In my teens thru my twenties, I duck and goose hunted 30 plus days a season. We’d pile up the Mallards, Widgeon, Teal, and geese to the point where our freezer should have sprouted wings.
I enjoyed eating a fat roasted mallard or goose a couple times a month. The problem became we had more ducks than we could eat just by oven roasting. We started breasting out our smaller ducks, then sauté them with different herbs and seasonings, including Teriyaki sauce and stir frying to change up the flavor.
All cooking methods produced good to decent table eats, but, eventually we’d tire on Donald Duck. Enter the smoker - We starting smoking duck breast, which was pretty good. That’s as far as we took it for ways to prepare duck.
I stopped serious duck hunting the last 20 years, but the past couple years I started getting a serious itch to start hunting them again.
I took it a step further by getting myself a duck boat last week. Ducks are gonna fall this winter, so I’m looking for some good ways to prepare duck, besides the ways I mentioned above.
What do you all got for turning a duck into some tasty food ?
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PS
Some high priced restaurants have charged upwards of $60 bucks for a whole duck. Never ordered it, but I’ve heard Liberals say it’s amazing !??! Amazing, wtf am I missing ?
Waterfowl hunting is my Dad's favorite thing (and keep in mind he earned his GS of NA Sheep in the 60's)
We have a duck camp south of Abbeville, LA. I have a place in Nebraska. Before I retired I was over O&M on a couple of plants in North Dakota where they've given me forever hunting privileges. Let's just say we kill a lot of ducks. That said:
#5: Follow Emeril's "Turkey Bone Gumbo" recipe, with duck. (Also the BEST way to use wild turkey...I do a turkey slam most years)
#4: Weirdly, the best Chinese Crispy Duck I ever had was from a small place in Aberdeen, Scotland. (and I worked in China!) I swore on my honor I wouldn't share their technique, but just use a "Crispy Duck" with orange or plum that ranks high on the web searches.
#3: Stroganoff! Totally de-fat, soak in chicken broth, then substitute for beef in your favorite stroganoff recipe.
#2: Jerky! Both dehydrated and ground and gunshot can be really freaking good if one knows how to make jerky!!
#1 Shoot. Gather. Bring home. Clean. Shrink wrap. Put in freezer. Wait the appropriate time until that [bleep] is TOTALLY freezer burned...then throw in the garbage.
