

After testing and adapting author and culinary instructor Kate Hill's recipes for "In French Gascony, Duck Fat Is King", we found ourselves with a glut of beautiful white-gold duck fat. Since we could only fry so many eggs and potatoes in the stuff, we turned to Ariane Daguin, the Gascon-born head of boutique meat purveyor D'Artagnan, for more ideas. Daguin will often use the slightly funky flavor of the fat to reimagine baked goods.
Duck fat doesn’t behave exactly like butter—it’s nearly liquid at room temperature and, like lard or shortening, contains no extra water, which minimizes gluten development when it’s added to pastry doughs. But there is a magic substitution that works in most simple baked goods like shortbread cookies, breakfast cakes, and biscuits. Replace 50 percent of the butter in a classic recipe with duck fat (or less if you prefer just a touch of the gamy flavor).
What You Will Need
Ingredients
- 1⁄4 cup plus 1 Tbsp. (140 g) unsalted butter, softened, plus more for greasing
- 1⁄4 cup plus 1 Tbsp. (140 g) cold rendered duck fat
- 1⁄2 cup sugar
- 1⁄2 tsp. kosher salt
- 1 large egg
- 2 cups (280 g) all-purpose flour