Thankfully Iceland isn’t too cold for birds…

…and we benefit from that. We, for example, know what birds Edgar Allen Poe and Ken Kesey wrote about, we get an increase in human population from the storks, which must be rare since we’ve never seen one and that we’re only 300 something thousand people, and we eat them and their shelled babies, mostly the ubiquitous chicken but on special occasion birds like goose, duck and ptarmigan.

If you’re lucky enough to have gone to an Icelandic Christmas potluck, where the extended family meets up eating delicious food and reminisce, chances are you’ve had homemade dry-cured duck or goose breast. There is a hunter in every family, and luckily one of us has a brother that comes up with the goods. Since it’s hunting season and scarily close to Christmas we thought it would be the perfect time to show you how it’s done. Thankfully it’s dead simple.

We use a duck breast but the recipe can be used for the foolish goose as well, though we suggest picking a smaller breast or curing it for a bit longer.

Looks good, right?

Dry Brine

• 2 goose/duck breasts
• 4 tbs. sugar
• 350 gr. coarse salt
• 2 tbs curing salt (optional, but helps maintain colour and extends shelf life

Herb mix

• 1 tbs rose pepper (or mixed peppercorns, to what you like)
• 1 tbs. rosemary
• 1 tbs. thyme
• 1 tbs. basil
• 1 tbs estragon/terragon
• 1 tbs. mustard seed
• 1 tbs dillseed (or 2 tbs dillweed)

Blueberry Dipping Sauce:

• 2-3 tbs blueberries
• 1 tbs balsamic vinegar
• 1 tsp thyme 
• ½ tsp black pepper
• 50 ml virgin olive oil
• salt (to tast if need be)

Method man

Dry Brine:

Start by combing the salt and sugar, mix until fully combined start layering the breasts. And once that’s done you just leave it at room temperature for the brine to do its work. Leave it in there for 2-4 hours, depending on the size of the duck or goose breast. This was about 330 grams so I left it for around 2 1/2 hours. Once it’s out it’s time to take it out and give it a good ol’ wash under the tap. It will have shrunk considerably and should be quite a bit firmer.

Herb Mix

Now it’s time to apply the herbs. We’re going for pepper, rosemary, thyme, basil, tarragon, mustard seed and dillweed as we didn’t have any dill seed. You can either blitz them shortly or crush them with mortar and pestle. And then you give them a good rubdown and leave in the fridge overnight.

After about 12-24 hours it’s ready to serve. Remove most of the herbs and slice down to 4-5mm slices(that’s about ¼ inch) and this goes a treat with beer if you’re cracking open a cold one with the boys(or the gals).

Blueberry dipping sauce

For this you’ll need a mixer of some sorts; we don’t have a food processor but we have a smoothie blender which does just fine. Simply combine all the ingredients and blitz! If you find it’s too thick to your taste you can always add more olive oil and a touch of balsamic to counter the oil a bit.

This goes well with beer if you’re cracking open a cold one with the boys. Just remove most of the rub and slice down.

Gjörið svo vel.