How do YOU pluck your ducks?

[blue lotus]

So we processed just one duck this afternoon (we already had done several roosters by that time) and it wasn't as bad as I expected!

We pretty much dry plucked and then did a hot bath to get the remaining feathers. I can totally see using the vacuum for a lot of birds, though.

Thanks everyone for all the advice!

Now to find some good recipes for whole duck..... YUM!

 

[GrannyCarol]

I don't dry pluck any more, we started with that and found it was slow, tedious and didn't get the job done as well as we'd like. We scald with hotter water than a chicken (about 160 - 170) and leave them in longer (we do a bit of trial and error each time to get it down). We put a bit of dish soap in the water and we also hose them off, by blasting up under the feathers to get them wet under the oil. That helps the scalding water actually get in and loosen the feathers. Then we can do them pretty quickly.

One hint, be sure they are not growing new feathers when you butcher, or you'll be skinning them. There are stages where the whole chest is like a shield of blood feathers coming in and there's hardly any skin left to work with!

 

[goosedragon]

Quote:
DUH yours must be made different than mine because mine without a filter sucks stuff in and blows it out the exhaust.

 

[blue lotus]

Well, we decided to dry pluck because we really wanted to keep the feathers for pillows.

We haven't done a lot of scalding yet, and have had mixed results with it so far.

However, we DID try the paraffin wax today, and that worked out pretty well.