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Cold smoking season 2014-2015: duck breast pastrama

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atomicsmoke

atomicsmoke

Master of the Pit
Original poster
OTBS Member
Apr 3, 2014
4,313
1,235
Toronto, Canada
No spelling mistake in the thread title: this is pastrama , not pastrami.Duck was, arguably, the meat of choice (along with goose and less common sheep) for the Moldovan and Bessarabian Jews before the immigration waves in the 2nd half of the 19th century. Settling in New York and Montreal provided access to affordable good quality beef. The rest is history (of pastrami).

Back to my meats. Got three ducks. Plan to cure the breasts with some aromatics then cold smoke for many hours.

Here are the breasts
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I cured the meat for the first 24h wrapped in plastic film with rosemary, thyme, cracked pepper and juniper berries. Pressed them a little.

After 24h I measured weight losses between 8.5-10%.

For the next 24hours I buried them in salt. First layer on the meat still aromatics
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Keeping a close eye for updates 
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 duck is one of my favorite meats when done properly
 
After 15 hours of smoke (5x3) and hanging the rest of the time (4 days) they lost between 20-22% (from the original weight). The skin is showing some colour.I just started them on another smoke.
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Holy crap! That is beautiful! I've been wanting to try this, but never got around to it. Thanks for the history lesson as well. I love that stuff. You rock!!!
 
Weight loss between 25-29%.

A short break in the fridge (wrapped) then a few more days hanging. Should be ready in time for Santa - I am sure he's sick of milk and cookies.
 
Great looking duck Atomic

I have tried something similar a couple of years ago but without smoking so long. You have just spurred me into giving it another try 
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I enjoyed the process as well, not just the end product. Very interesting transformation of odours from raw meat, then very subdued cured meat, then strong smoke (fresh off the smoker), then the smoke odour mellowed down, then the familiar almost complete cured meat with hints of smoke.
 
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