Duck Pho

The Vietmanese Pho noodle soup is super simple, and great way for me to use up the bones from 17lbs worth of duck. It is traditionally made with beef, and has all kinds of goodies like tendons, tripe and beef balls. Not balls made of ground beef…beef balls.

I roasted the bones, toasted some star anis, and charred some onions and ginger.
I deglazed the roasting pans with water and cooked them out over the stove to scrape up all the little bits of caramelized goodness from the duck. Add some mirepoix, about 6L of water and simmer for 1.5h, or until its rich flavour profile has developed. I like to leave the salt out until the end so that it doesn’t get over seasoned as it reduces.

For a clear broth, do not stir at all. Instead, removed the impurities and fat by skimming often. You can even keep the skimmed off fat and add it to the other rendered fat. Just strain the skimmed liquid though cheesecloth and season with salt and fish sauce (nuoc mam ie. Cock sauce).

Fish sauce is made from fermented anchovies, salt and sugar. They ferment the fish in barrels and strain off the liquid collected at the bottom and pour it back on top. This process is repeated for six months. Salting condiments was a way of stretching salt back in the day, when salt was not readily available and very expensive. The fist culture to do this was the Chinese, who fermented soy beans and used the past to season their dishes. This is the origins of miso paste. Fish does not have a fishy taste when dissolved in the soup and adds a very rich full flavour.

Once the soup is seasoned, remove the bones and mirepoix, strain through cheesecloth and store. Again the fat can be scraped off when it solidifies in the fridge. Now the fun part: once the meat is cool enough to handle, but still hot, pick through it carefully. There will be lots of meat on the neck, wings and back. If you are patient enough you can even pick out the meat between the ribs. All together I got about 1L of meat, 1cup of skin (for cracklin’) and 4L of Pho soup base.

I stored the duck scraps in the soup so that it does not dry out as it cools. Make sure to season the meat before serving as the boiled meat may be slightly lacking in the flavour department.

Serve the Pho with:
Duck meat
Rice noodles
Green onion
Mung bean sprouts
Thai basil
Chili oil