Center of the Plate | D'Artagnan Blog

May is National Burger Month!

We are a nation obsessed with burgers, so it seems fitting to dedicate an entire month to celebrating this noble sandwich. With Memorial Day marking the start of grilling season, it’s the right time to get obsessed with burgers. All month we will share new burger recipes each week as they are posted at dartagnan.com ……

Not Just for Charcuterie Plates: 3 Ways to Enjoy Smoked Duck Breast

D’Artagnan Smoked Duck Breast may be the best fast food! Keep some in the fridge for those quick weeknight dinners and last-minute lunches. We’ve done all the work of smoking duck for you (though that is a fun cooking project to try at home), so this piece of tasty charcuterie is ready-to-eat. Our smoked duck…

Your New Favorite Lamb Rack Recipe

If you like rack of lamb, try this variation on the theme. It’s one of our favorite ways to enjoy this tasty cut. Fresh herbs, salty pecorino, and crunchy panko breadcrumbs make a tasty crust for our grass-fed rack of lamb in this easy recipe. This recipe should serve two for dinner. Dijon &…

Feeding Frenzy: Lunch for Little Foodies

As nearly all store shelves are teeming with cleverly-marketed, highly-processed “foods,” and media-savvy children are bombarded from all angles with ads for sugar-coated-what-nots, it’s more important than ever to teach the next generation to make real food a priority. Most parents will agree that children can be pretty tough food critics. Preparing school lunches becomes…

Bacon Wrapped Everything: 7 Recipes to Devour

Bacon. Just the word is enough to get the salivary glands going. We noticed that a lot of things get tastier when they’re wrapped in bacon. We did the research, and tested the theory, so you can enjoy the results. These seven recipes will work for dinner and for entertaining … because nothing says “party”…

Well Done, Chef Barbara Lynch!

Congratulations to our friend Barbara Lynch on being named one of TIME’s 100 Most Influential People! It’s a big list, and she is the only chef on it. She is in the pioneer category, for changing the Boston restaurant scene. Click through to read Padma Lakshmi’s very touching essay about Chef Barbara. Barbara Lynch is…

Make it Now! Ramp Butter Recipe

Compound butters are simple to make and pack a lot of flavor. Especially true of our ramp compound butter, which is one of our favorite ways to preserve the fresh flavor of spring ramps all year long. This is the time – and it’s a brief moment – when you can get fresh wild ramps to make…

He’s Crusty & Cheesy, But You Will Love Croque Monsieur

Let’s talk about Croque Monsieur, essentially a grilled cheese sandwich with the addition of ham, and a very French name. Oh, and a blanket of creamy béchamel sauce with melted cheese. Sound intriguing? It’s easy to make a great version of this classic sandwich at home. Beloved by brunchers all over the world, this sandwich…

Limited Offer: Aussie Wagyu Steaks

Outside of Japan, most agree that Australia has the best Wagyu beef. In fact, even experts have a hard time telling the two apart. That’s because Japan allowed Australian import of that rare animal: pure Kuroge cattle. Since 1990, Australian breeders and ranchers have been perfecting their strict protocols to create beef equal to that…

What’s for Supper? Thai-Style Steak Salad

A salad is often a healthy part of a meal, or a meal in itself. And that’s how we like salad: with meat on top. With spring in the air, we’re looking for quick, fresh meals. Well-composed salads with protein are the perfect solution. This colorful, crunchy salad hits all the right notes – sweet,…

What to Do With Ventrèche

What is ventrèche? Very simply, it is an unsmoked, salt-cured bacon from Southwest France, where it is a staple. Pronounced vohn-tresh, it is often referred to as “French pancetta.” Ventrèche is made from pork belly (ventre means belly in French) that has been rubbed with salt, spices and garlic before hanging to dry. It can be kept in…

Top Tips for Making Gorgeous, Gooey Gratin

If words like “creamy,” “cheesy,” “crunchy,” and “bubbly” make your mouth water, then you are most likely a gratin lover. Simply put, a “gratin” is any food with a golden brown crust on top, usually involving cheese and breadcrumbs. The word comes from the French, gratter, “to grate.” This is serious comfort food. Read our…