped off the bones after using them for making a duck broth. This cooked meat is then mixed with onion and shitake mushrooms that have been glazed in duck fat. We add some thyme, nutmeg if you like and pepper. And some armagnac or brandy. This mixture is put through the meat grinder. In the last turn we add pure (liquid) duck fat and gelatinised lumps of the duck demi-glaze, that we make from the duck broth. Season with sufficient salt, but be careful not to over do it. The result is a royal, sumptuous tasting very spreadable pate.
Special equipment
We use a hand driven meat grinder with two orifice sizes. It is very useful also for smaller qualities
Ingredients
Method
- Wash the two ducks and let them hang to drip dry
- Remove heads, feet and wings; they go to making the broth
- Cut out the legs; they go to making duck confit
- Cut out the breasts: keep them for making duck breast later (or freeze them)
- Remove the skin around the neck: keep this for rendering duck fat from
- Cut off the necks: they go to making the broth
- Remove the remaining skin: they are used for rendering duck fat
- Cut the carcass in 4 pieces: they are use to make the broth
- After the broth is made, remove the bones with meat and let cool down a bit
- Remove the meat from the bones and use this for the pate. 2 ducks may generate around 300 g; discard the bones
- When you have duck demi-glace available, proceed immediately, otherwise first make the demi-glace, and store both the meat and the demi-glace with fat and grit overnight in the fridge.
- Assuming you have the demi-glace available, first cut up the onion, garlic and the shitake mushrooms.
- Pan fry on medium high and later on low with a tablespoon of duck fat the onions, garlic and mushroom. Keep aside
- Mix the meat and the fried onions, mushroom and garlic, add the brandy or armagnac and spices and put it through the meat grinder twice using the larger sized orifices
- Then add the duck fat and put through the smaller orifices
- Add the fresh parsley snippers
- Finally mix in the duck demi-glace and put it for the last time through the smaller orifice.
- Bring the mixture to taste with salt
- If any small adjustments need to be done, do it now: any more fat, demi glace, spices or salt
- Place in glass pots of around 250 ml size and place in a large pan with hot water with a level below the caps of the pots and keep close to a simmer for about 25 minutes. Then take the pots out, screw the caps tight and let cool
- Store in the fridge. When using real canning equipment, and canning guidelines, you can keep these jars for over 18 months. If you do not use canning jars, the pots will last for a few months in your fridge. After opening, use the contents within a week.
Notes
Food allergy & intolerance information: none
Remarks
1. You can make the demi-glace while collecting the meat from the bones. But it is required to store the demi-glace overnight in the fridge in order to be able to separate the fat mixed with (protein) froth and grid (top) from the duck demi-glace jelly (bottom). Read in detail here how to make the duck broth and the duck demi-glace.
2. This pate is liver free and pork (fat) free. It is lower in fat than the average pate. Also please note that duck fat has almost the same fatty acid composition as olive oil and should be considered a rather healthy fat.
