We’re firm believers that duck is the king of meat when it comes to smoking.
As duck fat absorbs the smoke’s flavour better than the meat itself, when smoked, the fat turns to butter and once sliced thinly – it doesn’t last long in our house! We’d strongly recommend you make more hot smoked duck than you think you need.
Hot smoked duck is really versatile – once smoked, finely slice the breasts and fry until crispy to adorn the top of a hearty soup, slice thinly and serve with our beetroot borani or serve simply in a bitter leaf salad with a citrus dressing to cut through the fat.
2 duck breasts
Apple or cherry wood chips
½ tsp pink peppercorns
For the cure:
½ tsp white peppercorns
1 tbsp coriander seeds
½ tsp black peppercorns
25g coarse sea salt
½ tsp juniper berries
25g dark muscovado sugar
½ tsp garlic granules
1 tsp thyme leaves
Preparing the Cure
Toast the coriander, white & black peppercorns and juniper berries until fragrant. Allow to cool then grind with a pestle and mortar.
Stir in the sea salt, sugar, garlic and thyme.
Curing the Duck
Trim the duck of any sinew and straggly bits. Using a metal skewer pierce holes all over the duck breasts.
Rub the duck breasts all over with the cure mix. Place into a plastic container and allow to cure for at least six hours.
Rinse the cure off under a cold running tap and pat dry with kitchen roll.
Smoking the Duck
Lightly crush the pink peppercorns and sprinkle over the duck breast.
Set up your smoker for hot smoking (find out how to make your own here).
Smoke the duck breast for 8-10 minutes. You will smell the wood chips smoking away gently infusing the duck meat. After 8-10 minutes, allow to rest. The duck should still be nice and pink.
If you enjoyed this recipe, love what we do and would like to support us, we’d appreciate it ever so much if you could ‘buy us a coffee’ through Kofi!
For locally sourced duck, we’re big fans of Etherley Farm, up in the Surrey Hills.
Disclosure: We only recommend products we have extensively tried and tested and all opinions expressed here are our own. This page may contain affiliate links that at no additional cost to you, we may earn a small commission.
