Culled my first duck today. May be Verbally Graphic.

[Lute]

Luck for me my roommate did have a torch so I borrowed his. However I will certainly be skinning my next one. Even my father skinned the chickens when he culled the roosters some years ago.

 

[billw]

We preferred skinning, not just for the greater ease in butchering, but because rendering the fat was much more useful than leaving it on the ducks. The ducks are long since eaten, but we are still cooking with duck fat almost every day.

 

[jdywntr]

We preferred skinning, not just for the greater ease in butchering, but because rendering the fat was much more useful than leaving it on the ducks. The ducks are long since eaten, but we are still cooking with duck fat almost every day.

I skinned my ducks also, easier than plucking but how do you render the fat from the skin/feathers?

 

[billw]

There may be better ways to do this - we made it up as we went along.

Take the duck skin and trimmings and put them in the food processor to chop into small pieces. You don't want mush, but just short of that. Heat a pot of water large enough to cover all the duck mush - 180 to 200 degrees F worked pretty well for us. Put all the trimmings in the pot. Fat will rise to the surface. Skim it off into glasses, running it through a filter in the process to remove feather fuzz (a thick paper towel worked great for us). Let the liquid settle in the glasses until you see a clearly defined fat layer and water layer. Then put the glass in the fridge so the fat will harden. Once the fat has hardened, pierce the fat with a knife to get to the water below and then drain out the water. Bring the glass of fat back to room temperature and then pour into the final container.

We got about two pints of rendered fat from five ducks.

 

[Lute]

Sounds interesting. I was planning on skinning and baking the entire thing (feathers and all) in the oven on low heat. Say 200 degrees. This way the fat melts but the feathers and skin don't (we still have some feathers on the duck when I roasted it at 300 degrees for 3 hours, no burning or smoking).

By the way:

Lola was DELICIOUS. I've told my boyfriend I am never eating chicken again. Even at 8 months old the meat was moist and tender. Just shows what love does.

I served the duck with an apricot rice stuffing (not a make again) and a glaze/sauce I had made out of the apricot preserves I'd made last year thinned down with a little bit of water and duck grease. I can't not tell you how tasty this duck was.

In the end, there was only 2.9 lbs (cooked). I think we'll certainly be culling younger and heavier ducks in the future.