Duck Tacos | For those of You who hate Duck

Happy cows this morning, filling up their water this morning. Our automatic waterer's broke on that, so we manually fill it up. I just remineralized them as I did a, a funny bit— well, I don't know if it's funny, it's more inspirational— trying something new this, this time with our member launch. You guys, by now you know that's going on. This Yukon Farm book. I read, as I did the chores, I read 5 different commandments for succeeding on the farm. There's 10, but I just read 5. Hopefully that helps you with some productivity, guys. I'm getting short. I'm giving this book away with, uh, membership for fall registration up until Monday midnight. With any, any tier. So check it out. I'll leave the link in the description: members.abundantpermaculture.com. I was kind of hoping the graders were going to come today. We've got some grading to do. We have a window. Hasn't rained in a while. They need it to be dry. Amy's come over to talk to Rebecca. She had another bad night, but she got it under control this time. Like, her heart got over 100 resting. Doctor still hadn't called her back. It was Labor Day yesterday. Uh, resting heart rate, that's not right. But my beautiful wife, she figured it out. She got it under control with some exercises. And you know, she couldn't control what was happening to her, the attack, whatever you want to call it, the, the fiery sea. But that was out of her control. But what she could control is not just duck down in the in the boat and just let the, the storm rock her. She took a hold of that realm. Is that what you call it? She took all that— she took control of the boat and said, you know what, I'm gonna, I'm gonna navigate this storm as best possible. And she did. She did some EFT, so she listened to that, to her app, did some tapping. If anything, it got her mind off of it and got her relaxing. And um, got her to sleep. She woke up every hour, but she was able to put herself back to sleep. All right, and look who's here. Randolph's here even before 9 o'clock. 15 till 9. You must be on Lombardi time. Yeah, I didn't have to get nothing today. You know about Lombardi time? When that Coach Lombardi said 9 o'clock, yeah, he meant 8:45. Oh yeah, you had to be 15 minutes. Okay, so We're walking, so our cows need a mobile shelter, and we were walking by this the other day and we're thinking, could we turn this into a mobile shelter? And so what I'm thinking, Randolph, is this is 6— we don't need this here anymore. It was a carport. Yeah, it's 16 feet long according to my calculations. If this is 2 feet, yeah, making it 14 feet long. So you'd bring this post in, uh cut, you know, get rid of this end, and then we'd get 16-foot skids. And I was thinking I'd do this myself, but already Randolph's figured out so many things that I wouldn't have thought of. Like maybe these poles need to be on the inside of this frame. They've been built on the outside. You're not just a carpenter, you, you're putting some brain in the game. Yeah, I still got some brain cells. That's good. You just got off the phone with your doctor. You seem like you're in a good spirit. What's going on?

I am. So I talked to her and I was like, are you concerned? And she said no, she wasn't, that this is very normal.

Oh, really?

Heart palpitations are actually normal.

Well, with pregnancy or with thyroid issues?

Pregnancy.

Okay.

I don't know if normal is the right word or if it's common. Well, it's because your blood, blood doubles, like your blood volume, and you—

Ah, ah, ah. New couch coming tomorrow. Ah.

Um, that and then it's just harder on your cardiovascular system, and then I think coupled with the thyroid thing as well. He's calling me in a new prescription. I'm gonna pick that up today. We're gonna try it tomorrow. It's a lower dose than I was taking. It said that I was awake for 2 hours and 45 minutes last night.

I do not remember that. That's not true. Oh look, it's the grader.

Oh good.

It's Fred. Let's see where he's at. I'm still over here in Asheville. I'm trying to get out of here. I was hoping to get over to your place in the next day or two. Okay.

Like, 11 fish.

You guys are good fishermen. How'd you learn how to fish?

Just fished.

Just fished. We've been able to leave them in this paddock without tracing them back down the lane. And. Let me show you. Look. Manure. Manure. Manure. Manure. Manure. Manure. Manure. Manure. Manure. Manure. Out here in the pasture instead of at the tree down by the house. That's why I want this mobile shelter, because yesterday a mobile shelter could have been in there and we wouldn't have to backtrack them, and all that manure would be out there fertilizing the grass. All right, I'm thinking Randolph will probably be done with that mobile shelter. I doubt today But maybe tomorrow. This week, certainly, certainly. If not today or tomorrow. It's a very special day. Arun is here. We're having a party tonight with our friends, our neighbors, our farmhand. Can everybody say nachos? Nachos! Taco Tuesday. Duck tacos tonight, Arun. Yes, and Nacho Tuesday. Nacho Tuesday. We're gonna watch Nacho Libre, our favorite movie. Yeah. All right, Rebecca's in charge of the Mexican rice. I'm gonna look up a recipe. I'm in charge of the duck. Haroon's in charge of the salsa and the beans. What are you in charge of for Taco Tuesday, Lily?

Nothing. What's this?

Jonah's getting our knife sharpened. Oh, that's not good.

A lot more.

That means do it again. Yeah, sharpen it some more. Grandma gave us this nifty tool. We'll see if it works. Big day on Thursday, we're gonna butcher a cow ourselves for the very first time. Just us. Yeah, I'm pretty anxious about it, but that's really the only way to learn, I think. This is my concoction for this duck taco. Boy, I feel pressure, Becky. First time. Oh yeah, yeah, I need two of those to have a cover. So I'm, I'm learning how to roast garlic. I've got one recipe for the, the spices and, and the amount of duck fat. I've got another recipe, a James Beard recipe, for a duck confit. Did I say it right? Yeah, duck confit.

I only know that because I watched Jessica from Roots and Refuge and she made a tomato confit.

So we're good. We've watched some other people do it. We're good.

So we know how to cook now.

Pants has helped us out with roasted recipe, all kinds of craziness.

Okay, here you go.

I'm glad I involved you because they told me to put these spices and I'm like, I'm thinking you dump it on top at the end, but you're like, no, you cook it in it. So we put it in the fat. Right now we gotta make roasted garlic. Since we're just doing one, she's gonna do it, put it in there for me. So I've left the little hairy bottom. I don't know if they account for people homegrown stuff. Is this— can I cut this off without this, this thing falling apart?

Yes, you can. That's what you're supposed to do. Do you have a cutting board? No, no, no, no.

Oh, burnout cooking show just took it up a notch.

Can you give me a cutting board? See how this is?

Yeah, it's beautiful.

That's what you're supposed to do.

But no, I never end up looking like the picture.

No, that's it right there.

What do you need? That's what I'm done. I was just asking if I needed to.

No, you don't.

Okay, see, I made it look like a picture. Welcome to today's episode of Burn It Up Cooking Show. Duck tacos. You bet.

Like, we're so excited about this.

They asked for olive oil on top of this. Could I do duck fat on top of that since I'm all carnivore and stuff?

You probably could.

Let's not push it.

I don't see why not.

Well, you want to do it?

Whatever you want, it's your show.

Let's do it. It's duck tacos. Let's get crazy. She didn't claim the show, did you see that?

Well, I don't wanna, I don't wanna—

You can't have too much experience coming into the show because then it's not as fun.

Oh, don't put that in there.

Oh, whoops, whoops. I'm supposed to put 2 of these on there.

Really? Yeah, well, it might be a larger—

Should I do 2 cloves then? Go ahead and do 2. Let's do 2 cloves. 1 teaspoon each duck fat. It's already absorbed it or something. We put this on there to keep it hydrated and from drying out. Okay, about this duck confit, I went online, see if there was a YouTube video or something, give me some clarification. There was, and there was actually one that talked about not doing it, not having to use so much fat. Like James Beard is calling for like 8 cups of duck fat. I don't want to waste all my duck fat if I I don't have to. Hey Becky, some of these recipes you season it overnight. One of them said to tap it off, get it off, but do you think I should? Because the one— the YouTube video, she didn't. No. Okay, fat side down in my Dutch oven, nice and snug. One leg, one wing. I could probably do two wings, another leg. Oh, I could probably do— I could probably do 2 wings and 2 legs, and that would be 2 ducks. And this guy, duck confit, is technically, I guess, duck cooked in its own fat. Now for our Mexican blend, 2 teaspoons cumin. See, I don't know because the, the internet didn't— I couldn't find a duck confit and then a, um, a Taco Tuesday recipe. So 2 teaspoons of cumin, 1 clove. It's calling for 2 tablespoons black peppercorns. Is that too much?

I would just do 1.

I'm gonna do 1 tablespoon of black peppercorns. Hey, we got homegrown oregano.

Yes.

2 tablespoons of that.

You can see I had better— I had lofty ideas about—

you were hoping to have a lot more, it looks like.

Yes, I was.

5 allspice berries and a pinch of cinnamon. Poking the skin, poking the skin, it helps release the fat, uh, because we're gonna get so much fat off of these, this, its own skin. It's gonna— we're gonna have enough to cook it in there. That means my garlic's done. Let's try it. Let's, let's look, see what happens. I'm gonna let the oven cool off a bit because I need to get it down to 200 for this next step. I'm a little behind. This is supposed to take 4 hours, this method. It's gonna be like 5:30 dinner. That's probably actually all right. What, burn the table?

Oh, it'll be fine.

Oh, what do you think, darling? Oh, stay hydrated. Smells good.

You can stick it in there and kind of let it brown.

You know, I did, I did two. It'll brown in this.

Oh, okay.

Yeah, yeah, because it's going right back in. One clove on each, I think. Mix my spices together here. How do you evenly distribute this? If I could pour it, but I'm afraid all that basil would just— that's what would come off, so I think it will fumigate. I'm just gonna put that one in there. It's too hot to try to break it up. I think it'll aromate. I don't know, the aroma will catch. We're gonna set this in for 200 on one side for 2 hours. We'll check it in an hour to make sure that But you know what? You know what? Oh, I wish I would have done this. I meant to do it. I meant to mix all our spices into the duck fat. Oh, I really wish I remembered to do that. Just— I'm gonna give it a little bit of fat just to make sure we're gonna be frying in fat. Boy, this looks good. All right, let's get some of this done. All right, you know what that means? It's been an hour. No fat. Well, some. Yeah, it's all, uh, it's melting there in the bottom. It's not sticking. Oh yeah, look, we got a layer of fat in the bottom. 200 is not very much. It's a slow cook. That's a slow cook, but I feel like the slower you cook a meat, the more tender it's going to be. The pressure's on. This will be Arun's only second time having duck. Rebecca's— Amy's first time since her bad experience. She had some duck in China and she was hesitant to even try our duck. But she said she'll try it on duck taco. So pressure's on. That's the 2-hour mark on one side. I think this is gonna be delicious. So what do you think we got under there? Aha! Nice. Still pretty tough, but it still has 2 more hours. 250! I think I'm supposed to cook it on 250, not 200. I just realized that. Shoot. Okay, we're gonna have to make up for lost time going to— we're gonna go to 300. Okay, that's making me a little nervous. It was definitely still well undercooked. It's been 2 hours, but yes, then I remembered. It's supposed to be a little higher. I think in 300 will make up for it. I mean, you cook up chicken for an hour and a half on 350. Should I go a little higher? Uh, I don't know. I'm gonna keep it the way it is. Back to this. Randolph's back from a trip into town for supplies. So see, you went horizontal with it. You don't think it'd be better to go vertical that way? Two of them?

Really?

I didn't think about that. Yeah, that's what I was thinking, that if you flip this, well, there'd be less friction on the ground. But although that would be lower, that would not be so hard on the cows to step over. But I was thinking it would be— everything I've seen, it seems like it's this way and two of them together, and then it notched out right here. Or you could still use these on top of it. His idea is that it's gonna have less sharp drag on the surface, it's gonna make less damage on the pasture, which I like. I like that idea that it's wider. The friction though, do you think it's going to be so much more that we can't pull it with Sally? I don't think it will because it's not real heavy. I can pick— oh, can you pick it up? Okay, you know, pick one end of it. Well, that's good to know. I like that. I like your thinking on that then. I wasn't thinking this way, but I think this is better because it won't tear up the pasture and it'll be a little lower so it's less for the cows to step over. Yeah, so I like it. Randolph, he's so good. Lots and lots of common sense, good skills. He says he thinks he's ready to move that in 2 or 3 hours. That's not gonna happen today because working day is almost over. Tomorrow, tomorrow morning, and the graders are coming back tomorrow. We got to get it out of there so that they can get in there with their machine and pull those poles out of the ground. So tomorrow is going to be an exciting day. And looky here. Mexican rice.

Yeah.

So you fry it before you boil it.

Yes.

Neat.

I learned this trick in Honduras.

Nice.

When we lived there. Um.

Is this Honduras rice then?

It's not. I just looked up a Spanish rice recipe, but um, because I knew, because I wanted to add like, I wanted to just have better—

Yeah.

Some measurements so I knew exactly what I was doing. So.

I have finished the edit. Harun going to town on the refried beans. And oh my gosh, Beauty's rice is looking amazing. Everybody's contributing. It's like a neighborhood potluck. It doesn't matter that there's only 2 neighbors. Amy's making— what is this, Amy?

This is a pumpkin roll.

Oh my gosh, and pumpkin from your garden. Yes, and it's a surprise for the kids.

Well, not me.

Except this one found out.

Yeah.

How excited are you about that pumpkin roll?

Really excited. I think Gideon's gonna be most excited because he's probably asked me 100 times, when are you gonna make pumpkin roll?

Yeah, ever since you guys got back we've been wanting that pumpkin roll.

Yeah, since March.

If you could only have one thing for supper, would it be pumpkin roll, refried beans, Mexican rice, or duck tacos?

Pumpkin roll.

Oh, you take the cake, Amy.

Well, I think when you went to get the sheep, we were on the GAPS diet and I had— we had pumpkin roll because they were here with helping.

All right.

And it was just so good. I like stuffed myself and got a tummy ache. Yeah, you did. I remember that.

Okay, toast 4-hour cook. 4-hour cook. At least it's gonna be tender, right? 4 hours. Boom! It's only going to get better. Get the oven up to 400. So now you're going to cook another one? No, I'm only going to cook for 15 more minutes. So as soon as I get in there, I'll be done in 15 minutes. Whoa, it's tender! I'm not going to be able to pick that up with a fork. That's what I'm looking for. We're winning. Pressure's on with Amy. Bad experience with duck. Oh yeah, I swear if anybody's had a bad experience with duck, it's had it wrong. I think we can actually taste it right now and see if we're on to something, or to see if it's going to be awful. So tender. We're on to something. Oh my gosh, oh my gosh, oh my.

Is it good?

Oh yeah. Oh my word, is it better than even the beef actually? Oh my word, there's all the spices. Okay, pressure's off now. It can only get better from here. That's how I burn something. Forget to put on a timer and burn it. Try that. That's serious, serious good. Timer's going off. Hey, look, check it out. Mmm, okay, now let's shred it. All right, does it pass the test? Yeah, there you're picking apart the bones. Here, Amy. Oh my goodness, get it. If you can get a little bit of meat with maybe a little bit of skin. Come here, Rebecca, come try this.

I'm nervous.

That's okay, that's okay.

Oh my word, it tastes like pulled pork. Yeah, really nice. That's what that's The guy's amazing.

I cannot believe this is good.

This is so good.

It doesn't look like pork too. You could just totally barbecue this. You could turn like barbecue sauce.

See, if Arun likes this, he will love pork, Justin.

That's right, that's right. Hey, pigs for everyone in the room. You need a t-shirt. I'll get him a pigs for everyone t-shirt. He doesn't eat pork. Yeah, that's your bonus. Thanks for everyone. The kids are digging in. Now this Taco Tuesday is exciting. Mexican rice, fresh refried beans, tacos. All the kids are silent. How is it as a taco?

It's delicious. It tastes like pulled pork.

It tastes like pork.

Oh yeah.

All right. Okay, what time is it? Night-night!