Smoking

THOUGH SMOKING LARGE AMOUNTS of fish or meat requires expensive equipment and even a smokehouse, small pieces of meat such as duck breasts are easy to smoke on top of the stove. Smoked duck breasts are marvelous if cooked right, but they can present the same problems you’ll encounter when grilling—the fatty skin renders, the liquid fat burns, and the finished duck tastes like soot. You can of course remove the duck skin and fat, but so much of the flavor is in the fatty skin that it seems a pity to do without. My own solution is to render the fat first in a sauté pan and immediately chill the duck breasts so they don’t overcook. Then I smoke them. To tell when a sautéed duck breast is done, but not overdone, I stick a meat thermometer through the side into the center of the breast and wait until the temperature measures about 130°F.