Char Siu Duck Bacon Burger on Arteflame BGE Cooktop

smokingal

May is both National Hamburger and National BBQ month.  Celebrating both is in order for this post. I bought some Moulard duck wing drummettes this past fall and found that they weren’t exactly my cup of tea.  They are tough.  Even when cooked via sous vide, the texture isn’t as tender as chicken. I had resigned to using what remains to render duck fat when the idea of grinding some of the meat to make burgers popped into my head. 

Enough wings were trimmed to get 1 pound of meat and a little over 1 pound of skin.  The meat was marinated in a char siu sauce overnight.

 

 

This was an opportune time to use the char siu duck bacon I made for National Bacon Day
at the end of last year, so I made sure to slice up a ‘slab’.

 

 

After marinating, the duck was ground up with beef bone marrow and a chunk of the duck
bacon.

 

 

While the meat chilled out in the fridge, I started the process of making duck skin cracklings.

 

 

The cracklings got a good dusting of Dizzy Pig’s Dizzy Dust.

 

 

The previous day was spent seasoning the Artflame BGE carbon steel cooktop I received in the mail.  The website states the cooktops “are precision cut with a laser that give them near
perfect edge and dimensional quality”.  Well, I found a small irregularity where one surface has
a bit of a jagged bump and the interior cutout isn’t exactly perfectly circular due to a ridge.  Not a big deal and certainly less concerning than their horrible packing job considering UPS’ knack for making a package look like it was used as a defensive prop in an action-packed Kung Foo movie.
All three zip ties holding the optional grill insert in place had been snapped clean in half through UPS’ mishandling practices.  The thin sheet of cellophane used to cover the entire piece didn’t do much to ward off any potential surface scratches when the centerpiece inevitably came loose, through I didn’t notice any damage as a result.  I took two shots of the imperfections after the cooktop was seasoned.

 

 

The cooktop heated up quickly and the cooking commenced.  Along with the burgers and bacon, sliced pineapple that had been seasoned with Dizzy Pig’s Pineapple Head were grilled.

 

 

A salad composed of a half a head of butter leaf lettuce, diced Gala apples marinated in lemon
and apple juices, blue cheese, char siu duck bacon, duck skin cracklings and topped off with
raspberry walnut vinaigrette was served with the burger, which was topped with Dizzy Pig IPA
aioli and the grilled pineapple.

 

 

The best way to describe this meal would be ‘flavor bomb’.  The char siu seasoned ground
duck is just what that tough cut needed to shine.  The duck bacon was beyond delicious.  I
think I might of unconsciously performed a little happy dance when I sampled a slice.  The
cracklings were crispy and unctuous and a definite upgrade to croutons.  Pineapple Head
seasoning is delightful on anything, but otherworldly on pineapple.  The aioli provided an
extra degree of citrus flavor in lieu of regular mayo.

 

Dessert used some oak and cherry wood smoked sweet potatoes I previously cooked.  I had
a jar of caramel sauce that had been hanging out in my pantry for a while so I settled on making a brûléed caramel sweet potato pie.  I wanted the pie to have a light, airy and creamy texture, so everything was mixed using an immersion blender.

 

 

After an overnight stint in the fridge, the brûlée topping was applied.

 

You can’t top a good sweet potato pie.  Except to top it off with a candy crunch.  Juicy, crunchy, sweet and savory good eats.

Leopoldstoch

You win! @smokingal

abtaylor260

Oh my!

Sea2Ski

And I feel creative when I put fresh blueberries in my blueberry morning cereal.
Hanging my head a little lower after reading this...

OhioEgger

Mind-boggling.
Superb meal, superb report (as usual).
Thanks for the entertainment and congrats on the great meal.

JohnInCarolina

SandyHookEgger

Awesome. Had I had the duck wing issue those wings would have been crab bait. You turn it into to food magazine cook off winner.

johnmitchell

Fantastic as usual..

MeTed

Wow! That is exceptional, thanks for sharing.

thetrim

Dang!

That

IS

AMAZING!

lousubcap

Every post extremely creative, thoroughly documented and accompanied by magazine quality photos.  What a cook!!  Screen eater for sure.   Inf'ingcredible!! 

smokingal

@Leopoldstoch Not sure what I won, but my lotto ticket is a bust, so no dice there, lol.

@Sea2Ski Try smoking fresh blueberries and adding them to a bowl of brown sugar oatmeal.  Good eats.

smbishop

Thank you for taking the time and effort to share your cooks.  I sure do appreciate it.  When my friends say "you should open a BGE Bistro"  they obviously have never encountered your posts, as well as many other's, here.

gonepostal

Wow, just wow. And that's for the pie! As far as the rest of the meal...I'm speechless. Thanks for sharing.

Phatchris

Absolutely redonkulous!

mEGG_My_Day

Gloriously brilliant as always - thanks for posting

blind99

that is over the top!  you win the internet today!

caliking

I’ve come to learn, that I need to crack open another beer and sit back when I click on one of your threads.

A real joy to read each one, and just when you think it’s done... there’s a homemade pie or some other twist  

GoooDawgs

Wow.... you make us nailing a Snake River Farms brisket seem like opening a can of spam.  Just beautiful and inspiring!   Keep these coming please! 

smokingal

@caliking You were no slouch yourself with that mousseline.  I used to try to make a dessert for each meal but that became fairly tedious.

@GoooDawgs Nothing beats a perfectly cooked brisket.