I finished most of my work for the day at the same time that lunch came together. S. relinquished her kitchen to T.'s hands and he did quite nice things with duck. There were also green beans, long grain rice and squash. And something else. I really should have taken better notes on the wine. Though I think in this bunch there were some unhappy corks, so it became a test of our palates to explain why the wines were bad, and which were the absolute worst. At dinner, in fact, we did a blind tasting of the questionable wines. I think it was almost unanimous. Anyways.
Back in another era I experienced (and by that I mean consumed) duck that had been shot out of the sky. I wish I had photographic evidence of the radical, radical difference between this duck and that duck. The difference between wild and farm raised/different breed. Its meat was very, very dark, and its preparation left it still quite bloody, which was partially explained by the fact that wild birds are actually flying extremely long distances and make more use of their veins/circular systems. Or, I just made that up. It sounds possible, don't you think? Either way. I just can't get over the difference. This meat was more along the color spectrum of chicken or turkey (at least the dark meat). And the skin was nice and had a little crisp. Isn't that the thing about duck? It's a very fat-laden bird.
After lunch I went out and paced along the snow drift and took photographs of myself. It continues to be a good angle for me.
Note the chicken earrings that she-J. made for me.
Back in another era I experienced (and by that I mean consumed) duck that had been shot out of the sky. I wish I had photographic evidence of the radical, radical difference between this duck and that duck. The difference between wild and farm raised/different breed. Its meat was very, very dark, and its preparation left it still quite bloody, which was partially explained by the fact that wild birds are actually flying extremely long distances and make more use of their veins/circular systems. Or, I just made that up. It sounds possible, don't you think? Either way. I just can't get over the difference. This meat was more along the color spectrum of chicken or turkey (at least the dark meat). And the skin was nice and had a little crisp. Isn't that the thing about duck? It's a very fat-laden bird.
After lunch I went out and paced along the snow drift and took photographs of myself. It continues to be a good angle for me.
Note the chicken earrings that she-J. made for me.
1 comment:
She-J. emailed me about my duck thoughts and I thought it worth copying and pasting:
Perhaps you are uninterested, but I will assume that you are just as fascinated and curious about how these things work as I am, and I will explain to you. Farm raised ducks, like chickens, do not do much flying. Therefore, their breast muscles are not used very often. Rarely used muscles require much less blood because they don't need the oxygen to metabolize. Therefore there are less capillaries in the breast meat, and the color is "white." Wild ducks, on the other hand, fly often. So their breast muscles need more oxygen, vast capillary networks develop, and the muscles acquire a redder color. Interesting, eh?
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