Eating ducks

[Dennis1979]

Quote:
Yes I have. I think I have tried everything at least once. All kinds of soaking, marinades etc. work a little. I think part of the problem is me, I just really can pick up on the gamey taste no matter how much it has been covered up. Usually I will just soak the meat in cold brine over night and that pulls out a lot of the blood.

One way to prepare it that most of the family liked was to take a whole bird and stuff the cavity with red, and green bell peppers, onions and pineapple. I also use tootpicks to mount pineapple slices on the breast and then roast the bird in an oven or on the grill. The trick is to take it out at the moment it is cooked but no longer. If you go even a little bit too long it will be very dry.

The best though, and the way I have been preparing it for the last several seasons is; I take the breast meat off the carcass and slice it into 1” strips then tenderize the heck out of it. I lay some pickled jalapeno slices and a chunk of monterrey jack cheese on top and roll it up, wrap it in bacon and put it on a skewer. I soak the whole thing overnight in real maple syrup. The next morning I pour BBQ sauce all over it and let it sit until that afternoon at which point I grill it on the pit. I will make a giant platter of these "Duck Bites" and serve them with some corn on the cob and cold beer. If done right, they are so good you'll just want to slap somebody.

Dennis

 

[NYREDS]

I butchered an adult duck once-about 10 years ago-if I hadn't given up I'd still be chewing him. Pretty tough.

 

[Sunny Chook Farm]

Adding celery in cavity will also help keep meat moist..

"The best though, and the way I have been preparing it for the last several seasons is; I take the breast meat off the carcass and slice it into 1” strips then tenderize the heck out of it. I lay some pickled jalapeno slices and a chunk of monterrey jack cheese on top and roll it up, wrap it in bacon and put it on a skewer. I soak the whole thing overnight in real maple syrup. The next morning I pour BBQ sauce all over it and let it sit until that afternoon at which point I grill it on the pit. I will make a giant platter of these "Duck Bites" and serve them with some corn on the cob and cold beer. If done right, they are so good you'll just want to slap somebody. "

This Sounds Mmm good.. Hubby would love this, will have to try..

 

[greyfields]

'toughness' can be a loaded term

If you eat it too close to having been slaughtered, you are eating rigormortis.

That's why people age 24-48 hours prior to eating or freezing.

Also, commercial meat is 'brined' in salt water, which is why it appears tender and moist. It's artificial.

 

[Dennis1979]

Quote:
Hmm, we definitely haven't taken that kind of care in processing when we are hunting ducks. It may be several hours before we come in from the field and then the birds go to a shop in town for cleaning. I think they are frozen right after processing.

If I clean my own birds, I always freeze them right away. I'm new to all this you see. This coming season I'll age them a little and see if that improves things.

Dennis

 

[AnthonyT]

I have eaten a lot of ducks (mostly wild) and have found that what they are feeding on has a lot to do with how they taste. Puddle ducks eating acorns, corn, or wild plant seeds taste great. Mallards are a great tasting duck, but it they have been feeding on sludge pond full of green slime they taste pretty nasty. Same for divers. If they are eating aqautic weeds they are good, if they are eating fish they are pretty strong tasting. Also leave them sit in the fridge overnight after you clean them and they won't be tough. We either eat them right after the hunt or wait a day. They never make it to the freezer!

 

[Dennis1979]

Quote:
I don't even hunt divers for the reason you cited. That's nasty stuff. Since ducks don't really migrate all the way South anymore, like they did for for millions if years, I have been making trips up to Arkansas to get my hunting in. Its pretty much all Mallards up there. I don't know what they eat but my guess is, a lot of corn on the way down and then a lot of rice once they get there. The Mallards are pretty good, but all wild duck is pretty gamey. The reason is that, unlike a barnyard duck or chicken, they use those muscles a lot flying down from Canada or wherever so the meat is very bloody.

Anyway, in the 30 or so years that I have hunted ducks, I have never aged the meat. It's only since I started visiting this site and talking about chickens that I thought about it.

Dennis

 

[spook]

Hee heee he...I have a story about eating ducks...A childhood friend had one loan duck left at the end of the summer and her parents did not want to winter it, so my mom said "sure, we will take care of things". Very aware of what we was going to do with it, her parents dropped it off on our door step at 5 am telling their daughter that a fox got him.
Go ahead 19 years, I was having coffee with this friend, both grown adults, she was pondering over what happened to her beloved pet duck...I told her. Wow, it was just like the day the duck went missing!
But I can say this to you people, it was the best tasting duck I have ever eaten- LOL.
I still reminice about that duck in the roaster pan.

Place the duck breast down, then the grease will run off and keep the breast juicey and tender, also use 1 inch (2 if its going to rain), poultry seasoning, onions, worsterchire sauce, season salt and cook. After your temp is almost up to where it should be, turn the duck over on its back and baste until crisp brown! Yuuuumy!

 

[Miltonchix]

A friend and I used to hunt ducks a lot. We were tired of the "gamey" tasting meat as well. We tried hunting ONLY river banks rather than swamp/marshes. The ducks taken along fast moving river banks had no gamey taste at all. Its all in what they eat.

 

[snewman]

"also use 1 inch (2 if its going to rain),"


I read this four or five times, but I still don't understand what it means. Can you explain? I'm a little slow.