A great many things have been cooked in my kitchen over the past few days. I bought three ducks last week and spent about three days getting them broken down, prepped, and cooked in various ways. I rendered fat, made stock, made duck proscuitto, confited the gizzards and four legs, and--a first for me--made duck sausage (I also made merguez and short rib ravioli last week! phew!). 

I have wanted to try making duck sausage for a long time. I looked through my cookbooks for a recipe, hoping that Paul Bertolli or Judy Rodgers would have something fabulous I could steal. I was out of luck. What I ended up finding were a couple of recipes in Home Sausage Making that were not particularly inspiring. Consequently, I made something up. We were delighted with the results (if I do say so...). 

Here's the rough recipe (I wasn't particularly exact during the process, so some measurements are approximations):

Homemade Duck Sausage with Orange and Shallot

4 lbs. duck meat and skin (approx. 1 1/2 large ducks, boned with skin on the breast and legs/thighs), cut into roughly 1" pieces

4 tsp kosher salt (1 tsp per lb)

1-1/2 to 2 tsp pepper

pinch of ground clove 

1 TBS fresh thyme, stemmed and coarsely chopped

grated zest of one large navel orange

3 TBS shallot, minced

1-2 tsp minced fresh ginger

1/4 cup pinot noir, chilled

sheep casing (I'm not sure how much I actually used--8ft+?)

Season the duck meat and skin with the salt, pepper, clove, and thyme. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 24 hours. 

Add the minced shallot, ginger, and orange zest to the seasoned meat. Mix to distribute the seasonings.

Using chilled implements, grind the chilled, seasoned meat through a small dye (Kitchen Aid small dye--I can't find the exact measurement at this moment of course!) and into a bowl set in ice water. (It's helpful to grind into the Kitchen Aid mixing bowl, if you are using a Kitchen Aid grinder. Then you can use it for the mixing step as well.) 

Add the chilled wine and mix in a stand mixer on a low setting for 1-2 minutes, or until the wine is distributed and the meat mixture just becomes sticky.  

Make a test patty and taste for seasoning and adjust if needed.

Stuff meat into casings and twist off at desired length, or form into patties. 

Gently sauté or grill to an internal temperature of 165F. 

NOTE: Duck fat melts pretty quickly so keep everything as cold as possible while you are working. 

These sausages are great grilled. We also made a couple of patties and ate them like burgers in pita bread. Tonight I served them over polenta with a simple sauce made of 1/2 a minced onion, 1 small minced carrot, 1 minced roma tomato, 1 cup of duck stock, roughly half a cup of red wine, fresh thyme, salt, and pepper (cooked down). I think they would be fabulous with french green lentils OR for breakfast with fried potatoes, fried tomatoes, and runny eggs. Hm. I might just have to do that tomorrow!