Recipes for cooking wild ducks?

[ninjapoodles]

Duck season will be here before I know it, and I'll be plucking (and cursing) a mess of mallards, mainly, since that is what is abundant in Arkansas.

I'll be honest--I do not care for the taste of mallards, unless I am TOTALLY cooking them wrong, which is a possibility. The wild ones don't taste anything like domestically raised ducks, and I understand that's because of their diet, which includes small fish and other wetlands critters. They're gamey almost to the point of being "fishy," to me. Blecch. But my husband loves to hunt them, and I can't stand to waste the meat, and I DON'T want any more taxidermied things in my house (I've only allowed one small, banded wood duck on a shelf mount, and one wild-turkey fan and beard that hang on the wall).

I keep trying to tell my husband to ONLY shoot the teals and wood ducks, since they taste good, but then he does all this whining about how small they are, how erratic their approach, blah blah blah...

He does usually come home with at least one wood duck or teal, which just adds insult to the injury of the limit of mallards he's invariably bearing.

Does anyone have any secrets or sure-fire recipes for making mallard tasty?

 

[AK-Bird-brain]

The last wild duck I ate I soaked overnight in Apple cider, dipped in scrambled egg then bread crumbs and pan fried.

Worked for me!

 

[ninjapoodles]

Quote:
Hard apple cider, or just apple cider? Sounds genius! Were the birds just breasted out?

 

[jenjscott]

Don't let the game wardens catch you breasting out the ducks, they'll get you for wasting game. That being said, you take the breast and soak it overnight in apple cider, or salt water, or any kind of marinade. I love garlic, so there's always garlic in mine. When ready to cook lay them out on a strong cutting board and whack them flat with the flat of a cleaver or a small cutting board or something similar. Flour them or use your favorite breading mix. Brown in a skillet in bacon grease, remove and make a brown gravy, throw in some chopped onion, return the duck to the gravy and let simmer covered over very low heat for about 45 minutes. Serve with rice or mashed potatoes. Don't invite company, there won't be enough.

 

[AK-Bird-brain]

Quote:
Regular cider, and breast cut into strips.

 

[nautical_bouy]

I like to fry saurkraut in butter, stuff the bird with it, then bake.

 

[BettyR]

When we have goose or duck I take them out of the freezer and throw them on the smoker still frozen when we are cooking on the smoker. They will thaw out on the grill and get a good smoking.

I then wrap them back up and stick them back in the freezer and then use them later to make a pot of gumbo.

Take one out of the freezer and put it in a gumbo pot still frozen and continue with the recipe as written.

If you’ve never made a roux before Alton Brown gives instructions on how to do it in the oven. The show title was Bowl of Bayou. I wouldn’t follow his instructions on how to make gumbo.....I’ve never seen anyone make such a big mess just to make a pot of gumbo.

Grandma’s Chicken Gumbo

Make a dark roux with 2 cups of flour and some oil.
(You can buy ready made roux but homemade is the best)

1-1/2 gallons water
1 large hen (an old hen makes the best gumbo)
6 chicken bullion cubes
2 pounds of good smoked sausage (Cut into bite size pieces)
1 large onion (Chopped)
1 bell pepper
2 tablespoons liquid smoke (leave this out if using smoked meat)
4 cloves of garlic
1/2 bunch parsley (chopped)
1 bunch green onions (chopped)
Salt and pepper to taste

Cut the chicken in half and place it in a large stockpot with the water and the rest of the ingredients. Simmer uncovered for a couple of hours, or until chicken is tender and falling off the bone, remove the chicken from the pot place it in a bowl and put it in the refrigerator to cool. Turn the fire off under the pot, allow to sit while chicken is cooling, all the fat will rise to the top.

With a large spoon skim fat off the top of the gumbo.

Pick the chicken off the bone and add it back to the pot and heat it through; season with salt and pepper to taste.

You can substitute just about anything for the chicken. Wild game works very well, squirrels, ducks, geese, rabbits, turkey, quail, pheasant. Just make sure to simmer it long enough to get it tender.

Serve over rice in soup bowls.