Twany Port

I plunked some cash down on a nice (read more than I usually spend) bottle of Tawny Port. Tawny Port is ready to drink having spent some time in wood casks and it picks up flavors from the wood and oxidizes hence the supposed tawny color and the name. I had first purchased the bottle of "Fine" Tawny port and I thought it was good, but compared to the 20 Year old Tawny it was just OK. I won't make it a habit of buying the 20 Year old, but since it doesn't go bad I won't have a need to get another bottle for a long while.

Left 20 Year old, right "Fine"

The"Fine" was more ruby colored than tawny and it was a bit syrupy, with nothing to compare it to, it was very good. The 20 year old in comparison was definitely tawny in color, not syrupy at all and was more complex in taste. The 20 reminded me of a sherry somewhat.

Left "fine", right 20 year old.

When I worked for the family on the farm, there was always Port in the flower refrigerator, at my grandfather's house and at the Big House. All were California, but that is where I developed a taste for it, it was good for warming you up inside on cold mornings.

And here is some duck prosciutto (Moulard duck) that I made which I thought had caused me intestinal distress or "Big D" as we refer to it here at the castle. Ends up it was just stress from work and not botulism. At the first tasting it seemed too salty and I thought it was going to be relegated to cooking, but after I recovered and tried it again, it didn't seem too salty.

Pack duck breast in salt for 24 hours, rinse, pat dry, dust with pepper and what ever else you want, wrap in cheese cloth and hang till it loses 30 % of it's weight.