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soaking duck/goose breasts

PostPosted: Wed Nov 07, 2012 6:05 pm
by Goldfish
How much salt to how much water do you soak your breasts?

If you use butter milk, do you make your own (because I'm having trouble finding buttermilk at the store). If so, how do you make it?

How long do you soak them for?

Re: soaking duck/goose breasts

PostPosted: Wed Nov 07, 2012 6:23 pm
by capt1972
depends on how much meat I've got. but usually I put a cup of hot water in a mixing bowl then add an 1/8 cup of kosher salt and stir till the salt is dissolved. Then enough cold water to cover the meat and a cup of vinegar. add meat and more water if needed to cover meat. put in fridge for 24hrs. remove, rinse then pat dry.

Re: soaking duck/goose breasts

PostPosted: Wed Nov 07, 2012 6:39 pm
by jehler
I don't soak, like to let it dry

Re: soaking duck/goose breasts

PostPosted: Thu Nov 08, 2012 9:42 am
by assateague
Jehler takes most things dry.


Goldie, you should be able to find it in any grocery store, with the whipping/heavy cream, eggnog section. I've never seen it in anything bigger than a quart. I make mine with buttermilk, haven't bought any in years. Buy a quart, and divide it up into 4 other quart jars (I use my canning jars), then top them off with whole milk and shake. In about a week or so, you'll have 4 quarts of buttermilk from the one quart you bought, and you just go from there. You can make it with vinegar and/or lemon juice, but I only did that once, and didn't really like it. I may have used a little too much vinegar, but I remember being able to taste it, so never made it again. If I remember right, I only used about 2 tablespoons of vinegar to a quart of milk, but I may be wrong about that.

I like soaking in buttermilk, because it makes them really tender also. Salt water just leeches the blood out, but the buttermilk (all the lactic acid in it) acts as a tenderizer as well.

Re: soaking duck/goose breasts

PostPosted: Thu Nov 08, 2012 9:49 am
by jehler
Lmao grumpy fucker

Re: soaking duck/goose breasts

PostPosted: Thu Nov 08, 2012 10:57 am
by Goldfish
How long does the buttermilk keep when separated like that?

Since I don't have buttermilk right now, I tried Cap'ts salt water/vinegar mixture. They are soaking in the fridge as we speak, we'll see how it turns out tonight. Still not sure how I'm going to cook them though.

Re: soaking duck/goose breasts

PostPosted: Thu Nov 08, 2012 11:00 am
by assateague
Months. It's already "bad", so lasts for a while, but I'm not sure exactly. We use ours up pretty quick, for soaking meat and my wife makes pancakes with it. You can freeze it if you want, too.

Re: soaking duck/goose breasts

PostPosted: Thu Nov 08, 2012 11:07 am
by obxbufflehead
Goldfish wrote:How long does the buttermilk keep when separated like that?

Since I don't have buttermilk right now, I tried Cap'ts salt water/vinegar mixture. They are soaking in the fridge as we speak, we'll see how it turns out tonight. Still not sure how I'm going to cook them though.

I liked both of these. The first one I did some snow goose and I couldn't tell the difference between that and a mallard.
ImageUploadedByTapatalk1352390760.987437.jpg


This one I left out the liquid smoke but with the jalapeños I also added some of the juice from the jar with the pieces.
ImageUploadedByTapatalk1352390861.079665.jpg

Re: soaking duck/goose breasts

PostPosted: Thu Nov 08, 2012 11:37 am
by assateague
I've never been a fan of Italian dressing as a marinade. For some reason, it seems to "dry" the meat out too much, but that could just be me. Tastes good, but makes for a dry meal. Seriously, Banksy, you should try the buttermilk instead of salt soak. I even use it for buffies, and it works wonders.

Re: soaking duck/goose breasts

PostPosted: Thu Nov 08, 2012 12:01 pm
by obxbufflehead
assateague wrote:I've never been a fan of Italian dressing as a marinade. For some reason, it seems to "dry" the meat out too much, but that could just be me. Tastes good, but makes for a dry meal. Seriously, Banksy, you should try the buttermilk instead of salt soak. I even use it for buffies, and it works wonders.

I've been thinking of doing that since I read that.

Re: soaking duck/goose breasts

PostPosted: Thu Nov 08, 2012 12:16 pm
by Flightstopper
I grew tired of Italian dressing marinades. Everything just ends up tasting the same, Italian dressing.

Re: soaking duck/goose breasts

PostPosted: Thu Nov 08, 2012 2:45 pm
by Goldfish
I over italianized some buffies/merganser last year, and cooked them too much. I couldn't even stomach it. It was the first time I couldn't handle a food because of gamey taste. It was basically an italian game taste. I'm done with italian because of it (as a marinade).

All have to find myself some buttermilk. Our season is starting to wind down and the divers are showing up. Gotta find myself some good recipies to throw off my mom who doesn't like duck, and my dad who doesn't like divers.

Re: soaking duck/goose breasts

PostPosted: Thu Nov 08, 2012 4:46 pm
by Ajverret
I've had some pretty good Brest before and here is the recipe


Take ur boneless breast soak in milk overnight
Pull them out and rinse off
Season with what ever u like I use tony chacheres or slap ya momma or some kind of Cajun seasoning but u can any kind of grill seasonings too
Take a teaspoon of cream cheese and put in the center of the breast place a jalapeño on the cream cheese don't need it but is good
Fold the breast over so that the cream cheese is inside
Wrap the breast and bacon stab a toothpick through it to hold the everything in place
And throw them on the pit until its cooked

Re: soaking duck/goose breasts

PostPosted: Thu Nov 08, 2012 6:28 pm
by BrewGUN
Ajverret wrote:I've had some pretty good Brest before and here is the recipe


Take ur boneless breast soak in milk overnight
Pull them out and rinse off
Season with what ever u like I use tony chacheres or slap ya momma or some kind of Cajun seasoning but u can any kind of grill seasonings too
Take a teaspoon of cream cheese and put in the center of the breast place a jalapeño on the cream cheese don't need it but is good
Fold the breast over so that the cream cheese is inside
Wrap the breast and bacon stab a toothpick through it to hold the everything in place
And throw them on the pit until its cooked

I do the same but use pepper jack cheese instead, still delicious!