Lets talk eating duck......

Rank your top 3 ducks to eat....

1. Teal
2. Mallard
3. Woodduck

1. Teal
2. Wood Duck
3. Pintail

“Age” them as I think Guy does, and cook them medium rare with salt and pepper. Can’t tell it’s duck

I’ll edit to add, ate a Canvasback a couple years ago that was fantastic, can’t tell it because it’s the only one I’ve had and don’t know if we got lucky or they Are that good. I’d put them at 2

Wood duck
Pintail
Teal

The title took me back to my Marine Corp boot camp days. One day our DI came and and exclaimed "We're eating duck today boys". Me being a Cajun got really excited. However that excitement was quickly diminish when we got in line and there was no duck. The DI was at the end of the line by the trash can telling everyone "Now duck your s**t and get out". He was pissed about something so we didn't eat and instead were subjected to a grueling bending in the sand. Talk about some bad chafing.

Teal ranks right over a boottlip. Both enjoy digging in the mud for... Mud


Wood duck
Mallard
Widgeon
Gadwall
Redhead
Teal
Boot


Won't shoot any others

You boys are missing out on the Canvasback

Haven't had wooduck

So

Can
Pintail
Teal

Problem with eating a can is cleaning the thing 1st.

1. Teal
2. Canvasback
3. Pintail

Skin on - pluck the feathers, cut out the breast. A lot easier than skinning them. It is a bigger pain but worth it IMO.

Little oil in a hot skillet, get that skin crispy first. Make ya wanna slap ya mamma. Number one on my list.

An every season discussion

Woodies canvasback and wigeon followed by teal

There's a reason the Canvasback was the highest fetching duck back in the market days. For me it's:

1. Canvasback
2. Woodies
3. Whistling Ducks
4. Teal
5. Mallards

1 teal
2 grey duck
3 wood duck

Bluewing/cinnamon teal are in the shovelor family I believe but the green wings aren't. Look at a bluewing/cinnamon teal's beak...

I'd say:
Green wing teal
Wood duck
Mallard
Wigeon/Gadwall
Divers

You guys don't kid yourself, mallard is the king duck. It is a real piece of meat, a real steak, cooked fresh and aged a week, it is better than prime rib...That layer of mallard fat bursts with flavor. Salt and pepper only, don't mess it up with marinade..








Last hunt of season 1/29/2020..

I’ve never cared for duck. I had a neighbor lady in her 80’s when I lived on Palestine that loved them and I’d give her all mine. I hunted three days a week at least back then. After she died I pretty much quit hunting them.

What kinda duck did you shoot? It makes a big difference. And also over cooking duck, any type, is not good, it will all taste like liver, which funny my wife likes.

I'd eat that! Looks like Sandhill Crane and I love Crane. Only duck hunting I ever did was jumping them on tank dams. Might have to try it again. Never tried grilling them like a steak.

Mostly wood ducks, teal, and mallards. I don’t overcook anything if I can help it.

Leave mine un plucked and un gutted for about 8 days in a walk in cooler hung by the neck.
Then only pluck breast and fillet out meat with skin on.
The first time I tried it I couldn’t believe the difference in taste between aging whole and cleaning fresh killed.
No bad smell and the meat didn’t have that liver taste.

Wood duck,
Mallard
Pintail
Canvasbacks- very easy to do this way.

When duck is cooked perfectly, it will have a unique flavor, unlike anything else. And some people will just not like it, even if cooked to perfection. But I think it's awesome.

this. I've aged ducks two months with the same outcome, I've been preaching it for years.

Lots of folks have stopped giving me their ducks after a hunt because of one bite of my aged breast pan seared rare. It makes a huge difference, like night and day.

Thats the way I was raised eating duck. Won't eat it any other way.

[quote=Guy]You guys don't kid yourself, mallard is the king duck. It is a real piece of meat, a real steak, cooked fresh and aged a week, it is better than prime rib...That layer of mallard fat bursts with flavor. Salt and pepper only, don't mess it up with marinade../quote]

I’ve killed more mallards than any other duck. They are fine eating but I put them firmly at #5. Those little green wing teal breasts are like little fillet mignon’s.

For me it would be:

Green wing teal
Mallard
Gadwall

For my six year old daughter it doesn't matter as long it is grilled!!

What temp or range of temp is best during the aging process?

I don't know about "best temp" but place freshly killed ducks inside a plastic Walmart bag then put them in a cold refrigerator.

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

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