Pastrami Style Cured and Smoked Duck

I love pastrami. I cure and make my own with fatty beef brisket on a regular basis. The process is a simple one: cure the meat, give it a pepper-heavy crust, then slow smoke it for added flavor.

Give your whole duck the pastrami treatment with an overnight cure and a trip to the grill. Images by author

One day, I was looking at a fat, late-season mallard I had thawed in the fridge, and I wondered, Why not treat it like pastrami? Those same smoky, peppery flavors should work well with the rich duck flavor.

Every good pastrami recipe starts with a cure. This one is about as simple as it gets. Add ½ cup cane sugar and a half cup of Kosher salt to a quart and a half of warm water. Add 1 teaspoon Instacure #1, also known as pink curing salt or Prague powder. Cure #1 is a blend of sodium nitrite and salt.

Cure #1 is a blend of sodium nitrate and salt and is used for quick cures like jerky, ham and such.

It is used for quick curing meats like bacon, pastrami, city style hams and the like. You can find it online, at many sporting goods stores with the jerky making supplies, or at most butcher shops. If you really want to go all out, you can add peppercorns and whole coriander to the brine, but those are optional. The short brining time this duck gets doesn’t really allow those extra flavors time to soak in.

Once you have the brine mixed, work on your duck. I like to use whole, skin-on birds for this one. The skin gets nice and crisp during the cooking process, making a nice contrast to the tender duck meat.

I like to spatchcock the duck for this one. Quit laughing. It’s an actual thing. To spatchcock a bird, just use your knife or a pair of kitchen shears to remove the backbone. Open up the bird so that it lays flat on the cutting board. This speeds the cooking process and helps all parts of the duck cure and cook evenly.

Remove the spine and spatchcock the duck, then make a few shallow slices in the skin.

Once you have your duck flattened, use a sharp knife to make a few shallow cuts through the skin. Don’t cut down into the meat, just cut through he skin so that the cure penetrates the meat.

Place the bird, skin down, into a glass or plastic dish that’s deep enough to allow the brine to fully cover the duck. Pour over the brine and cover the dish, then refrigerate for 8-12 hours.

Pour the brine over the duck then refrigerate to cure.

Once the duck has brined, give it a quick rinse under cold water and pat the surface dry with a paper towel.

For the seasoning and crust on this one, I used Montreal Steak seasoning. The pepper heavy blend is perfect for pastrami flavor. Just season the duck on both sides, going a bit heavier on the skin side.

Montreal steak seasoning is the perfect peppery blend for a pastrami flavor.

This is where the recipe differs from classic pastrami. Instead of a slow smoke, this one gets grilled hot and fast to keep the duck medium-rare and still crisp up the skin. I like to use a weight to press the duck flat on the grill and increase the crispy factor on the skin. You can use a heavy cast iron skillet, a dedicated press made for the task, or do what I do and wrap a clean brick in aluminum foil.

Place the duck on the hot grill, skin side down, and place a weight of some sort over the top. A heavy cast iron skillet or a foil-wrapped landscaping brick works well.

Heat the grill to 350 degrees. Place the duck, skin side down, directly on the grill grate. Place your weight of choice onto the duck. Grill for 15-20 minutes, or until the skin is crisp. Remove the weight, flip the duck, and cook for another 10-15 minutes or so or until the thickest part of the duck registers about 140 on a digital thermometer. To my taste, 135-140 degrees, or medium-rare, is the best way to eat duck. In a regular duck, that is still pretty pink inside. This one, because it is cured like a ham, will stay pink even if you take the temperature up to medium or higher.

Flip the duck once the skin is crisp to finish cooking.

Allow the duck to rest for 5 to 10 minutes before slicing the breast and separating the legs for serving.

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