Roast Duck Details

Duck confit tastes quite different from the duck cooked almost any way. Cooking is all about converting the tough protein collagen pound for pound harder than steel for gelatin.
Although this is not the speed of chemical reactions, it is easy to start:. Hold the meat at low temperature for long enough, and protein denaturation of collagen, and finally hydrolysis

154 ° F / 68 ° C: collagen(type I) denatures

animal tissue overall structure and to provide support for muscles and organs in the body. You can think of most of the connective tissue fascia, and ligaments-loose between the muscles and other structures such as tendons and bones, as a little as the reinforcing steel: not actively contract like muscle tissue, but a structure against which muscles pull and contract.

the most common type of protein in the connective tissue is collagen, while there are several types of collagen in animals, from a culinary point of view, the main chemical difference between different types of collagen is the temperature at which denaturation. In the kitchen, collagen is shown in two ways: either as separate pieces(eg, tendon, silver) in addition to muscle, or as a network that runs through the muscles. Regardless of location, the collagen is difficult(it provides the structure, after all) and it becomes palatable only have enough time at sufficiently high temperatures.

This is easy to deal with the collagen, which appears in the form of separate parts: to get rid of it by cut. In the case of cuts which have a thin layer of connective tissue in their(so-called silver, probably due to his appearance a bit opaque), cut as much as possible and discard it. Beef cuts are often part of this layer;. cut as much as possible before cooking
chicken and a small but noticeable tendon connected to the tenderloin of the chicken. Uncooked, it is a pearly white ribbon. After cooking, it appears that little white things you can chew on forever but never get any satisfaction from rubber-band-like. Generally, this type of collagen is easily detected, and if you miss it, it is easy to see while eating and can be left on the plate.
However, for other types of collagen found in certain cuts of meat, collagen, which forms a 3D network through muscle tissue, the only way to remove it to convert it into gelatin by long, slow cooking method. In contrast to muscle proteins, which are both in the kitchen in the standard(ie, as they are animals), denatured, or hydrolyzed collagen country, after hydrolysis, may introduce coagulation(gel) state. This property opens up new possibilities, since the gelatin gives a slippery meat, quality of deals and a lip-beat goodness.
one piece of information that is critical to understand in the kitchen, however, is that hydrolysis takes time. Literally spin structure and break up, and because of the amount of energy needed to break ties and stochastic processes, the response takes longer than just protein denaturation.
collagen hydrolysis not only breaks the structure of rubber from the contaminated structure, but also converts part of the gelatin. When collagen is hydrolyzed, it breaks down differently in size, smaller ones that are able to dissolve in the surrounding liquid, forming gelatin. It is he who gives gelatin dishes such as braised ox tail, slowly cooked short ribs, duck confit, and their characteristic taste in the mouth.
From these dishes rely on gelatin provided a wonderful texture, must be made with high collagen pieces of meat. Trying to make beef stew with lean hard will cause the meat dry. Actin protein is denatured(recall that this occurs at a temperature of 150-163 ° F / ° C from 1966 to 1973), but the gelatin will not be present in the muscle tissue to dryness and the strength of masking caused by contaminated actin. Do not try to “upgrade” their beef stew with the more expensive cuts of meat! It will not work
“Great,” you think, “but how does anyone tell me whether I need slowcook piece of meat?” Think of a piece of meat(or fish and poultry) that are working and consider what part of the animal came from. For terrestrial animals, regions of the animal, which bears the burden generally have higher levels of collagen. This should make sense because the loaded parts have a higher load, need more structure, so they have more connective tissue. This is not a perfect rule, but the cuts tend to have more than one muscle group in them.