I have done this recipe with Mallards and Teal. One of the best I have ever used for wild duck. Follow it to the T though for sure. Enjoy !!

Duck Recipe

That is pretty much how I cook mine. My takeaways:

* I have never scoured the skin, I will try that.
* I do primarily cook with skin side down to render down more...
* Have never started out with cold pan, but I might try that. I have started cooking on lower heat, I been experimenting with that.

But there is a lot of stuff he skips, like aging, trimming off membrane..

The cooking is the easy part. The work is in the prep. What are ya’lls methods for getting all the fuzz off the skin? Tape? Lighter?
And what do you do with the breast with several shot wounds? You will ruin someone for life if their first bite of duck is where it was shot.

don't matter, any kind for duck burgers

Excellent points.

* Prep very important, make sure all blood clots, feather punched in meat from gun shot, all cleaned out thoroughly. I like to get my birds on ice ASAP, like I do my fish.
* With duck breast, pluck feathers off good, but a little fuzz I never found to be a problem, that seems to fry off, one reason I like throwing it on a hot skillet vs cold pan discussed above.
* Shot up breast I hate, a reason I shoot #4, and love a wounded mallard with clean breast. A shot up breast, I do not cook as described above, skin comes off, I punch my fingers through the bullet holes, soak good in water to get blood clots out, and use for bacon wrap duck poppers or something else.
* And always give a beginner duck hunter your best duck. I have had parties, teal horderves, quickly hit on hot cast iron (skin off) each side, med to med rare, slice in small cubes, tooth pic in each sticking up, and serve as horderves, it is a hit...they will say "I can't believe this is duck!".

I do the same. Any breast with bruising, or wound gets cleaned out well and soaked for days with water changes.
Then they get jerky made out of them. Save only the best stuff for the pan.

1. Ruddy
2. Wood Duck
3. Teal

I only hunted them a couple times with a former co-worker. He liked to eat them so he got mine. We went our separate ways. I don't eat them so I don't hunt them anymore....besides, too old and broken down to enjoy being cold and wet....knees don't like me much anymore.

Do enjoy reading about others hunts and seeing the pics.

Good luck to all y'all going after them.

I keep a cedar 1x6 board and a propane torch in my garage where I prep my birds. I pluck the birds and breast them out. Lay the breast on the board skin up and very lightly torch them to get the fuzz off. Then I take them to the house and age them like Guy has described several times here. I do not score the fat either with a knife, but I do start with a cold pan. Also I found that I like my duck breast a little cool....not room temperture like a thick steak. I like a crispy skin and that skin and the coolness of the meat keeps the inside rare while the skin gets a little crispy. Over cooking duck is easily to do so I like the meat cool....not cold though. Salt/pepper only and I do not add oil to the pan, I just let the fat render out and by the time their done theres plenty of grease in the pan. If I mix things up a bit right after I turn the breast (I agree most cook time is on the skin side) I'll add a combo soy/honey to the pan and cook the last minute that way. Then pour that over the breast when ready to eat.

Update on my aging process - First the bad news - The black shown in the pictures on page 2 of this thread took over the whole breast. I had to cut it off and as Guy mentioned, there was not a lot of meat left. The good news - what was left was absolutely delicious. Cooked on cast iron skillet with a little oil, salt and pepper. The meat under the dried outer shell was flavorful and moist. Will definitely change two things next time - limit air flow and leave the skin on.

Showing the "shell" of dried meat around the good stuff

Pieces on the left are outer shell - piece on the right is the good stuff

Piece of the good stuff