Because Monday was a holiday, I decided to cook the next 2 recipes in the book. Also, the man Alton said the Red Flannel Hash and Cast Iron Duck should be made together since duck fat can come in handy for the hash. I had bought a frozen duck a while ago with the intention of cooking it a la Good Eats, but this is the next recipe, so I changed plans. The first thing that was a little confusing was timing. I decided I had to have everything ready to go into the pan for the hash before I put the duck on so I could toss everything into the pan once the duck came off. That meant I needed to roast the beet and boil the potatoes prior to putting the duck on.

The first problem with the duck recipe is that we live in Pullman, and I don't know of any place that I can just pick up 4 duck breasts. I had to buy the duck whole and break it down - pretty much the same as a chicken but the wishbone was a little funky. That left me with the breasts and the thigh/drumstick sections. I decided to just do the thigh/drumsticks like the breasts - mistake 1. Turns out that thigh/drumsticks from duck doesn't like being done like its friend the chicken.





This is the stuff for the red flannel hash - beet, potatoes, onions, chives, garlic, and duck fat.














So when I started searing the duck, it was looking good, but I could have let it cook longer - mistake 2. The book said 3 minutes, and the cast iron skillet was plenty hot, but this skin could have gone darker. That had 2 effects: the skin wasn't as crispy as it could have been, and the center of the breast wasn't done when I pulled the duck off.







You can see here - center still pretty pink. Looks like tuna steak, but it's duck. It really wasn't ok to eat like that, so I nuked it for around a minute until it was at least a very light pink. The taste was superb, though, and the kids couldn't get enough of it. The thighs were a different story - totally inedible when they came off the cast iron. I kind of expected that, though, and put them into the oven at 400 until the internal temp was in the 170 range. Especially for that end of the duck, I bet you've got to follow the recipe that cooks the heck out of it until all the connective tissue is broken down. Alton has a good eats recipe that does just that.

I got the hash going right after taking the duck off the skillet. I thought it would be great, but the skillet, even at medium heat, seemed pretty hot, and the garlic, and then the onions got real dark real fast (mistake 3). I tossed the rest of the ingredients in, and hoped that the tasty fatty crust on the potatoes would materialize soon - the one that Dad achieved on those rare occasions when he was pressed into service on Saturday nights. Also, this is the crust that Gpa Harris created when cooking potatoes on the cast iron griddle. Alas, no such crust appeared, and in my zeal to find said crust, the chives, onions, and garlic went from "ok" to "totally burnt" in maybe a minute. Alton suggests cracking an egg over it, which I did in hopes that it would soften the blow of the crispy bits.

In all, the duck and the hash had amazing flavor - both tasted amazing at one level or another. For the hash, the part that tasted good was the salty beets coated with duck fat that I had to pick out of the otherwise disappointing scramble. On the duck, it was the pieces on the ends of the breasts that had been cooked perfectly, and didn't need to be nuked. You'd think that I'd know not to undercook after what happened with the skirt steak - alas, not so. The kids still loved it, but the overall experience wasn't that great. Because I hadn't made it before it took way too long to make, and if I'm going to cook for that long, I need a better result.

Overall rating: 2 salt cellars out of 5

What I would do differently next time: Let the duck breast cook a really long time on the skin side, and skip the red flannel hash all together.

Next dish: Bar-be-fu Sandwiches - I think I will err on the side of over-cooking barbeque flavored tofu steaks, if only to make up for the skirt steak and duck.