adventures in sous vide, duck breast edition

[truelove]

4 medium shallots, chopped (or equivalent of onion powder)
4 bay leaves
10 garlic cloves, chopped
1 tbsp salt
1 tbsp freshly ground pepper
2 tsp dried thyme
2 cups red wine
~4lb. duck breast (8 duck breasts)


For the marinade:

1. Combine all ingredients except duck in a bowl or jar. Add breasts to a ziploc or vacuum seal bag, pour marinade in and seal.


2. Marinate in the refrigerator for 12-24 hours.


3. Remove breasts from marinade, place on plate uncovered for 12-24 hours.


4. Remove from fridge and let set out on counter for an hour to come up to room temperature.

To cook:

1. Vacuum seal breasts and sous vide for at least 45 minutes at 130F.


2. Remove from bag, dry thoroughly with paper towels and place skin side down in a clean, cold cast iron over high heat for 2 minutes, until sizzling.


3. Reduce heat to medium and cook for another 5 minutes, pressing and moving the breasts as needed to ensure good contact with the pan.


4. Flip and cook other side for 30 seconds, until just coloured.


5. Remove to paper towel lined plate and let rest 5 minutes. Slice and serve.

If you use Pepperplate, I've shared my edition: Duck Breast (sous vide).

So, anyway, this recipe is a modification/combination of Serious Eats' sous vide duck breast recipe and a roast duckling recipe from John Hadamuscin's cookbook The Holidays. (We use that cookbook extensively for our holiday cooking; it's a bit older, but honestly it is a really fantastic resource for all manner of end of year/winter holiday cooking.)

I actually ran a head-to-head taste test of the marinade combo against just the Serious Eats' cooking methodology using the dry seasoning from the roast duckling recipe rather than just salt and pepper. (The sister-in-law didn't want to do just salt and pepper, as this is for our Fancy Pants Christmas Dinner and, well, we are well documented as ridiculous loons about Christmas Dinner.)

Both were very, very tasty, but the marinade still won hands down -- it kept much more of the gamey flavour of the duck. Which has sorted our secondary protein for this year's Christmas Dinner.

It's also really important to note that the sear on the duck breast is not your typical quick sous vide sear: in order to render out more of the fat and get that nice crispy skin, you need to do a much longer/slower sear, starting skin side down. No additional fat is needed for the sear, of course, because the duck brings plenty of its own to the party.