What Would I Need to Know About Butchering Ducks?

[3KillerBs]

I'm figuring out if I should accept a request for help butchering ducks for a friend of my son's.

I've done chickens with the broomstick method, both skinning and plucking. I remember reading that ducks have to be butchered at specific times because of the pinfeathers but I don't know what else I need to know about ducks that is different than chickens.

Before I say, "Yes, I'll help you out," I want to make sure it's within my capabilities.

@U_Stormcrow ? Anyone?

 

[springvalley123]

I used to have ducks (before chickens), and here's my comparison:
Ducks skin doesn't tear nearly as easily as chicken skin, if you decide to do just one and manually pluck because you don't have a scalding pot. (i.e., just pluck enough to get started skinning)
Ducks have many more, small, feathers, even if you time it right.
The oil gland is much bigger than it is in chickens.
I only did the chop off the head method so don't know about broomstick method for ducks.
If it should come down to it, ducks are easier to catch (e.g., if one gets loose somehow).

 

[iwltfum]

I butchered two about a week ago while we were butchering a batch of broilers. They were muscovy - so white and therefore relatively easy to pluck, but the plucking was significantly more difficult than plucking a chicken. As a rough estimate of what we did to pluck them: we dunked, hand plucked, dunked, ran the plucker, dunked, ran the plucker, added soap to the water, dunked, ran the plucker, hand plucked the bigger stiff feathers, dunked, ran the plucker, etc. Until we finally hand plucked the rest to the best degree we could. But those feathers, seriously they are a bear if you are used to plucking broilers.

They also took significantly longer to bleed out than I expected, like 5x longer than a broiler - I think it took at least 10-12 minutes. Maybe I didn't get the artery cut right, but I'm not sure. Chopping the head clean off might be a better option.

Two things about the anatomy of the duck that I noticed were:
1. They did not have crops from what I could tell. I was very surprised to realize this, but neither me nor the best eviscerator on my butchering crew could find a crop in either of the ducks.
2. the oil glands are huge and set down around the spinal bone to either side and need to be cut out separately, not with one cut down the top of the spine like a chicken.

Good luck!

 

[Quatie]

You can also just skin it and just take the breasts and thighs. Then you don't have to pluck or gut it. Depends on if you want the skin or not.

 

[3KillerBs]

The situation is that a friend of my son's is estranged from her husband and he was the one supposed to do the butchering. She's trying to find someone who can do it for her. If I take it on I don't want to screw it up.

 

[U_Stormcrow]

**IF** the timing is right, its not too bad. I've done ducks by hand, no scalding, several times. Though it must have taken 45 minutes, the downy feather get stuck to your hands, and its like working wearing a basebal mitt. If you can just disrobe the bird, so much the better. If the timing is wrong, even with a scalder, its like 30-35 minutes. Absolutely incredible amount of feathers.

I decapitate, then hang for a few minutes. There's a goodly amount of blood. And I take the whole of the "pope's nose" off at the end, so oil gland concerns aren't a big issue as I'm removing the whole structure.

Skeletally, the leg joints are rotated a bit from where you find them on a chicken, and the breast is wider, and flatter - the chest "plate" is very much a plate, less the complex curve of a chicken breast. The wider, flatter overall assembly can make it little more difficult to get your hand up into the cavity, curl, and scoop if you have big hands. Pulling the leg/backpone structure down while lifting the edge of the keel up will give a little more room, but not a lot.

Basically, if you time it right, give her whole bird, skin on. Most people want the crisp skin with their duck preparations, so its win win. If the timing is wrong, disrobe the thing, which makes it much easier to part out, since you can see where the structures have moved to. But i have every confidence its within your ability. And there's always this website.

 

[3KillerBs]

**IF** the timing is right, its not too bad. I've done ducks by hand, no scalding, several times. Though it must have taken 45 minutes, the downy feather get stuck to your hands, and its like working wearing a basebal mitt. If you can just disrobe the bird, so much the better. If the timing is wrong, even with a scalder, its like 30-35 minutes. Absolutely incredible amount of feathers.

I decapitate, then hang for a few minutes. There's a goodly amount of blood. And I take the whole of the "pope's nose" off at the end, so oil gland concerns aren't a big issue as I'm removing the whole structure.

Skeletally, the leg joints are rotated a bit from where you find them on a chicken, and the breast is wider, and flatter - the chest "plate" is very much a plate, less the complex curve of a chicken breast. The wider, flatter overall assembly can make it little more difficult to get your hand up into the cavity, curl, and scoop if you have big hands. Pulling the leg/backpone structure down while lifting the edge of the keel up will give a little more room, but not a lot.

Basically, if you time it right, give her whole bird, skin on. Most people want the crisp skin with their duck preparations, so its win win. If the timing is wrong, disrobe the thing, which makes it much easier to part out, since you can see where the structures have moved to. But i have every confidence its within your ability. And there's always this website.

Thanks for the details.

Fortunately, I have small but strong hands that make it easier for me to get into carcasses and I'm familiar with anatomy.

 

[Parront]

To me, ducks are more difficult to use the "broomstick" method. They have very strong necks, and will still flap for a long time. I prefer to hang them, cut both sides of the neck to get both arteries, and let them flap while they bleed out. I pith them first, but they still flap far longer than a chicken does. I hook a bucket to the bill to weight them down and catch the blood. They have an enormous amount of feathers compared to any chicken. I dunk them in the scalding pot with a liberal squirt of dish soap. My little guys are so small that I want them whole, skin and all. I roast or crock pot them. I did put some breast meat in pint jars, when I had ducks before, but they were Pekins and larger.