This is probably the most advanced recipe in my blog, it's one of my favorites because I made it during the Charcuterie portion of the CMC exam.

Ballotine of Duck

Preparing ballotines is a challenging garde manger technique. It requires a mastery in fabrication, forcemeat preparation, seasoning, garnishing and stock preparation (if poaching a galantine) as well as sanitation.

Cold, Cold, Cold!

This recipe is an advanced preparation; it's challenging & takes  practice, & it is a lot of fun. 


I actually prepared this during the charcuterie day during the CMC exam. I prepared two-one wrapped in cheesecloth and poached in duck stock & a second wrapped in plastic wrap. When I sliced the ballotine to serve to the evaluators the next day, I served the one in cheesecloth (much of the flavor had infused into the poaching liquid)-I earned an 80; when the evaluators left I sliced & tasted a piece wrapped in plastic & it was exceptional. I had been too intimidated to offer them a second taste from the better ballotine!

The exam is so incredibly physiological...

Prep Time: 3 hours

Cooking Time: 5 hours


Ingredients

 Yield: 10 portions                                       

 1 ea                 Whole duck (3 lb Long Island w gizzards)

8 oz                 Duck leg & thigh meat, cleaned & diced from the whole duck

2 oz                 Pork fatback, cubed

2 oz                 Pork butt, cubed

1/8 tsp.           TCM, (optional)

2 tsp.               Salt

2 Tbsp            Herbs, chopped (parsely, chives, tarragon)

1 tsp                Poultry seasoning/Pate spice

1 Tbsp             Salt

1 tsp                 Black pepper



1/2 oz              Butter

3 Tbsp            Onions, minced

1 clove            Garlic, minced

3 oz                 Sherry wine

1 each              Egg

2 oz                  Heavy cream

1 tsp                 Duck glace (made by simmering stock)


Garnish:

3 oz                 Smoked ham/smoked tongue, small dice

3 oz                 Truffle peelings

3 oz                CA Bakers Fruit Medley/ dried apricots, quartered & plumped in white wine or brandy

3 oz                 Pistachio Nuts, blanched & peeled; chopped

Duck liver, heart and stomach may be poached, cooled and diced-added to garnish




How to prepare the duck ballotine

Step 1 Fabricating the duck

Slice down the back of the duck with a boning knife, peel the skin from the duck on both sides until you reach the wings and legs. Don't tear/cut the skin.

Cut off the tip of the wing and leg-reserve for stock. Pull the skin over the wings and over the thigh/leg carefully to avoid tearing the skin. Continue over the breast until the entire skin is removed. Place onto a tray over plastic wrap, place into the freezer to firm the fat on the skin.


Sweat onion and garlic in butter, deglaze with sherry and cool.

Carefully cut off the breasts, take off the tenders, leg and thigh meat; place in a bowl with fat back, pork butt, seasonings-keep cold to grind for forcemeat.



Flatten the breast to about 1/8th inch thick (as even as possible). Season and marinate for several hours in the refrigerator. 


Roast the duck bones, then place the browned bones into 2 qts chicken stock with roasted mirepoix and sachet d' eptices; simmer for 3 hours, being careful to skim fat and impurities. 

Strain, reduce to a glace (about 1/2 cup) and cool.

Step 2  Preparing the forcemeat

Add cooled sweated shallots and garlic to the diced meats. Grind the marinated meat into a cold bowl, add the egg and cream over ice and incorporate completely. I like this dried, fruit blend called ‘CA Bakers Fruit Medley'. I macerate the fruit in brandy for about 2 hours before adding to the duck and pork forcemeat.Mix well and fold in garnish. Poach a sample and adjust seasoning and consistency.

Step 3        Assembling the ballotine

To assemble, fill a disposable pastry bag with forcemeat and pipe out a large log (around 2 inches in diameter). Wrap and freeze for about an hour so it’s easier to assemble. During that time slice off as much of the fat from the slightly frozen skin as possible.

Place the skin on a sheet of plastic wrap.


Lay the marinated, flattened duck breast onto plastic wrap and then unwrap the forcemeat log piped earlier and lay that in the center of the duck breast. Wrap the duck breast around the forcemeat, overlap so there is at least an inch overlap. Unwrap and place the duck breast wrapped forcemeat onto the skin, wrap the skin around the breast.

The duck skin shrinks!



Wrap the final product in cheesecloth (no plastic) and poach in the duck stock at 150 °F until cooked. I cook duck ballotine to 140 °F since I will cook it again to get the beautiful browned skin. Cool the ballotine, unwrap and wipe off all of the gelatine and moisture, then tie and brown on a rack in the oven at 350 °F until golden brown.

Slice to serve.

Chicken Sauté, Fines Herbs & Champagne Cream

By Tom Griffiths • May 13, 2026
As chefs, we spend years mastering sauté work. I remember my early days working the sauté station for lunch in a French restaurant in NYC. We served over one hundred guests in an hour-and the food was excellent — a dozen hot pans on the flat top, stocks simmering, mise en place of freshly chopped herbs, minced shallots, butter for mounting into sauces à la minute. There is rhythm to good sauté cooking. You learn quickly that great sauté work is not about rushing — it is about organization and control .

Beyond Sweet Basil: An Herb with History, Health, and Global Range

By Tom Griffiths • April 23, 2026
Beyond Sweet Basil: An Herb with History, Health, and Global Range 

Dessert; Italian Wheat Pie

By Tom Griffiths • April 11, 2026
Our Easter and Christmas meals were feasts... my mother's family all met at Aunt Flora's home in Jersey City to enjoy and celebrate the holidays. Dinner began with platters of fresh mozzarella, roasted peppers, olives, Italian bread, then a pasta course (manicotti or lasagna for the religious holidays), a roast or sausages with plenty of vegetables and traditional Italian desserts with dark coffee.We ate Italian Easter Wheat Pie one day each year—and it was never store-bought. My Aunts brought Easter cookies and baked goods-the wheat pie was my favorite. I loved the slight 'bite' of the wheat and flavors of cinnamon, vanilla and citrus. My father sometimes let me have a sip of his espresso with the dessert. I'm not sure if my mother used lard for the pie crust-she was a fan of butter and Crisco but the crust was always flaky.

Roast Leg of Lamb

By Tom Griffiths • April 8, 2026
There are certain dishes that stay with you—not just for their flavor, but for what they represent. For me, roasting a leg of lamb over Pommes boulangère is one of those meals. I don't recall having lamb at any occasions growing up so this was a dish that I proudly introduced to our family. As a young cook, it was something I could prepare with limited experience, and it provided deeply satisfying results. The lamb roasts in the oven over a bed of potatoes, onions, and garlic, allowing its natural juices and fat to baste the vegetables below. It's actually a simple preparation but becomes a complete, delicious meal—the potatoes absorbing flavor and becoming just as important as the roast itself. These days I'm developing delicious recipes using spice blends such as Ras el hanout, Baharat, Za'atar, Togarashi and even Harissa. I also love roasting leg of lamb outdoors on a grill or rotisserie. I like the subtle smokiness from applewood or dried herbs when I'm roasting lamb outdoors.

Potatoes Boulangère

By Tom Griffiths • April 8, 2026
There are certain dishes that stay with you—not just for their flavor, but for what they represent. For me, Pommes boulangère is one of those dishes. As a young cook, it was a delicious meal I could prepare for my family with my limited culinary experience. I often return to this preparation when roasting whole chicken, pork, or lamb—letting the potatoes, onions, and garlic absorb the natural juices from the protein as it cooks. The potatoes becomes more than a side dish; it’s the foundation of the meal.

Holiday Au Graten Potatoes

By Tom Griffiths • April 7, 2026
There are countless versions of Potatoes au gratin , many of them heavy with cheese. I prefer a more restrained approach—using little or no cheese—so the flavor of the potatoes remains the focus rather than being masked. Milk produces a lighter, more delicate gratin, while light or heavy cream creates a richer, more structured dish. Both are valid—it simply depends on the desired outcome. One constant, however, is nutmeg. Used sparingly, it acts as a quiet “secret weapon,” adding depth without calling attention to itself. This recipe is inspired by Xavier LeRoux, one of the finest chefs I’ve had the privilege to work with. His method includes an extra step—gently simmering the potatoes in cream before baking—which yields a noticeably superior result. The potatoes begin to release their starch into the cream early, ensuring a more uniform texture and a fully integrated dish from the first bite to the last.

My favorite Brownies

By Tom Griffiths • March 19, 2026
There are plenty of brownie recipes—and then there is the one that lives in memory. This is the only brownie recipe I bake, from Julia Child, whose influence reached far beyond French cuisine and into the home kitchens of passionate bakers like my mother. A devoted admirer, she baked these brownies often—usually for the dessert trolley at my restaurant. We featured a brownie freeze... brownie cubes with homemade vanilla ice cream, warm melted chocolate and freshly whipped cream-amazing! For me, this recipe is more than a classic—it’s a reflection of how great cooking is passed down: through admiration, repetition, and a deep love of craft.

Curing Salmon fillet

By Tom Griffiths • March 19, 2026
I taught garde manager for many years at the CIA and this is one of my favorite recipes from class. I actually developed this recipe with one of my students, inspired by a recipe he had learned on his externship.

Dessert; Irish Soda Breadd

By Tom Griffiths • March 17, 2026
We ate Irish soda bread one day each year—and it was never store-bought. Soda bread wasn’t part of our cultural lineage, but it earned its place through something more universal: respect for tradition. My mother was not an occasional baker— growing up, her baking centered on Italian traditions: special Christmas cookies, the Vigna family birthday cake, and beautifully braided Easter breads that reflected heritage. Later, like many serious home bakers of her generation, she was influenced by Julia Child . That influence expanded her repertoire into classic European pastry—Paris-Brest, pound cakes, even German chocolate cake. The iconic cross cut into the top of the loaf is often said to “let the fairies out,” though in professional kitchens we recognize its functional role: allowing heat to penetrate and the loaf to expand evenly during baking.

Authentic Guacamole, Hospitality, and the Responsibility of Feeding People

By Tom Griffiths • February 26, 2026
Authentic Guacamole, Hospitality, and the Responsibility of Feeding People