I've always taken my duck (and dove) off the bone and made them into jalapeno wraps, but I'm looking for something different to do this season.

1. Does any pluck a duck and leave the meat on the bone? How do you do this, it looks like then end up looking like a whole chicken?
2. How can I cook it? I've read people will roast them in the oven with salt, pepper, rosemary and oil. Other suggestions?

TIA

Never have cooked it that way, but the best way I have found to cook wild duck is to soak it in buttermilk and coat in flour seasoned with celery salt and then fry. so much better then chicken strips and is a tradition for my family at Christmas.

plucked teal and injected with tony chachere's injectable jalapeño butter. Then sprinkled a little of the injectable butter on the skin to help Tex joy steak seasoning and some cracked black pepper stick. Seared on the grill until the skin was good and crispy then put in the oven on 375 for about 5 minutes. Let rest for ten minutes and they came out perfect (medium rare). Added some left over chicken and sausage jambalaya and cut green beans. Wash down with cold glass of milk.

I got the bright idea to pluck a few wood ducks and fry them like a turkey... I wouldn't recommend it

Looks great! Good job there.

All of mine usually end up in gumbo.

Take the duck and cut into small chunks, cook in a skillet with taco seasoning and make duck tacos. Surprisingly a really good way to cook ducks

I've always plucked them, place a rasher or two of bacon on them and bake them at 350 degrees. I'd have to research how long. Done it this way for over 40 years..... Have also breasted them and fried them in bacon grease. If they have a sulfer smell (from the water they lived in) I have also placed 1/2 an orange on them when baking. They don't take long.

So how do you pluck them?

Cut off wings, head, feet? Pull feathers from breast and back? Remove innards? Wash?

saw this recipe and think I may try it after this years hunt

Man, Firefight's recipie looks mighty fine.

Breading & fry and serve with some brown gravy is also pretty solid.

T mas, you pull the feathers out, then cut off head, wings and feet (keep the legs!).

Then you'll probably need to singe them, twist up some newspaper and lite it on fire and the hold and roll the plucked duck over the flames. this will get all of the hair feathers that are still in the skin.

You can also skin the duck without plucking and cook whole.

Skin breast, filet meat off bone, wrap in bacon w/ cream cheese, jalapeno, and onion. Marinade in bbq sauce mixed with Italian and Montreal steak seasoning and grill until the bacon is done.

We breast out a lot of our teal, cut the breasts in half or thirds, and do ka-bobs on the grill with onion & bell pepper.

Or gumbo.

Or chicken-fried.

A guy I know who used to guide a lot of duck & teal hunts in the Laguna Madre back in the '70's told me how they used to pluck ducks for their clients. He said they would melt a bunch of paraffin wax down to liquid, and then holding the birds by the feet would dip them in the liquid wax. They would take the ducks out and hang them by their feet and let the paraffin cool and harden. He said that when you peeled the paraffin off, all of the feathers, even the pin feathers, would come out. He said it was easy as peeling an orange, especially with teal.

I've never tried this personally, but it made sense to me. I do know I've seen paraffin pots for sale in duck hunting gear catalogs, so I'm guessing it would work.

Has anyone else ever heard of or tried this?

Teal are one of my favorite ducks to eat. I cut the breat meat off the bone and sautee in a little red wine and flour. Cook medium and serve over wild rice. Pour juice on top.

[This message has been edited by water turkey (edited 9/18/2013 7:16p).]

I would like to try it with pheasants. I'd love to try to leave the skin on pheasants instead of skinning them because of the fat & flavor the skin has in it. I'm going to research this method some more & see how it works.

On the original topic, I have always breasted my ducks & teal & filleted the meat off the breastbone. I then marinate/soak the breast filets overnight in Dr Pepper. The next day I cut them into strips, soak in buttermilk & egg wash then dredge in seasoned flour & pan fry on the stove. Make cream gravy with the drippings & enjoy!

[This message has been edited by Ag65Son (edited 9/18/2013 7:10p).]

I plucked my teal from Saturday and grilled over charcoal and mesquite.

Let them soak in water in the fridge for about 6 hours.

"Marinade" in a gallon ziploc with olive oil. 1/2 cup for two teal. Should sit about an hour in fridge.

Take out of fridge and let set. Salt, pepper, and basil. Let them come to room temperature.

Grill at low heat...the key is slow cooking and turning frequently. I turn four times at five minute intervals. The meat will be rare to medium rare but I guarantee you they will taste like a delicacy.

Ducks get a bad wrap and folks seem to go to great means to make them taste "good", but I promise they can be delicious with a little TLC.

Also note that different species will carry a different flavor, as will birds shot in the prairies as opposed to salt marsh.

The last two paragraphs of jelly's post are the most important

Why soak in water?

soak in brine, not plain water. Draws blood out of the meat and adds flavor.

I'll have to try a few of these. I normally turn mine into gumbo; all divers and saltwater ducks go in the gumbo pot.

But this book. That is all ....

I'm one of the worlds worst duck haters and even I will grudgingly admit that a prairie puddle duck seared rare/medium rare is pretty tasty.

But if you cook it all the way to full medium rare then it becomes pretty awful in my opinion (and I generally eat my steaks medium rare).

I'm just a bachelor and not very "fancy" so I tend not to like things that you have to do 40 things to it before its edible. A venison backstrap? Sea salt + cracked pepper + grill. That's it. Pheasant/Quail/Chukar, about the same + a little honey = delicious. Prairie chicken/duck/geese = a LOT more work than my lazy ass is willing to do. But they do make pretty mounts.

"But if you cook it all the way to full medium rare then it becomes pretty awful in my opinion"

This is the key.

Shoot ducks

Take picture

Donate the ducks to less fortunate

Buy chicken thighs

????

PROFIT

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Donate the ducks to less fortunate

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This is what we used to do with late season snow geese. Had a local food pantry that would take them by the trailer full. They no longer do.

Last year I had a buddy ask me to kill him some geese so he could make jerky. He came home to find 30 of them piled up on (okay, 'near') his porch.

Where's the line for the unfortunate?

Like duck, and love smoked goose.

I pluck them and roast whole. Put wedge of apple and onion in cavity with rosemary branch. Rosemary between skin and breast. Rub with olive oil. Sprinkle sea salt. Roast at 450. Favorite way to eat them!

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love smoked goose.

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I won't pay for stars unlike TexAgs publicly fires Jackie in a huge explosion so I don't have access to the puke face. ...but just know that I'm making it now.

Geese do make great dog treat jerky though. TheDuck loves it.

I've used the layer of wax over hot water, uses much less wax but the above are right. I normally grab the feathers & pull. Save the breast feathers (down) from geese for pillows & blankets.