Duck Prosciutto..

Here's a riddle for you:

What has a road flare kit, a spare tire, tire iron, duck proscuitto air drying, my old softball mit, and is part of my car?

Thrown by the tire iron?

The answer is (of course) the trunk of our car!

So yeah..I let my duck proscuitto air dry in a propped open cooler in the trunk of our car..can you imagine the gatherinf of squirrels, ferrel cats, and whatever else wild animals prowl during the nights here on the north side of Chicago all gathered around our car during the nights like some sort of weird pagan ritual?

On to the process! After reading a few postings on making duck proscuitto over at the "Paupered Chef" (http://www.thepauperedchef.com/) by both writers on that site (Blake and Nick) and after getting my copy of "Charcuteries (http://www.amazon.com/Charcuterie-Craft-Salting-Smoking-Curing/dp/0393058298/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1206570634&sr=8-1) I was good to go!

First off, if this sort of thing interests you in the least (salting, smoking, and curing meats) please check out "Charcuterie" the book..well worth the investment.

Ingrediants are pretty straightforward: duck breast (I ended up with a frozen one from Whole Foods-but next time will go direct to China town), kosher salt (about 3 cups), some crushed peppercorn, thyme, a little cumin, and a small amount of white pepper (black is OK if thats all you have).

Equipment: non reactive dish ( I used a 12" pyrex pie pan), cheescloth, some twin or other way to suspend meat for approx one week.

Process: lay down an base layer of salt in your vessel, pat dry the duck breast and lay (fat side up) and cover fully with remaining salt, cover with plastic wrap. Refridgerate this for 24 hours to allow the salt to cure the meat.

After 24 hours remove, rinse breasts well off with tap water and pat completely dry. Once dried sprinkle with pepper and suspend in cheese cloth for 7 days (for approx 2 lbs of duck breast) at a tempeture around 50-60 degrees in a fair amont of humidity (not extremely wet, but also not extremely dry).

A quick note of the tempeture for line drying the meat: I actually left it to dry out in my trunk for a week which included some wild temp swings..from the low 30s for a small window up to the 50F mark...and my stuff tastes fantastic.

..I need a disclaimer after that though..please be careful and follow your best judgement (..if should be better than mine :) ).

After one full week (give or take a few days) remove from cheescloth and prepare to be turned off by the weird dark ruby colored meat and glistening duck lardo...but get ready for some amazing tasting meat as well!

Slice thin and serve as you see fit. Personally I enjoy the "gamey" taste of mine and eat it sliced and straight up.

Cheers!