recipes

Donald:

I use those oven bags and put some apples and onions inside the duck bacon on top, and veggies around inside the bag, this bag really keeps the miosture in the bird. You can buy them at the grocery store.
 
The best way I have found is to never cook it beyond medium rare. Any more done than that and you risk dry, livery meat. Methods include grilled, flash fried, fondue in oil. One of my recent favorites is to breast the bird, make a pocket in the breast, dust the inside with curry powder and stuff with Blue Cheese (or any strong cheese you like). Halve and seed a jalapeno pepper and put half in the opening. Skewer up or tie, dredge in seasoned flour and pan fry until brown on both sides. The meat may still be rare inside so I take the pan (cast iron) and put it in a 300 degree oven for another 6-8 minutes. Meat should be med rare when sliced.

The other way is to cook it slow with moisture - like in a roaster. I used to make a whole duck recipe called "Remington Mallards" that everyone enjoyed - It's more work though as you first need to puck the bird.
 
2 ways to cook them: quick & medium rare or long & slow until they fall apart.
I likes low & slow.
A Crock-pot/slow cooker is your best friend, toss the ingredients in before you go to work, set it on low and supper is ready when you get home.
Duck curry, duck simmered in brown gravy & onions, duck "pot roast", etc...
Look up some curry recipes and just substitute duck. Then slow cook for hours.
 
The past few years I've been marinating just the breasts in Olive Oil, Butter and Montreal Steak Seasoning for an hour or overnite.
Then I grill them med. rare on the inside or rarer if you want.
Clients in Alaska never get sick of them, with fresh grilled salmon on the side of course.
Thats just one of many recipes. Good luck.
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A very simple recipe that has been around forever is my favorite way to make duck. Filet the breast out of the duck and marinade in italian dressing overnight. Roll a piece of green pepper or mushroom along with a pice of pepper jack cheese inside the breast and wrap the whole thing with bacon making sure the bacon is covering the entire breast roll so the cheese doesn't melt out of the roll. Stick a dozen or so of these on kabob skewers and put on a very hot grill frying the bacon to a crisp and like Pete says the duck breast should be medium rare. Pull it off the grill a little early as it will continue to cook after removing it from the heat. I make this when we are hanging around the shop carving decoys and they go fast. My daughter and wife both like them and they aren't crazy about most wild game.
 
Blackened duck breast.
Three ingredients: Duck breast, Zatirans redfish blackening, and butter. two or three tablespoons of butter melted in microwave and equal amount of zatirans and stirred up. Breasts slathered with disposable chip brush and put on a hot cast iron skillet. The hotter you get the skillet the better. Do it outside if possible as a lot of smoke is generated. A couple minutes a side before removing to a plate and covering lightly with foil to let the juices settle. Cut bite size and put over a bed of greens.
 
This is what we have been doing lately.

Cube the duck meat and wrap each piece with bacon and place on a skewer. Srinkle on your favorite rub. Heat up the grill. Put a piece of aluminum foil on top of the grill. Put skewers on aluminum foil and cook until you have the doness you prefer. The bacon grease works well to keep the duck moist and adds quite a bit of flavor. I have found that without the aluminum foil, the grease drips into the grill and doesn't add as much flavor to the meat.

Mark W
 
The key is not to overcook when grilling or frying.

Easy recipe -

Marinate duck strips in a ziploc with bottled buffalo wing sauce such as "Frank's" or "Sweet Baby Ray's"

Put aluminum foil on hot grill and spray with non-stick spray.

Throw duck strips on the foil. Don't worry about a bunch of the marinade hitting the foil, it's a good thing. They don't take long to cook and if you wait until the marinade is dry / carmelized they will be overdone.

Can ramp up the spicy by basting with additional buffalo wing sauce as they get done. (Food safety buffs would tell you not to use marinade that contained raw meat.)

*key step: dip in ranch or bleu cheese dressing before eating.
 
We found a way to eat even the worst ducks, mergansers! We breast them, marinate them in flavored brandy in the fridge for 3 days, then grind them and make chili.
 
Don,
I like a plucked roast duck a lot but if you want simple, breast the bird and leave the skin on.
In an iron skillet start the heat on low.
Slice just thru the skin with a sharp knife in a cross hatch pattern about 1\2 inch apart. Start skin side down in the pan to render the duck fat into the pan. If the duck is very lean add a bit of butter to the pan. As the fat is liquified add a bit of heat and start to turn the breast over to brown the meat on both sides. Add a bit of salt and pepper.
This goes on till the breast is just med rare. Your first few times you can cut them open to check, but after a bit you can tell by pressing on the meat with your thumb or a spoon.
Pull the breast out and set aside. Deglaze the pan with a bit of red wine. I like to add a shot of red currant jelly to this and reduce just a bit for a sauce.
Slice the breast thin and serve beside wild rice with the sauce over the meat.
Best with Mallards, Blacks, Cans, B Bill, Teal and Woodies. But I do GE and Buffies also.
Mergs, ect.. need a diff. approach. John Burbon gave me his trick which is a soak in Pineapple juice with changes in the merinade. The Pineapple is very acidic and it pulls the game flavor out.
 
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