Duck Dogs

The kitchen is a micro melting pot of bizarre and wonderful ideas, most, having had their ten seconds of theoretical fame, inevitably slip into the past. Once every so often, though, an idea comes along that is so far out, so ludicrous, so arrogant that it would be a carnal culinary sin not to attempt it. That is why we turn ducks into hot dogs at Culina.

Here is the multi-day process of creating something improbable and delicious from scratch.
Duck Dogs

Ingredients:

1 1/4 pounds stewing beef scraps
1 1/4 pounds fatty duck legs
1/2oz kosher salt
1 teaspoon pink salt
1 cup ice water
1 tablespoon dry mustard
2 teaspoons Hungarian paprika
1 teaspoon ground coriander
1/4 teaspoon ground white pepper
1 tablespoon minced garlic
2 tablespoons light corn syrup
10 feet sheep casings

Required Equipment:

Meat Grinder
Freezer
Food Processor
Sausage stuffer
Smoker

Gerry is spearheading this project. He’s not fooling around as you can see by our professional looking recipe sheet, which includes a hot dog quote from our faithful meat mentor Charcutarie. We’re using juicy Brome Lake ducks for this project. Also we’re doubling the recipe to accommodate the average healthy Albertan appetite.

Start by boning the legs, keeping a lot of the skin and fat which will give your hot dog richness and the watery elements something to bind with.

We left some skin and a bit of meat on the bones for a stock we’ll be making with the scraps.

Here’s our harvest. Looks like about a 3:1 meat to fat Ratio. Not just any ol’ fat, duck fat.

Combine the beef scraps to your duck meat and  add the dry mustard, paprika, coriander, white pepper, minced garlic and corn syrup to the mixture.

Nothing quite like freshly roasted and ground coriander.

Now grind the mixture of meat and spices through a small die. Kudos Kitchen-aid.

Now add the salt, pink salt and water.

Mix by hand thoroughly to distribute the salts.

Spread this mixture out onto a baking tray and refrigerate it for 24 to 48 hours. This will gives the salts and spices a chance to permeate the meat.

Before grinding a second time, place the pan into the freezer for 30 minutes. Once the mixture is firm but not frozen, run it through a small die once again. Once ground, spread the mixture back on the sheet pan and place it once again into the freezer for 30 minutes or until firm.

At this point you can soak your casings. They should be soaked for at least 30 minutes.

Now take out your double grinded meat mixture. It should be firm enough to cut into pieces but not frozen.

Cut it into small enough pieces to fit into a food processor and process into a uniform paste. This is where all the freezing and grinding pays off. The water, fat and meat are emulsified into one glorious paste that begins to arouse feelings of hot dogs to be.

Although far from completion, we somehow feel at this point that our hard work is beginning to pay off and our vision of duck hot dogs is materializing before our eyes.

Load the hot dog paste into a sausage stuffer.

And slip the casing over the spout.

Fill the casings. (Insert suggestive sausage joke here)

Try to have a trusty intern around to do most of the manual labor. (Thanks Tessa)

Twist the dogs off at desired intervals. We’re aiming for a cute 2″ dog to match our tiny homemade buns.

Dogs awaiting their smoky applewood fate.

Hot smoke the dogs to taste or until the casings harden a bit and the dogs firm up enough for grilling.

We couldn’t stop there. The dogs are served on a homemade bun, made by our resident baker Shari, with in house Pikliz (haitian pickled veggies) and homemade orange mustard.

The verdict: Really tasty dog.

But most importantly, we all got to see one of those frivolous kitchen ideas become a physical thing. Then put it on a bun and eat it– just the way nature intended.

btw- you can try the dogs for yourself at Bibo winebar.