processing ducks...?

[spish]

i can find plenty of posts and blogs on processing chickens at home but cant find any good ones for processing ducks..i have a flock of young muscovies that i just cant shift and my only 2 options are give them away or eat them. And i'm pretty sure if i give them away that person will eaten them, so i way as well eat them myself!

it seems (judging by the vids and blogs ive came across) that most people just kill then cut out the breast......is the rest of a duck no good? why such waste?

 

[galanie]

You might get a better answer in the Ducks section. I've no idea why they just cut off the breast, that looks like a lot of waste to me, too. Only duck I've done was wild duck from hunting and I cooked the whole bird. It was cleaned and butchered pretty much the same way a chicken is done. There are people that only cut off chicken breast too and feed the rest to their dogs. Same with quail. I admit, quail legs aren't a ton of meat haha but I'd still feel wasteful throwing them out.

 

[kfacres]

Quote:
there isn't enough meat to worry about on a small or wild duck. It's like eating guinea-- usually not worth the extra effort.

the dogs have to eat too, and I wonder what's cheaper to buy< chicken bones or dog food?

Do you realize, that if you throw out the wings and legs off a duck, and the back meat-- that's like maybe 1/2 cup of boneless meat--- that would take you close to an hour to work on getting off. Just toss it.

 

[TDM]

Quote:
I add another step, which is one reason why I charge $6 to process a duck versus $2.50 for a chicken. After the initial rough plucking of the duck, there are still numerous pin feathers on the skin. The duck is then dipped into a tank of hot water/melted duck wax to get a good coating of wax on the skin. The wax coated duck is dipped into a bucket of cold water to harden. When cool, the wax is pulled off with the remaining pin feathers. A pinning knife is used to get the very last feathers.

The legs, thighs and wings are very tasty. I like to saute them and then slow cook them in a crock pot until tender. I make sausage from the giblets. Any duck fat is rendered and used for cooking. The remaining carcass is feed to my Great Pyrenees LGD. She loves to eat the heads and feet, along with the rib cage and neck.

 

[galanie]

Yep, love to make stock from those bones. I have no dogs to eat them anyway.

 

[EggsForIHOP]

We processed 10 "farm raised" ducks a few weeks back now...did everything just like a chicken - but we didn't do the wax part and probably should have. If I didn't live over 20 miles from a store that sold it, I would have gone and gotten some.

Now I VIVIDLY remember my father in law just skinning and removing breast meat after duck hunting one year...of course they were also TEENY TINY ducks...

LOOK! I found a pic...see...they all fit on the back bumper of a 3/4 Chevy truck - those were wild ducks...so I could see just taking the biggest easiest cut of meat off of them at the time...Now with something bigger, like the ones we did this month that had been "farm raised", then yeah, I'd go the whole nine yards like we did and pluck, gut, etc each one. I think to do 10 ducks with 3 adults trying to watch 2 small kids and stopping often to sit around a take breaks or run a kid in to potty, etc...it probably took us 4 hours or so (with a LOT of distractions). But we had fun and enjoyed spending time together outside too...just wish I had gone and gotten that wax because that would have sped it up a bunch I bet!

 

[feathersnuggles]

Quote:
Great ideas here, thanks! BTW, are muscovies good egg layers too? Is there ideal dual purpose duck?

Is melted duck wax similar to paraffin? Or is it something else.

 

[Oregon Blues]

Ducks process about like chickens. The scald water has to be a little hatter and the scald longer. A squirt of dish soap in the scald water and swish the birds and push the feathers up to get the water down to the skin.

Ducks are water proof, so the scalding has to be more precise.

I'd never just breast a duck and throw the rest out. I would prefer not to skin them. The duck skin is a delicacy for roasting and the rendered fat is valuable for cooking. Besides, they don't skin easily so I don't think you are actually saving any work over plucking.

My 8 week old Pekins dressed out at 4-5 pounds with no neck or giblets. That's a lot different than a small wild duck. It's worth it to clean up and use the whole thing.

I do use duck wax for the final clean up of pin feathers, but if you butcher at just the right time, when they are fully feathered, there are no pin feathers.

 

[TDM]

Quote:
The muscovies are not prolific egg layers. I get about 90 or so eggs per year per hen. An excellent dual purpose duck was developed by the Chinese, and it is the Pekin Duck. My main laying flock for the duck egg market is the pekin duck.

Duck wax is a specialty wax. From http://www.shopblendedwaxes.com/pdfs/Duck-Wax-Specs.pdf :

This product is a fully refined paraffin and microcrystalline wax blend with a medium melt point and is white in color.

I buy it in 60 pound boxes for affordability. It is about $20 for a 10 pound slab, or $1.60 per pound for six 10 pound slabs.

http://www.shopblendedwaxes.com/Juniors-Duck-Wax.html

 

[jcatblum]

How much duck wax is used per bird or per x amount of birds? Would hate to run out if it was processing day!