Maggie's Farm

I decided to trust Right Wing Nation, a blog cousin, on the turkey recipe this year. It was a great success. Father-in-law: "Best turkey I've ever had." Me: "I am finished with turkey breast that tastes like cardboard and has the texture of wood."

We are sold! No more unmarinated turkeys. And yes, we marinate everything in garbage bags: it's the only way. For Mr. Turkey, you need the big leaf bags or contractor bags. We didn't bother with the ice-water part, though. Marinated..."marine" - now I get it. Salt water.

Now I need to try this on a wild goose. Or pheasant. Or why not roast chicken, too?

I know people use "right wing" ironically, and only mean "conservative," but the moral of the story is that you can trust their recipes for the right wing, the left wing, the thighs and the breast.

A (rare) Maggie's Nod to Multiculturalism

A reader reminds us that somehow - probably due to the effects of Bush's global warming on our brain - we neglected the essential topic of Virginia's famous Smithfield Ham in our little piece on Christmas Ham.

We deeply apologize for any possible offense, humiliation, pain, or other neurotic reactions we might have caused. Shame on us for neglecting a treasured, age-honored, and totally delicious cultural tradition of the great people of the great Commonwealth of Virginia.

Tomato vs. Vinegar, etc.

To us in the Northeast, the barbecue wars of the South can seem like quaintly endearing rivalries - until you experience two things: 1. the true intensity and competitiveness of the regional barbecue wars (see Instapundit) and, 2. the total lusciousness of each one of these forms of commingled fat, smoke and meat. I hesitate to state that I prefer the Carolina-style pulled pork to the others, but I've never had a barbecue I didn't like. The pulled-pig I had in Kentucky may have been the best, a whole hog smoked in a freshly-dug hole in the ground for about 24 hours. You yank hunks of meat off the hog with your hands like a cave-man.

Our red-state readers hardly need a basic lesson in the regional barbecues, and in pits vs. smokers, and dry rubs vs wet sauce, or even pork vs the blasphemous Texas beef brisket, but I needed a primer, especially after a conversation last week about vinegar-based sauce vs. tomato-based - North Carolina's famous east-west division.

A barbecue primer here. Another piece with recipes here. Hungry already. Too bad this stuff is so scarce in the Northeast. I've had enough sushi for a lifetime, and the very thought of more of it is nauseating: from now on, I will call it "bait," not food. I think I just liked the wasabi and the ginger.

Cooking  a Wild Duck

Or any duck, even from the supermarket... here are the two basic approaches for the breast or for the entire bird:

1. Cut off the breasts carefully, retaining all of the meat and keeping the skin on. Marinate in wine and various herbs for a few hours. Or in milk.

2. Then take the carcass, boil in water with plenty of good wine and/or port and herbs, onions, carrots, celery and garlic, a little sugar, etc. for a few hours, until thick. Simmer the heck out of it for a good sauce. Then strain it and cook until thick on the stove.

3. Saute the breasts, seasoned with salt and pepper, in olive oil and butter on high heat very briefly, a couple of minutes to rare, both sides. DO NOT OVERCOOK.

4. Take the reduction from #2 above, and pour over breasts sliced on the bias.

OR:

1. Take the entire bird, season with salt and pepper and put in oven on a rack, put a sliced onion and a sliced apple inside, and cover with a couple of strips of bacon. Wild birds are short on fat, but store-bought duck is full of fat. Bake at 550 for 25 minutes - rare. Duck needs to be rare for the full wild, livery flavor to be fully appreciated.

2. Slice the breast, cut off the legs and serve them too, and pour a thickened reduction of wine/port/herbs (see above) over the slices. (Hopefully you have a spare duck carcass to put into that reduction).

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You can garnish both of the above with orange slices, but do not cook an orange near a good duck. Too strong. Serve either approach with wild rice and sauteed root veggies - carrots, parsnips, celery root, etc. A few sauteed figs are nice, or sauteed pears. Whatever you do, save or use the reduction from the duck carcass - it is a base for a fine sauce for anything, like chicken. It can be frozen if you don't use it all.

The diving ducks (red-heads, canvasbacks, blue-bills, etc.) are, in my opinion, the most delicious with their liver/anchovy flavor, but some prefer the mallards and other puddle-ducks with their milder flavor. Chacun a son gout. But try to appreciate the wild ones - they concentrate the call of the wild in their flesh. Yes, you can serve with cranberry sauce - anything with feathers is enhanced by cranberries.

Posted on April 7, 2005

Maple Sugar