Working with Duck

Appears in

The Fundamental Techniques of Classic Italian Cuisine

By International Culinary Center , French Culinary Institute , Cesare Casella and Stephanie Lyness

Published 2021

About

The earliest ducks (anatra) were mallards, domesticated over 2,300 years ago in China, and as early as 1000 bce in Greece (Christian Teubner, Sybil Gräfin Schönfeldt, and Siegfried Scholtyssek, The Chicken and Poultry Bible: The Definitive Sourcebook). The ducks found on contemporary restaurant menus are up to three times the size of their ancestors, and include the Rouen, the Aylesbury, the Nantais, and the Pekin.

Relative to chickens, ducks have a large skeleton, high fat content, and lower meat yield. Duck meat contains about 20 percent protein and 6 percent fat. A Pekin duck yields about 27 percent breast meat and 23 percent leg meat. A Muscovy duck yields about 25 percent breast meat and 28 percent leg meat.