The Inside Scoop: Duck and Goose Fat

Corey Mulhair at SPLIT REED

Presented by Browning Firearms

Duck fat is sacred.

It’s what makes plucking a bird worth it and why confit is found in every French cuisine serving restaurant across the world. The aromas released as it cooks and crackles, the juices that flow and meld with the flesh of a duck as it bakes, and the earthy but sweet flavors it created in your mouth. It’s just something that is very special.

Over 1/3 of the fat in waterfowl is saturated, which despite what you may think, is good fat (if you aren’t simultaneously consuming copious amounts of carbs). The remaining 2/3 of the fat consists of monounsaturated fats (such as the high linoleic acid fats). As ducks and geese prepare for wintering and their migration south, they require high-calorie foods to convert to high-calorie value fat stores. These stored fats allow them to survive during extreme cold and during times of scarce food supply (think 6” or so of snow). Late season birds are oven covered in a nice layer of fat, and also have copious amounts of internal fat around the gizzard and intestines.

Collected and then rendered down, it can be used to cook anything where fat or oil is called for. In fact, confit recipes call specifically for duck fat. You can take a look at a previous recipe here for Confit Goose Legs. With some rendered duck or goose fat you can cook anything from meat to vegetables to amazingly flavorful fries, and much more.

How can you get your hands on some? You’ve likely been throwing piles and piles of it away- but let’s not think about that. Start making the most of your quarry and enjoying home rendered waterfowl fat starting with your next hunt. Follow the process below to see how you can take the fat from 4 large Canada geese and 4 mallards and end up with a pint of rendered duck and goose fat!

STEP 1: We begin, as usual, with a hunt (one that ends with a few fat birds on the deck). You’ll find early season birds are less likely to have a cache of render-worthy fat on them, as their diets are higher in protein and they aren’t necessarily gorging on grains and seeds (which are converted into stored fats more readily).

In all honesty, I don’t start saving fat from ducks and geese until about December. By then the geese are found feed primarily in cornfields, as well as wheat and barley fields which are great for birds when they’re looking to pack on the fat and plump up.

STEP 2: Whether you’re plucking whole, front plucking, or just breasting out your birds, you’ll have the chance to recover gobs of fat from your birds. The majority of good clean fat is found around the gizzard and down into what we refer to as the ‘popes nose’ which is situated down where the intestines are located. Slice at the base of the breastplate to expose the intestinal cavity at the ‘popes nose’. Try to remove the fat without much blood or gut-matter on it. You’ll soak it later to leech blood and other ‘stuff’ off. Some fat will have small veins interlaced into the fat, that’s not a big deal.

The above photos are of a large Canada goose, breasted and then opened to expose where the majority of a bird’s render-quality fat is located, and then a handful of good clean fat removed.

The photos below are of a mallard, depicting the location of the ‘popes nose’ on a duck, then the fat below it, and finally the bulk internal fat removed.

STEP 3: Place the fat into a bowl with water and continue pulling from the next birds. The water will help clean the fat of any nasty stuff on the surface, and as the fat softens in the water anything in the folds of the fat will be exposed to the water for cleaning. I like to let the fat chunks soak in the bowl of water for a day or two before moving forward.

STEP 4: After a couple of days in the soak (optional, you can render immediately after removing if you’d like to), take a saucepan that will fit all the fat you’ve now got and add a couple of inches of water and bring it to a soft boil. For best render results, cut the chunks up into 1” cubes. Once the water starts bubbling, add the fat and back the heat off to a simmer.

STEP 5: Now you’ve just got to simmer for a while until the fat starts separating from the cracklins’ and dissolves into the water with the heat. You’re doing this all without a lid, which allows the water to evaporate while keeping the fat chunks from burning. After a while, all the water will be gone and the fat chunks will be simmering in liquid fat. Keep doing this until you’re left with a golden brown liquid and darkened fat chunks. See the rendered liquid gold in the following photos.

At a slow simmer, it takes between an hour to two hours from when you first start heating the fat to get to a nearly finished pot of liquid gold. Further low heat is only necessary until all the bits of ‘stuff’ in the liquid fat have turned brown.

STEP 6: Once you’ve rendered the fat down to a nice viscous liquid- it’s time to remove the cracklins’ and then strain the liquid fat into the jar you’ll be keeping it in. I use sections of used and then thoroughly cleaned cotton big game quarter bags (clothes washer machine with a little bleach and oxy-clean does the trick), but cheesecloth will do just fine if you haven’t got any used game bags laying around. Pour small scoops of liquid fat into the jar through the game bags or cheese-cloth to filter, being careful to not spill it all over the jar and/or countertop. After the first few scoops, the liquid will tend to filter slower (for whatever reason) so be careful to not scoop too much at a time.

STEP 7: Allow the jar of now rendered duck/goose fat to cool to room temp. If you started the render in the evening, let it cool overnight. When the fat is cooled and mostly (if not all) solidified, place the jar in the refrigerator to continue setting for a day or two. It should be a creamy yellow color once it has set and solidified after the initial render and filtering.

The fat will last for a very, very long time in the fridge, and extra jars can be stored in the freezer for years.

With a jar or two on hand, you’ll be able to add a ‘ducky’ touch (in a good way!) to anything you’d like. The next time you’re going to sauté some vegetables, or are going to cook goose legs low and slow (Confit Goose Legs), or the next time you want to cook a couple of Duck Halves; take a scoop or two of liquid gold and get to work!