Curing duck breast

[Cpbutcher]

Hey guys, was wondering if anyone try curing just a duck breast?  Thinking about turing a duck breast into ham, anyone have any idea.  Also what about dry coffee cures has one tried that?  What does TQ stand for??? and what is its purpose?

[Habanero Smoker]

A good book to have is "Charcuterie" by Ruhlman & Polcyn. It is a good book for the person who want to cure meats at home. I have never cured duck, but if you do a quick google for "cured duck breast" you will get a lot of hits. Here's one that looks interesting, but it uses InstaCure #1.
http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/232189

TQ is short for Morton's Tender Quick, which is used for curing meat. It is a cure mix that many on this forum use, because it is already a blend of salt, sugar, nitrite and nitrate. It is different from Cure #1 (Pink salt; InstaCure #1; Prague Powder #1 etc), in that Cure #1 requires additional salt and sugar added before you apply it as a dry rub, and also this cure only contains salt as a carrier and to make it easier to measure, and nitrite. With both you generally add additional flavoring.

[westernhunter]

I have never cured any meats, but I am gonna make a venison roast into pastrami.  I am also gonna experiment and take a couple of my monster Canada goose breasts and turn them into pastrami also.

Has anyone ever tried making waterfowl pastrami?  How did it turn out?  Some of the big breasts in the freezer must weight 2.5 lbs each.  The rest of them will be made into sausages and jerky.

[Habanero Smoker]

I've made pastrami out of turkey breast; which should work with duck.

I didn't use any cure other then salt. A cure with a nitrite will give it more of a pastrami flavor. Just add an ounce(5teaspoons) of Cure #1 (aka InstaCure #1; Prague Powder #1; Pink Salt, TCM) to the recipe.

http://forum.bradleysmoker.com/index.php?topic=5191.0

[La Quinta]

Habs...thanks for the link...I'm gonna try the turkey...the beef pastrami recipe of yours is awesome EVERY TIME...so gotta do it...and Cpbutcher if you do the duck let us know how it comes out? Hubby and I love duck!

[Habanero Smoker]

I was just looking at my post and saw I left out [art of the measurement of sodium nitrite, the measurement is 1 ounce, or 5 teaspoons.

On the recipe for turkey pastrami, you can use up to 1 cup of Morton's Kosher salt. I prefer to stay with 1/2 cup.