The transformative power of salt part 2

This time, two duck breast halves, salted overnight, then dusted with pepper and wrapped in cheesecloth went in the trusty wastebasket to hang for a week. When dried, they’ll be much like prosciutto. With any luck our melons will be ripe by then and we’ll have a feast.

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4 Comments

  1. Jo
    August 9, 2007

    Is there a temp you try to maintain when curing? My house has no central A/C so I am at the whims of nature.

    jo
    amuse bouche

  2. peter barrett
    August 10, 2007

    Do you have a basement? That would be the best bet, or you could wait until fall. I finished the guanciale hanging from a beam next to the kitchen sink (we haven’t used A/C yet this summer) and it turned out beautifully.

    The duck is in the crawl space under the house right now. After a week, if it’s still too wet, it will go over the sink to finish. If you have a wine fridge, especially one with humidity control, that would work well too.

  3. cookiecrumb
    August 12, 2007

    Oh, you’re Big Time! I’m not ready to be this brave.
    Very nice…
    (So what, about a week or two? I have often thought of using the crawl space as a root cellar, and now this!)

  4. peter barrett
    August 14, 2007

    We’re planning on using the crawl as a root cellar too. This sort of thing isn’t hard, and the results are so good you’ll never go back.

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