How to pluck ducks?

[Le Canard de Barbarie]

Quote:
That is a good question. I asked that to the featherman company and their reply was their customers were reporting mixed results with waterfowl. It's harder for the fingers to get a grip on the feathers.

Even after you pluck the duck the first time, whether by hand or by using a mechanical plucker, you will probably have to dip it in wax and peel by hand anyway.

To bring it into perspective, one processor in Michigan was charging $2 for a chicken and $6 for a duck.

 

[TechEdFireman]

I have watched the featherman videos on their website they did 4 pekin ducks at one time and they came out pretty clean considering the time not having to hand pluck.

 

[Thamnophis]

What is the down-side to just skinning the ducks? Since they are oily birds, doesn't removing the skin make them better in some ways? I was thinking of letting them age too - do the feathers loosen over time, say a week hung up to age?

 

[triplepurpose]

Quote:
Duck fat is one of the most prized products from the duck. I have yet to fry potatoes in duck fat, but I look forward eagerly to trying it. Much of the fat is in the skin. The way I see it, that is the main downside to skinning.

BTW has any tried handplucking, ignoring the small downy feathers and pinfeathers, skinning, and then heating the skin with the small ones still in it and just straining it really well once the fat has rendered? If you don't have duck wax, that seems like it might work as a way to have your duck meat and keep your fat too without having to be so meticulous about the plucking or investing in a twenty dollar block of duck wax. Just a thought...

I slaughtered my first muscovy a few days ago, and I dry plucked the pinfeathers and down as best I could and singed off the rest of the tiny down. I removed the wings, because I could get them clean enough to my liking, and skinned and jointed them, saving the drumettes for the stock pot. So not a perfect solution, but I was able to get the job done in about an hour with minimal equipment and it worked out fine in the end, as I was able to keep the skin on the breast and legs for a roast... And it was delicious!

 

[DB_Tex]

we hand plucked (dry) our first ever slaughter duck (a rouen) and had it in the oven 2 hours after we killed it. 75% of the appeal in roast duck is the crispy skin so I'll be a little sad to skin the next one for the sake of the experiment

 

[chrisarvor]

i have just used a home made drill drill plucker i made on my Muscovy ducks
the first problem was keeping the drill in the stand i made but i overcome that
the first one i thought came out wellk but the second one did not pluck as good
i realised that the fat was getting on the rubbers making them slip
so i reckon i would have to wash the plucker rubbers after each one
anyone else done that??
both birds were just over 5lb plucked

 

[AlekH]

I’ve never plucked domestic ducks, so this may not be applicable. But I’ve plucked many hundreds of wild ducks. We hand pluck (dry) to get all but the very light down off. Then we use a hand held torch (or campfire) to singe the down. It then just rubs off with a wipe of the hand. It takes less than 10 minutes per bird to do this (although they’re going to be significantly smaller than domestic birds).