Mallards for me.

You can't beat aged duck. Learned the trick on this forum years ago. I don't really have a favorite - most of the common puddle ducks around here all taste good.

With that said - my wife cannot get over the idea of eating a duck that sat in the fridge for ~7 days. Plus we don't have a garage or shop to stick a man fridge in - and she kind of frowns on doing that in the kitchen. 80% of my ducks get made into jerky. I can send 2-3 pounds to work with the wife and its gone by the time she leaves for the day. Species doesn't seem to matter much to them - although I can tell a huge difference in jerky.

Our fridge is set on 34 I think. It stays in the 34-36 range. Seems to work well (when the wife doesn't make a fuss about doing it at least).

Ive never tried the aging process on duck. Normally pluck breast and breast them with skin on. If Im lazy, I just breast them. But the aging process sounds interesting and something I may try this year.

Try leaving the skin on the breast, and in a pan, cook a little bacon first and use that bacon greese to cook your ducks in. Its awesome. You can eat them straight up, or slice thin and make fajitas or even stir fry with soy sauce wasabe and rice.

Age them bad boys then breast them out, pan sear rare, you'll have some fine eating that is every bit as good as the best piece of aged beef at the butchers shop.

I season with salt & pepper then sear them on a smoking hot cast iron skillet with a little olive oil. All it takes is a minute or less on each side, just enough to slightly crisp the outside and leave them rare and juicy on the inside. Skin on or skin off, they'll come out mouth watering tasty.

Something you'll notice after aging is the lack of blood/smell and how tender the meat is. You can breast out an aged teal with nothing more than a thumbnail.

Man, I've only eaten fresh grilled Redheads and Bluebills. I'm missing out!

Beer can mallard cooked just like you would a chicken is good. Smaller ducks are hard to fit over my beer can stands so have not tried them this way. Teal is probably my favorite. I have had some spoonies from around Brookshire that were very good eating. I had a high school buddy that guided on Lavon a lot. He stopped at Negro hill and gave them all his ducks. His grandad was from Stuttgart and taught him how to call.

I might add if you age them this way make sure you place them breast up so the innards juices don’t flow into the breast. But this Works perfectly.

Go eat crow, you’ll appreciate duck after that experience.

I like to hunt anything that flies...except DUCK!
I'm not going to hunt something I have no intention of eating.

I have heard that their meat is as dark as their feathers. I went to college with a dude that ate blackbird as a kid. He asked me once if I could shoot him some.

Guy did a post about aging ducks last year, you web masters might find it and repost it.

I looked and couldnt find it. I'd like to read it again.

I was inspired. I got 4 Greys on Sunday. I breasted out but did not keep the skin on right after the hunt. Put in a plastic ziplock and on ice for about 5 hours. Got home and the pics are my set up and close pictures of where I am this morning. Do they look they way they should and do I trim the "off" colored meat before cooking? Did I go too long because I breasted out and didn't age the whole bird? Should I cook tonight or wait until tomorrow?

When I age them, my preference is to breast them, pepper them up, and age them in tupperware with the top loosely on there so it gets air. Give them a flip every day or every other day, show them a little love... Drain off excess juice, a little juice is ok, keeps them moist. Age 3 days minimum, a week is perfect, 2 weeks max. Eat it fresh, do not freeze. If you are going to freeze them, don't mess with aging. Also don't age them with salt, just pepper. Salt them right before you cook them. I keep my fridge as low as possible, but not so cold things freeze, don't worry about this too much. I have never had duck go bad, I have seen it start to turn brown, like about the 2 week mark. Dove will start to turn brown after 3 days or so, I age dove 3 days, and try to eat soon after that. I will age dove and duck whole in refrigerator or ice chest (when traveling), but I do this more as a conveniences.

I also like to cut off the white membrane on the inside of the breast, this stuff is chewy and just not good. Before and after below..





And if I breast them with skin off, I like to cut that top white layer off, before and after below..





You don't have to cut all this off, but it is better. If you leave the skin which is my preference, you obviously can't cut that white layer off under the skin..

Another reason I like mallards and the bigger piece of meat, little ducks there is just not enough meat to do this with.

js4242, yours looks dried out, you probably want to cut the dried out off. This is why I do not do "dry age", there is just not enough meat if you start trimming it down. I have read up on "dry aging" (it has been a while tho), and what I remember, it said part of the process is to trim off the dried out layer. And I have done this, and said I will not do it again.

Thanks for sharing Guy.

Thanks Guy. I will try your method (tupperware) next time. It will probably go over better with my bride as she won't have to look at them. Doesn't look like I will have a ton of meat left after trimming. Some lessons are learned the hard way. Still looking forward to cooking them up and see how it tastes. Thanks for the feedback.

Teal
Mallard
All the rest go into tamales.

Planning on duck hunting for the first time this season. Looking forward to trying these out. Anymore tips are welcomed!

praeseks makes incredible duck Tamales. Like 60% duck 40% portk. And duck sticks are great there as well.

Well looky here who appeared out of the mist!!! The legendary LSU!

Yup. been a while since I have "logged in" just been watching from time to time. Good to see some old names still around here