Duck Prosciutto (Take 1)

Ok, my duck prosciutto experiment didn't work out entirely as I'd planned. I bought a duck and separated the legs and used them for a separate dish. Then, I took the breasts and started off by brining them in a mixture of water, red wine, salt, and sugar (ratio uncertain). After about a day and a half, I took them out of the brine and then rubbed them down with a dry cure of salt, sugar, and assorted dried herbs and spices. After flipping and rubbing down repeatedly over about two days, the dry cure was, for the most part, wiped off. Then, I tied the two breasts as if they were a roast, using butcher's twine.
The final step was to let them hang in the refrigerator for about ten days, to dry and mature. This is an important step for flavor and texture development, as well as preservation. I won't get into the sciencey details, so you'll just have to trust me (or seek other sources). So after hanging, I sliced, as thinly as possible, some pieces off of the breast. I was rather confused. The texture was pretty nice, but the flavor was lacking the character that one would expect from a cured and dried piece of meat. It wasn't bad, but it wasn't good either. So for service, I started with some 4 inch corn tortillas and toasted them up a bit under the broiler, though not enough for them to crisp, just to release the moisture and soften them. Then I threw in some peanut slaw - cabbage, carrot, and peanut vinaigrette - followed by thin slices of duck (fat trimmed), and finally some red onion chutney with currants. Topped of with cilantro, it made for a very popular New Years Day hors d'oeuvre.

Next time, I'm just going to brine and smoke the duck breast.