Here’s a savory duck burger topped with a simple apple and onion sauté.  Duck is milder than beef, and I think the flavor is more interesting than chicken.  Plus it pairs really well with the star fruit of the season – apples.

I created a simply spiced duck burger that allowed the sweet and meaty flavor of duck to shine.  It was delicious topped with sautéed apples and onions, as duck works well with sweet/savory flavors.  Enjoy!

Duck Burgers with Apple and Onion Sauté
serves 4

1 1/2 LB ground domestic duck*
sea salt
fresh ground black pepper
1 small yellow onion, peeled, halved, and sliced thin
2 small apples, peeled and sliced
1 TB butter
4 buns
lettuce leaves
mayo and stone ground mustard

Heat a covered sauté pan over medium heat, and swirl in the butter when the pan is warm.  Add onion slices, stir, cover and sweat for 5 minutes.  Remove cover, add the apple pieces, and sauté until the onion/apple mixture is soft but not mushy.  Season lightly with sea salt.

Season the ground duck* with 1/2 tsp sea salt and ground black pepper.  Heat a large fry pan over high heat until hot, but not smoking.  While pan is heating, form the ground duck into four patties.  The meat will be soft and loose, but it will firm up when cooked.  Add a little oil to the hot pan and place the patties.  Allow to fry for several minutes, or until browned.  Flip burgers and cook until desired doneness.  Serve on buns, topping with apple and onion sauté, lettuce, mayo and mustard.

*I had access to high quality whole domestic duck (wild duck also works well — just a stronger taste), and ground my own meat.  It was simple to do.  Duck is basically like chicken, but with much more fat under the breast meat skin.  To adjust the lean to fat ratio of the duck meat to your preference, consider removing the skin from one of the breast portions before grinding, but leaving the skin on the other portion.  The more skin you include with your ground duck, the fattier the final result will be.  I used the meat grinder attachment on my KitchenAid mixer on the coarse setting to optimize the texture of the soft duck meat.  Manual meat grinders are inexpensive and work well — a worthy kitchen tool for the carnivore.