- Brent's Tuesday night dinner series
that he does every week
(laughing)
'Stuffing Things Inside Other Things'
is what he likes to call it.
- We're here at Ssäm Bar
to try their exclusive duck ssam.
- Ooh, yeah we are!
We only sell a few duck out of the shop per week,
but these guys are taking it a whole new level
with the way they're using every part of the animal
- [Brent] So this duck is dried for a week
after it's already been stuffed with sausage
then it's roasted, then it's deboned
and then it's served with lettuce.
What more do you want?
- What they're doing here is something completely different
we're gonna learn a lot, you're gonna learn a lot,
let's go deeper on duck.
So we are here at Momofuku Ssäm Bar, with Matt,
who is the Director of Culinary Operations
and Max, who is the Executive Chef of Ssam Bar.
- So today we're gonna be kind of going through
our whole rotisserie duck,
it's something we do, just giant pieces of meat
in weird different ways.
- It's a pretty iconic dish
so we're pretty excited to try it.
- We're gonna bring Eugenio in,
Eugenio has worked for Ssäm Bar since it opened.
He's the one who really, you know,
does these ducks every single day.
So these are Long Island Peking ducks.
You know, one of the reasons that we only really offer this,
whole, limited, as a pre-reservation at dinner,
is because there's only so many we can make
and they also age for at least seven days to 14 days.
- I think uh, we got the same duck guy.
- Yeah?
- [Ben] Yeah, I think we got the same duck guy.
- Traditionally, when you break a duck, cut here.
- [Ben] Right, yeah.
- But because we're gonna be stuffing this with sausage,
what's really important is we need extra skin
and if we're not cutting it and leaving on that extra skin,
you're gonna have exposed sausage
- It's all gonna fall out everywhere.
- And it's all gonna fall out,
it's not gonna look nice
so this is really the most important part of it.
- [Ben] That is some beautiful cutting.
There's a lot of specificity to these cuts.
- We're gonna blanch them, really lightly,
usually about 10, 15 seconds, then shock them.
This is gonna help firm up the skin,
get the skin sort of really dry, taught,
and it's just, it's not gonna cook,
it's just gonna get the fat a little loose.
- [Ben] You can already, you can see the difference.
- [Matt] Yeah, you just see- - [Ben] It's immediate.
- So now that the ducks have blanched, made the glaze,
we're actually gonna bring 'em back over here
and then we'll start stuffing.
(upbeat jazz music)
- [Ben] How many of these do you sell a night?
- We pretty much always cap it at about three or four.
We just don't have the space to age,
'cause then at that point if we're just trying to sell them,
they're not gonna age as long
and they're not gonna be the best product possible
and that's just not what we're gonna do.
So you guys wanna take a hand at it?
- How harshly are you gonna judge us
on this sausage stuffing?
The last thing I wanna do is (beep) up a duck.
- Let's try one of these bad boys!
- Get in, get in there!
(laughing)
- Oops!
- Just kinda, kinda wanna make sure you get it close
to an even amount all the way to the back.
- They're pretty even, Matt.
- It's pretty even.
(laughter) It's pretty even.
- For April Fools, we did a large format called a 'boducken'
so it's a noodle bar fried chicken
stuffed inside of a duck,
stuffed inside of a Momo Ssäm,
and Dave thought it was so funny
that he posted on Instagram
and a lot of people thought it was serious
so then there were people lining up at the door
(laughing)
to get this 'boducken'.
- [Ben] Oh man!
- So then, basically, these guys, once they're glazed,
they're gonna go into the fridge for at least a week
then a week later, they'll look like this.
- [Brent] There you go.
- So, shrunken down, a little bit tighter,
definitely a little bit darker, pretty firm.
- Right, yeah.
(upbeat fun music)
- No pressure Max, no pressure.
- We try and slice it pretty thin
and also why we don't cook it, like rare, medium-rare,
why it's a little bit more medium
is just 'cause it's like if you,
if you try eating it in a wrap
and you're not using a fork and knife
it's just kind of too chewy
and you want it to just be able to separate,
eat it nice and easy.
- The rendering of the duck fat is like,
is a process kind of unto itself,
is that? - Yeah.
- Unlike any other animal really,
like you really have to focus in on it.
- We've got like a good render,
but we still have a little fat.
Which is like, the difference that we want.
I'm just gonna season this rice with the sauce.
This is honestly probably the best part.
When people get down to it, they're like oh (beep).
- That rice. - That, that's what I want.
Rice, duck fat, shallots-
- [Ben] All the crispy bits.
- Skin, sausage and then we'll also save all the fat
that's in the pan and use it for something.
Pretty much nothing is gonna go to waste.
As the meat sort of um, sits on top of it,
all the juice, any juices or anything are going into it
it's food but it's also function.
- It's like they thought about all of this stuff.
- I was about to say, it's like you guys
like locked yourselves in a cabin with like,
(beep) 20 joints and a couple cases up here
and you're just like, think through every aspect of this.
- No one's leaving until we use every part of this duck!
(laughing)
Holy (beep)!
- [Ben] I'm glad I ate a small dinner and no breakfast.
- [Brent] What the (beep), man?
- [Ben] I don't think I could send this back.
(laughs)
So you guys have had this a lot,
I kinda wanna see how you guys put together a plate.
- I'll usually take a piece of the,
a piece of the bread.
I like to do lettuce on top
'cause it kinda like acts as a,
like a defense from getting the bread soggy
it keeps everything together.
You know, take maybe a slice or two,
gotta get in and get some rice.
- Gotta get the rice. - Right.
- Kimchi because it adds,
like a little bit of texture to it.
I do a lot, honestly, I add a lot to it.
I do a little of the barbecue
because it adds like a little bit of heat
and then I like hoisin for the sweetness
so I feel like this is like,
I've got, I've got texture, I've got spice, I've got acid
and then I'll just kinda roll it up.
- Okay, I'm ready!
Just to call out the,
the breast looks amazing with the sausage
it's like homogenous and it's just gorgeous.
You can see the crispy skin on the outside.
- [Matt] There you go, that's a bite.
- Holy (beep) yeah,
holy (beep) I could eat this whole thing.
This is amazing, okay fine.
This is like, yeah,
the one thing you need is like a,
you're gonna need a lot of napkins.
- I think what's so awesome too
is it really shows the versatility of a duck
because when, you know, a customer comes in the butcher shop
and wants a whole duck, they're like,
well what do I do with it?
You're like (beep), dude!
You should've been reading a book for a week
(laughter)
before you came in to get this
because like, your brain's gonna explode
once you understand that you're gonna be able
to feed your family from this duck over the next week.
Like, you have so much fat,
you can do, you can stretch it so far
that like just the breast is like
the nice little treat at the end
and using the rest of it, you know,
really pays homage to using the whole animal, so cool!
- There's inspiration from a lot of different cultures
and ideas and techniques
and you draw these different lines
but when you eat this dish,
you don't necessarily think of one cuisine
or ethnicity or tradition
but at the same time it's familiar.
It's something that's unique
but at the same time comforting.
And that's really something we try and do
with a lot of our food,
with this it's like is it Peking duck?
Is it, you know, kind of like this stuffed,
you know, french sausage?
Is it fried rice?
It's all sort of these different things
but it's still, it makes a connect, like,
anyone will feel connected to this
without needing to know what it is.
- Right, well, you're (beep) nailing it (laughs).
- Thank you guys so much,
this is such an amazing dish.
Really, really happy to be able to try it
and especially learn about it.
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- Do you want it, do you want it, do you want it?
- I'm gonna pull some noodles, this is just dough.
Nothing special about it,
so what I'm doing is kind of pulling on it,
at the same time.