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Anybody doesn't want there ducks, I'll take them. Take two mallards, pluck them, coat them with butter, brown in the oven, then prepare a roating pan, bed it with sauerkraut, Stuff the ducks with slices of apple and oranges, place them on the sauerkraut, cover with bacon, cover with foil and bake on low heat untill tender. Works with any duck, even goose breasts. Tender and juicy. Now I'm getting hungry. I may even try it with pheasant as I have a feww left from the trips to the preserve.

Member Joined: 01 Dec 2006 Posts: 524

As a fellow Washingtonian I can somewhat relate to your plight. But the eating quality of ducks has nothing to do with my lack of hunting pressure toward ducks. Mostly its just distribution og time for me. Plus, over the years I have acquired such high qulaity private land contacts in eastern WA, that its hard for me to stay away. Add to that that my once frequented duck honey hole on the west side of the State is now leased by a dentist.
There are several ways to avoid marginal eating ducks in our State some of which our cooking related, field prep, and finally what the ducks themselves are eating. For getting good eating quackers (mallard/teal/Pintails) there are two things:

1. Don't eat local western wa ducks - On the west side of our State, only eat freshly arrived Northerns that arrive between sometime in November and January. These are among the best eating ducks I've ever had, no matter how you cook them
2. Pursue Eastern Washington ducks that are largely corn fed, especially in the fall and winter - they taste fantastic.
3. Avoid local puddle ducks that hang out in the salt chuck (Puget Sound) Northerns are fine that are moving back and forth between salt chuck and barley/rice and corn fields - or even grass fields.
In a nutshell: Avoid year around resident ducks on the westside of the State and especially one in the Carnation or Snohomish valleys that are rafting the afternnons on wastewater treatment and dairy cow sludge ponds they taste like the friggin sewer no matter what you do to them.

The most bomb proof receipe for Ducks that I have found except for the bad tasting ducks I outlined above is to bleed them and gut them immediately or sooner and keep them cool. When you get home fill up a large bucket with a bottle of cheap dry red wine and about 2-5 cups of salt.
Throw the drawn and de-plummaged quacker in the bucket of solution for 24 hours. Remover the ducks and pat dry. get out a roasting pan and lightly butter it. Meanwhile salt and pepper the ducks inside and out liberally. Cut up some apples/celery/onion/thyme/carrots to a medium dice.
Stuff the cavity of each duck. Put them in the lightly buttered roasting pan and cook in a preheated oven at 375 degrees for about 1 - 1 1/2 hours depnding on size of ducks. After that switch your oven to broil and brown the ducks skin until brown and crispy. To serve, I usually take all the meat off the bone and keep the skin in tact as much as possible so most of the meat has accompanying skin. For a real treat, Put a couple slices of bacon across each breat while the ducks are in the roasting phase. Then just before you switch to the broiling phase drain off all the dripping in the roastin pan before returning the ducks to broil. Get out a cast iron skillet and pour the dripping into it over a medium heat. Add about 1-2 cup of chicken stock and bring to a bubble. Get out some flour in a sifter and gradually sprinkle flour in the mixture until it starts to thicken -season to taste with salt and pepper and set aside to cool just a tad - it will thicken a little more as it sits there. i serve the gravy over the duck and some potatoes too. this recipe will make an average duck a knockout meal - and a good tasting duck orgasmic. This recipe plays to the strength of what duck eating is all about - you capture their wonderfull flavor which is in their fat, The fat from the skin and/or bacon sinks down into the meat and also keeps them moist - yet cooked through. The whole rare duck craze of the 90's to present was created by a bunch of yuppies that never ate a duck in their l;ives unless "muscovy" or "duckling" preceeded its name. If they are cooked properly they can be both done, and moist. Barbecuing ducks to me is just a bad idea, kind of like venison. Why use a hot dry heat on an already lean bird? Wild ducks have little fat anyway compared to store bought - and that fat needs to be eaten to really enjoy the essence of the quacker. Ducks can be every bit as good if not better than any of the upland birds if one knows what he's doing. In fact, I've served ducks to many folk who have exclaimed "that was the best duck I've ever eaten" or, "I didnt realize how good ducks could be". Same with Goose done almost the same way.

Jig. I think the biggest thing to realize is that there are many ways to fix wild game. We all have our special way. I eat more wild game then store bought meat. Between grouse, pheasant, fish, deer, ducks and anything else. In fact i think I'll go up to the preserve sunday morning and get some chukars. The pup needs a workout.

Here's a recipe that will please even those who swear they've never had good duck.

filet out the breasts and cut in about two bite chunks. Marinate in Italian dressing and 1 cup of red wine. reserve rest of wine for immediate consumption. I use zesty Italian, the cheaper the better. cover and refridgerate about an hour.

cut a pound of bacon in half resulting in 3-4" pieces. wrap each piece of duck in short piece of bacon and secure with a tooth pick.

get some of those cheap bamboo skewers and load up about 3 or 4 pieces, alternated and surrounded with bell pepper, onion, hot pepper, mushrooms or anything else you like. I usually use red, green, and yellow peppers to achieve a pleasing aesthic appearance. I usually stick a cherry tomato on the end.

cook on a medium hot charcoal fire (or gas) and turn over when needed. I usually turn them 3-4 times. It only takes about 20-30 minutes to fully cook them if fire is hot enough. Use a pair of pliers to turn them.

rake each skewer off onto a bed of brown and wild rice. serve with steamed asparagus and maybe some sort of steamed squash (zucchini, yellow or spaghetti). lowfat folks can discard the bacon, the rest of us eat it too.

open another bottle of red wine and enjoy.

I killed over a 100 ducks this year and prepared them many ways because I had so many that a culinary failure wasn't a problem. I've got other good ones but this was my favorite and same for my guests. with the last 40 or so ducks, I cooked them for about 40 people and every single one of them (even those who swore they wouldn't) liked them.

I've got some goose breasts left. I think I'll try that with them.

Joined: 21 Feb 2007 Posts: 42 Location: TX

Chicken fried duck tenders. take a little of the left over grease and make gravy, add mashed potatoes and biscuits maybe some green beans and certainly a little Tabasco, wash down with a fine cabernet, sooth the lungs on a mellow Dominican Republic while watching Lonesome Dove. It just don't get no better.

Member Joined: 08 Jan 2005 Posts: 14 Location: Boone, NC

I have eaten great oriental recipies and read about a half a dozen recipies in this post that are probably better. But most of the really good recipies take a lot of prep time and I just don't have the time for the presentation.

If you have hunting buddies, this is a great recipie for chillin' out after the hunt or watching (The Ohio State) Buckeyes.

Mallards, woodies and teal
Duck schniztel - pound the breast to about 1/8 inch
dip in flour
dip in egg
dip in seasoned bread crumbs
Fry in skillet a few minutes per side.
20 minutes tops for the entire process. Have the wives get together and whip up a little German potato salad and pomme fritts for the afternoon party and you're set. Can't eat enough if you have the right group of friends.

I assume the beer is no problem in the Pacific Nw.
Grouser

Member Joined: 31 Oct 2005 Posts: 446 Location: Wisconsin

There are 'ducks' and there are 'ducks'. They all don't taste the same and they all don't prepare the same.
In general, a wild duck is NOT the same bird as a domestic duck. Give a wild duck to a person schooled in cooking a domestic duck and you will get a hockey puck for dinner. A wild mallard or even a pen raised mallard(I purchase them from the 4Her's at the County Fair Auction) needs to be cooked rare, not blood rare but a rested rare, best I have found is to breast out the duck, cook the breasts rare and braise the leg thigh combinations. Marinate before hand if you wish. I use the carcass for making a sauce. Works quite well.
Personally, I would rather eat a nice Mallard than a chucker any day. -Dick

Member Joined: 28 Oct 2005 Posts: 665 Location: Louisiana

From Louisiana here 'ya know and we think we know something about ducks-----hate to admit, it but Dick's advice will be hard to beat.
Careful, careful now--don't overcook.