Your Duck Breast Deserves Pomegranate Sauce
Duck is a more strongly flavored poultry product than the alternatives. Depending on the breed of duck and whether it was farmed or caught wild, some might even call that flavor gamey — but mostly, duck relates to chicken in the same way that lamb relates to beef. There is a more pronounced flavor to the meat, but there is also a richness to duck that other poultry just can't provide. Duck breasts are especially notable for how their covering of skin and fat crisps up to a delicious fatty crust while naturally basting the lean breast meat in duck fat — which is prized by cooks worldwide for its delicious flavor and high melting point, plus the fact that its nutrition profile is more comparable to olive oil than other traditional animal fats like butter, beef tallow, or bacon grease.
The combination of dense meat and lip-smacking duck fat means that duck breasts can stand up to much more assertive sauces than other birds. Mashed recipe developer Jennine Rye has created a powerful, fruity reduction that punches through this dense delicacy in her duck breast with pomegranate sauce recipe. Duck and fruit are a tried-and-true combination. We all know about the fruitiness in the duck sauce and plum sauce you get from American Chinese restaurants, but what Rye recommends comes closer to a pomegranate bordelaise sauce — mixing the meaty flavors from the pan with the sweet, sour, and slightly astringent tang of the pomegranate.
Why make a duck sauce out of pomegranates?
When we asked Jennine about the inspiration behind this dish, she pointed out that there is a plethora of other potential fruits to pair with duck. She continued that "pomegranate has a great flavour" and that it "isn't something you often come across paired with duck," adding, "[I]t's always great to try something different!"
Pomegranates are a recognized 'super fruit' thanks to their high levels of antioxidants and vitamins. The chemicals that pomegranate juice contains are notably heart-healthy, particularly the anthocyanins and tannins. Tannins are also important for flavor — they are present in drinks like tea or red wine, and, in low concentrations, have a slightly bitter taste that leaves your mouth feeling a little dry — which sounds weird, but has the effect of making a drink moreish. Reducing pomegranate juice to make a pan sauce for duck, as directed in Rye's recipe, means the juice's high tannin content gives the sauce a more mature quality than a simple, sweet duck sauce. Pomegranate juice is known to be a great non-alcoholic substitute for red wine in recipes like mulled wine, thanks to its similar color, aroma, and acidity.
This fruity feast can be thought of as an elevated, slightly healthier, poultry version of steak and red wine sauce. Just like steak and red wine sauce, it's perfectly paired with potatoes. Jennine advised, "[W]e ended up eating this with some mashed potato," but that the dish would pair nicely with "most starchy sides."