Magret
The name "magret" is reserved to the breast, which comes from a duck that produced foie gras. The magret is a red meat that is usually cooked whole. It is first seared in the pan and finish up in the oven. The magret can also be hot smoked or dry cured and cold smoked to make an excellent duck prosciutto.

Legs
The legs are usually served "confit". This way of cooking the legs gives them an extraordinary taste. The legs are covered of salt and spices for about 24 hours and than they slowly cooked in duck fat for a few hours.

Rendered duck fat
The duck fat renown for its exceptional flavor and also for its nutritious qualities. Many great chefs do not hesitate to use duck fat instead of butter or even olive oil. In fact, dieticians often compare olive oil to duck fat.

Buying

Cooking tips
Ducks and geese need fat for cooking, so they aren't averse to a few sausages or some strips of smoked ham or bacon.

For more flavour, we recommend replacing water with white wine - yes, you read correctly! - even though the duck meat is dark. A dry full-flavoured white wine goes perfectly with roast or simmered duck… or else try a dry cider.

Always sear the skin side of the duck breast first so that it will be nice and crispy.

Don't forget…

Duck Varieties

Nantes – originally from France’s Vendée region, an area once known for its marshland (since drained) where migratory birds would make an annual stop-over. The breed was eventually standardized and its quality is now consistent.

Mulard – a hybrid resulting from a cross with the Barbary duck. It was quickly adopted in the southwest of France and is dedicated to foie gras production. Duck breasts sold on the market are often from mulard ducks.

Rouen – a smaller, fatter duck. It is the domesticated variety of a now-rare mallard variety. Cook books insist that the duck be smothered and not bled so that the blood stays in the meat.

Challans – a black Barbary. Possessing an official red label of quality, it is said to be the duck variety preferred by Paris’s famous Tour d’Argent restaurant.

Peking – a fairly fatty variety, originally bred in China’s imperial palace, and still raised primarily to supply Chinese restaurants.

Widgeon (Mandarin duck) – must be quickly and lightly cooked, since the meat has no fat. Served rare.  

Try a Brome Lake Duck,
a Quebec product that has become an institution

This pioneering enterprise is heir to a long tradition. Founded in 1912 on the western shore of Brome Lake, this is the oldest duck-breeding farm in Canada. Its founder, an American from New York, choose to raise the Peking variety of duck, a large white bird with a yellow bill and feet and delicious meat that had been brought to the United States from China in 1873. Later, under the whimsical and ambitious plans of the founder’s son, who had inherited the business, the farm and its buildings were moved to the opposite side of the lake during winter using only horses and sleds. The farm was re-established on a sandy stretch of land where the ducks, in accordance with the wish of the new young owner, could swim freely during the hot days of summer.

In 1939, the farm was taken over by a lawyer and a businessman who feared for the business’s survival. They sought to find a way to preserve the farm’s jobs and to support the region’s rural economy. To this day, Brome Lake Ducks has remained one of the biggest employers in the area.

Production Techniques

It goes without saying that duck-raising methods have evolved considerably since the turn of the last century.  The farm has drawn from the best of scientific research and Brome Lake ducks, raised according to extremely precise and refined techniques, have achieved unparalleled quality. Their feed, a grain and soy mash enriched with vitamins and minerals, is distributed in carefully-balanced amounts at each step of production. The ducks therefore produce plumper, more flavourful and less fatty meat. Careful breeding also promotes optimum fertility and a high growth rate. Brome Lake ducks benefit from a healthy environment, also an important part of their success: the space they occupy in well-ventilated buildings provides undeniable advantages to their health.

More and more popular
Traditionally eaten during the cold months, Lake Brome duck has become “de-seasonalized” and is becoming increasingly present on restaurant menus and in grocery stores. Available all year long, it’s no longer reserved, like oysters, just to months containing “R.”

A model of success
To meet the growing demand, Brome Lake Ducks has seen its production increase from 900,000 to 1.6 million ducks each year. The business, situated on the western shore of Brome Lake in Quebec’s eastern townships, now employs 110 people, making it one of the region’s biggest employers as well as the largest firm of its kind in Canada. Having gained an international reputation, the company is carrying on a more than 90-year-old family tradition, specializing in the raising of Peking duck, one of gastronomy’s most prized products.