Duck!

The Leclerc hypermarket (superstore) chain is having a Festival of Fat! Duck fat. They are selling off the ducks that were fattened this year for foie gras production, along with the foie gras. It's an annual affair — or fair, as it were.


If you live in Saint-Aignan, the closest Leclerc stores are in Amboise, Romorantin, and Loches, all about a half-hour's drive. We don't have hypermarkets in Saint-Aignan, although they are now finishing up a significant expansion of our SuperU market.

So what duck products can you get from Leclerc? If you hurry...

Gésiers, gizzards — 5.95€/kg ($3.98/lb)

Cœurs, hearts — 3.50€/kg ($2.35/lb)

Aiguillettes, tenders — 11.67€/kg ($7.98/lb)

Cuisses, leg & thigh sections — 3.55€/kg ($2.37/lb)

Manchons, wing sections — 1.90€/kg ($1.27/lb)

Magret, breast — 10.45€/kg ($6.98/lb)

Foie gras tout venant, standard-grade liver — 24.95€/kg ($16.67/lb)

Foie gras extra, choice liver — 30.95€/kg ($20.68/lb)

Isn't it interesting that gizzards cost so much more than wings or thighs? You'd expect duck breast to cost more, and you'd certainly expect foie gras to be expensive. And tenders, a choice morsel. They are very good sauteed and then served with a cream sauce.

Actually, the ad is a little slick when it comes to this last cut of duck, the aiguillettes. It lists a price of 3.50€, which would be too good to be true. You have to read the fine print to find out that the tenders are sold in a 300-gram package for that price. The price per kilogram is much higher — 11.67€. Shopper beware.

What do you do with duck gizzards? You cook them very slowly in renderd duck fat until they are completely tender, no longer rubbery. That's the process that produces confit, and it's the same thing you do with leg, thigh, and wing sections to make what is called confit de canard. Then you drain the gizzards or other pieces of duck on a rack until all the fat drips off and put them in a hot oven to brown for a few minutes.

The gizzards are especially good served on a bed of salad with some tomato wedges, other salad vegetables, and a good vinaigrette dressing.

I'm not sure what you do with the hearts. I assume they would be tough like gizzards and benefit from slow cooking to make a confit de cœurs, but I see some recipes on the web where they are just put on a skewer and cooked quickly on a barbecue grill.

In a separate flyer, Leclerc advertises the whole canard gras — legs, thighs, wings, breasts, and tenders, but no gizzards or hearts — for 3.51/kg (2.35/lb).

The duck livers on sale here are raw, so you have to cook them. To do so, you press them into a terrine or loaf pan and cook them very slowly in a low oven until they are cooked through. Then you slice the liver and eat it on slices of toasted bread, preferably French pain de campagne.