Duck Culinary Prep

Well, I tried Dave E's recipe with the bufflehead, and it was real good. Tonight, it was Duane G's recipe with mallard. It was, hands down, the best duck cooking I've ever done. My wife and one of my kids agreed as well (my other child wasn't home this evening, and didn't get to try it).

It may be unfair to Dave E's recipe to compare one done with buffle head to one done with mallard. Still, I also have to give Duane G's recipe extra credit for simplicity. I did (in an effort to make it healthier) substitute canola oil for the butter. It held up well to the high heat, and, as indicated above, the taste was great.

Thanks to all, and I am going to try to save this thread as document on my hard drive (too valuable to lose it).
 
A lot of savvy info here. I don't believe one in ten hunters understand that blood is the cause of gammy flavor.

I always go for a chest shot (lungs) with deer, if I can, because it bleeds the animal for you.

I gut my birds ASAP but a lot of times not possible so I do what Ray recommends-lie them on their back so the blood doesn't settle in breast meat.

Field hunting geese I find that about half aren't killed outright. I wack wounded geese over the head & bleed them. For any goose, or duck, that was retreived with the heart still beating, bleeding them relieves you from having to soak in salt water.

Lots of people complain about the taste of Canada goose. Properly bled breast meet (or Koshered with salt) that is then braised in a stew type recipe tastes almost exactly like stew beef. Similiarly, a goose breast that is prepared on the grill rare/Teriyaki/london broil style tastes very much like beef.
 
For puddle ducks, like Mallards and Black Ducks, I look at the skin to determine what I will do. If they have been on corn for a while the skin will be yellow and they will have yellow fat on them. Those birds get gutted and plucked whole. I crush a clove of garlic and rub it on the skin, then put the remainder in the body cavity. I then drizzle a little olive oil on them, and liberally sprinkle with fresh ground black pepper, garlic salt, and a little onion powder. I put them on a hot grill breast side down, crisp the skin until brown, then turn it over and roast a little while longer on their backs. Remove from the grill, and rest before carving. Serve rare to medium rare...I absolutely love ducks this way. For birds with whiter skin that haven't been on corn, I breast and cut the legs off. The breasts I prepare several ways. A quick and easy way is butterfly the breasts and pan fry in a little olive with just some fresh ground black pepper and garlic salt with a little onion powder. Keep rare to medium rare and it's just like steak. I also do the same to breasts less the butterflying for grilling. Another big hit around my house is to butterfly the breasts, and stuff them with creamed cheese freshed chopped Jalepeno peppers mixed in. Wrap in bacon and toothpick to hold together. Grill rare to medium rare. For those of you who like to marinate you game, here is a recipe for a marinate my wife uses on flank steak, and I adopted for use on duck/goose. Play with the ratios to get a taste you like:

Goose/Duck Marinate​

1/8 cup Olive oil
1/4 cup – Teriyaki
2 Cloves of Garlic
1 Shallot
2-3 Scallions
Ginger root – grated
Juice of ½ to 1 whole lime, and zest some of the skin
2-3 dashes of Balsamic Vinegar

Chop/mince garlic, shallot, and scallions. Juice the lime, and zest some of the skin. Combine all ingredients into a 1 gallon Ziploc bag. Add whole duck breasts or goose breast, sliced cross grain into ¼” – 3/8” thick slices. Marinate 6 hours, or overnight if possible. The longer the better. Grill on hot grill for a minute and a half or so each side. Keep rare to medium rare.

 
Simply cut the brest meat into fajita pieces... marniate with store bought fajita mix (little packages you add oil too) over night, cook on your george forman grill while you sizzle up in a pan onions and peppers and your other fajita stuff. simplest and BEST way Ive ever come up with to cook duck for a large number of people, or to get many meals out of one cooking, cause it reheats as good as new.

Teal breasts I just soak in itlian dressing & coke, sprinkle with tonys and grill rare on my gf grill. a slice of onion and cheese makes a good sammich, or cook some wild rice and spicy home fries and have it with a meal (along with a nice salad).

I made some gadwall manwhichs the other night... they where kinda rich, but tasty. I cut the duck meat as fine as I could, and cut up some sauage patties to add some fat, browned quickly, and then added manwhich stuff, and a half can of rotel.

I took some lite tasting ducks last year (teal, pins, and wigeons seem to be the litest tasting to me), and stir fried with general tso sauce. Liked it so much I did it with deer meat too, and it was wonderful. Started cooking lots of stuff with general tso sauce, it makes for the most kick butt sauasge and cheese plate ever. I grill chicken breast strips with it, and mix it in with fried rice a lot. Havent done duck meat with fried rice yet, but I might real soon and see.

The standard grill gig is marinating in dales sauce and wrapping in bacon. But in reality, i think you could wrap a dog turd in dales sauce and bacon and eat it. its good, but you cant really even tell its any partiucalr kind of meat.

We cooked a basket full of snipe last year we killed and they beat any duck or dove I ever ate. a lil itilan dressing and coke to marniate in, and sprinked with tonys on my george foreman, and they where awesome.

growing up we ate roasted duck & stuffing with wild rice every other sunday dang near all year. Ive never roasted a duck in my life. My dad thought breasting was a sin, even though I never seen anyone flip a duck over and eat the back meat. some days i think I want to roast a duck like we had when we where kids... but then i think how much we love the fajatis and how easy they are! travis
 
What Duane G. said with the Paul Prudhomme's.... only just do the chunks turned in the pan lid one minute on the initial sear; then turn them one by one and do a minute more before removing from heat.

Friend of mine who runs a restaurant gives me a product called "Poppers Jamm" dipping sauce (by Anchor) that we use to dip the chunks in while eating. With plenty of cold beer, it doesn't get any better.
 
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Steve O,

The only recommendation I have is to get in-touch with Steve "DOC" McCullough...I am not telling you this due to the fact he is a dear friend and hunting companion...The Doc has not yet found his calling...

He is a genious when it comes to cooking...A regular McGuyver in the kitchen...

Two match sticks, a quart of water, three plucked feathers from an extinct Doe Doe Bird (spelling)...

Wa' La....

A seven course meal starting with, 7 beer can ducks all with different spices, Moose tenderloin the melts in your mouth, Aspargus chilled in ice then steamed, 5 glasses of bourbon, etc...Etc...Etc...Then his wife's most tantelizing "White Chocolate Sex"...Well not your typical dessert, but it is my favorite...If there is bag on the counter it is like a gun fight amonst guest trying to get the bag open...

Regards,

Kristan
 
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