Wild Ducks – Eating Everything But the Quack
Oct 21st, 2008 | By Hank | Category: Wild Game | Comments | 21 Comments |
Opening Day for the 2008-09 duck season has come and gone, and as you can see, Holly and I did well. Very well. This is, officially, a shit-pile of ducks, almost all of which we shot ourselves; our friend Bob gave us four of the fourteen you see here.
I hunted both days of Opening Weekend. On the opener itself, Holly and I went up to a private ranch near Chico as a guest of Bob and had the time of our lives — the weather was balmy (almost too balmy), the companionship was stellar (check Holly’s blog for her account of our special guest, a vegetarian!), the ducks were flying and our shooting was, well, pretty good.
The place we were hunting was a perfect spot for ducks: Natural marsh and not a ton of hunting pressure. Before shooting time the birds were everywhere. One even landed between Holly and I as we were wading out to our blind. Flocks of wigeon whistled by. Aloof and beautiful pintails glided overhead like austere supermodels. Gadwall wheeled and circled, looking for a meal; they are the homely hobbits of the duck world. Vast flocks of teal swarmed the air like starlings. And the mallards — hens nagging constantly — swooped hither and thither, looking for a nice little patch of open water to set on. It can be more than a little overwhelming.
When shoot time arrived, we could have blazed away at will. But we found ourselves watching more than shooting, partly from our inability to focus on just one set of ducks to shoot, but partly out of sheer awe. It’s like a New York City rush hour of duckdom. Every bird is flying here and there, looking for a place to spend the day. Some decided our set of decoys would be a good spot. Bad for them.
Holly downed the first bird, a young drake wigeon. This is fitting, as her first duck ever was a young drake wigeon. I dropped a gadwall hen, then a wigeon, then another gadwall. I was on fire, killing three birds with six shots. I mentioned as much to Holly, who shot me a look. So much for karma, and I immediately fell into a slump, the worst of which was missing an easy double on a pair of gadwall — I love gadwall, too, because they have an unusual, earthy taste. Gadwall are an eater’s duck, not for beginners.
As dawn turned to morning turned to day, I racked up six ducks: Two wigeon, two gadwall, a pintail and a green teal. Holly came home with “only” four ducks, but three were mallards — and two of those were so big we thought they were farm ducks. Bob gave us two more mallards, a pintail and a teal.
Sunday’s hunt was a little disappointing. I got a chance to hunt the Yolo Bypass refuge with my friend Matt, his son and his brother. It was good to see them, and we all had high hopes. After all, Matt, Holly, Evan and I had all-but shot our limit on Opening Sunday the year before. Not this time.
We set up in a blind about a mile and a half from the truck, which was quite the slog. Decoys out, we waited. But there weren’t that many birds around, surprisingly. Shoot time came and in short order, Matt’s son dropped a green teal on a nice passing shot. About 10 minutes later I killed another teal that decoyed perfectly. And that was it. The birds stopped flying, the breeze died and the weather began to get hot; hunting will remain poor until we get weather. All duck hunters pray for rain.
No matter. Holly and I have 15 ducks now. What to do with them?
Well… quite a lot, actually. I have learned to eat pretty much everything but the quack on a duck or a goose. I have grown used to the funny looks I get from hunters who typically just cut out the breast meat on their birds. Hell, I even get funny looks from people who pluck their birds, as we do.
I can’t help it. I shot these ducks. They’re dead because of me. The least I can do is not waste them. But don’t think I am doing some sort of penance by choking down gizzards or whatnot. Life is too short for that. Nope, I have developed something of a system for squeezing the most flavor and goodness from my birds. Here’s what I do:
First, Holly and I pluck every bird we kill. The skin is a crucial part of the enjoyment of ducks; a skinned duck breast might as well be any red meat. This is definitely a pain in the ass, especially the wings. But our patience is rewarded.
Then I cut off the feet. I never used to do this, but then I remembered that adding chicken feet to broth is a great way to add more collagen, which adds body and heft to it. My friend Elise over at Simply Recipes has a great chicken feet broth recipe. I use duck feet the same way for my duck broth recipe.
The key to releasing the collagen on any bird feet is to hack at them with a cleaver or heavy chef’s knife; this opens the skin and allows the collagen from the cartilage to leak out when you make the stock.
I also use most of the innards. Hearts can be eaten in several ways, either sliced and stir-fried, or braised for a long time. I am fond of deviled duck hearts. If you are squeamish, use the hearts in your broth-making.
Gizzards are destined for the stockpot if they are small, such as those from teal or wigeon. If they are large — and especially goose gizzards — I clean them, trim them and make them into confit. I learned this trick from Paula Wolfert in her The Cooking of Southwest France
Livers had always been a problem for me. I don’t like the texture of liver, although I like the flavor. So I decided to make them into ravioli after I was inspired by Mario Batali’s Babbo Cookbook
You may notice there is some sort of skin-looking thing in the picture above. That’s from the necks of mallards and pintails. Geese are even better. What I do is push out the bones and meat (they go into the stockpot), then clean the inside of the skin, pull out the windpipe and voila! You have the greatest sausage casing Nature has ever devised. I came up with this idea all by myself and was so proud of it — until I later read that those damn French have been doing it with geese for centuries. Nothing new under the sun.
I’m not done yet. Not by a long shot.
As it happens, the tails — the Pope’s nose — on ducks and geese are typically very, very fatty. And one of the great joys of eating wild ducks is that they are among the precious few wild animals blessed with copious amounts of delicious fat; the fat under the skin is why you never skin a duck breast. So what do I do with the various Pope’s noses? I hack them to bits and render them. I got a cup and a half from this batch of ducks.
Be sure to use the tails from puddler ducks or seed-eating ducks. Don’t use divers, and be careful about spoonies — they can be fishy. My advice is to start with pintails and teal, then move to wigeon and mallards. Gadwall are up to you; if you like gadwall flavor, add them. Here is my method for rendering duck or goose fat.
The penultimate step is to age your ducks in the fridge for 2-5 days. Ducks need a bit of age on them to develop flavor — it’s the same thing as dry-aged beef. Simply put your ducks in a plastic container with a paper towel set underneath to keep them dry. Leave uncovered for 24 hours, then cover and set aside for another few days.
But before they go into the freezer, consider jointing your ducks. Duck breasts are best served rare-to-medium. Duck legs and wings are best braised for a long time over low heat. If you remove the legs and wings from your big ducks, you can easily collect enough to make something lovely, like the salmis of duck I just wrote about, or this tagine of duck legs with chestnuts.
Teal you should always leave whole. And you will also want to leave especially fat, especially pretty ducks — pintails often fit this bill, as do big drake wigeon — to roast whole. Here is my method for that.
For those of you who do not hunt, keep in mind all this works with domestic ducks and geese just as well as it does with the birds we bring home from the marsh. And for those of you who do hunt, I hope this gives you a little inspiration to do something a little different with your birds this year. May you shoot well and lose none!
Great post! I’d asked NorCalCazadora if you were going to post on what you do with duck legs, but I got a lot more out of this whole post.
I will be grossing out family and friends for many months… and hopefully winning over some to good eatin’!
By the way, do you have any good recipes for spoonies that don’t involve a brick? Our opener didn’t go as well as your’s…
Oh, Boyfriend, you shorted me! I actually hit five ducks. But unfortunately, one landed in a place where our guide said it was unsafe to retrieve it. Trivial? Not when you’re as lame a shot as I am! I hate tithing the coyotes, but there was nothing I could do.
I’ll be sending some folks over here to check out the method to your madness – they’ve all been asking about it.
Smooches,
h
Josh, I have this to say about the Noble Northern Shoveller, the Smilin’ Mallard, Bootlips, Hollywood, the Sky Pimp: Eat him with gusto — but smell his nose first!
Cut off the Pope’s nose as I mention above and smell the fat: Is it fishy? Then cook the spoonie in a dish with a lot of spices. Gumbo springs to mind. Try this recipe.
If the fat just smells like duck fat, as will be the case if the bird was living in the Grasslands or in the NorCal rice fields, just eat it as you would any duck. You won’t taste the difference.
Hank – I admire your skill in squeezing every bit out of your game. Very admirable. Ducks are my absolute favorite, but I gave up self plucking years ago and now spend the 3 bucks per bird to have them plucked. I know, lazy. We had a great opening weekend that was one for the memory books. Check it out.
I’m getting better about using all of whatever we kill – your blog is part of my inspiration!
Thanks!
Love this line “Aloof and beautiful pintails glided overhead like austere supermodels. Gadwall wheeled and circled, looking for a meal; they are the homely hobbits of the duck world.” and this line “I love gadwall, too, because they have an unusual, earthy taste. Gadwall are an eater’s duck, not for beginners.”
The man can cook — and write. We should all have friends like “Bob.”
I am three days away from my first duck hunt of the season. Can’t wait.
Hank, what do you think about freezing whole plucked birds in water? My off-brand vacuum sealer doesn’t have the oomph to handle the angles and caverns of a whole bird.
Get post, I can’t wait to see the look on my wife’s face when I strain out the webbed feet from the stock.
Sounds like a great hunt! I am intrigued by what deviled duck hearts are. =)
I will make the deviled hearts recipe link “live” tonight when I finish work, Garrett.
As for freezing birds in water, it defeats the purpose of dry-aging them. I never totally vacuum-seal my ducks anyway — there is always the cavity that remains.
I’d suggest drying your ducks, wrapping them in plastic wrap, then wrapping them in freezer paper. This is what I do with whole geese.
UPDATE: Here is the Deviled Duck Heart recipe.
There are hunters who just cut out the breasts on duck? I feel like I should mourn all the lost opportunities for duck confit and pate.
Kudos to you for using everything but the quack.
It looks like a lot of work to clean all those ducks!
Check out this ptarmigan
Hank! I saw duck fat for the first time! Unfortunately it was in one of your photos!
I spoke with a wildlife biologist friend a couple days ago about the difference in quality of meat product as their feed changes during annual migration. He confirmed that what you and I are eating would be very different product, based on a number of weeks of highly different diet. If I could ship you some [which I can't - trust me, I've tried this recently], I’d get you to do some R&D. Keep up the good work.
Hank! I am green with envy!!! Thanks for the great narrative, and deviled duck hearts? YUM!
I’m new at wild game but I have gone over to Duck Dressing .We cook it just like a Chicken Hen using the stock to make the Dressing while carefully using some of the rendered fat for flavor. Duck meat was fine after being boiled a few hours and roasted in pan with the dressing
I love – just love – this post and its philosophy of wasting nothing. Thank you
Sylvie
http://www.LaughingDuckGardens.com/ldblog.php/
I saw the article in the paper, I’ve been doing this for 35 years and watched my elders do before me. Waste nothing ! Liver pate’ Mmm
One way to get kids & non-game people to eat duck pheasent, quail etc: Is brown pieces in olive oil and slow cook them in cream of mushroom soup. And some rice for the extra gravy. I put four duck halves in my woodstove one rainy december day, with a link of Italian sausage in each ribcage and the smoke brought people to the door and the phone started ringing. (i’m drooling) Great Blog! There are a lot of hunters that think like you! I have never cut a breast off of a duck(what a waste). I won’t get into fish here but my family had a retail fish market from 1926-1976. I ate swordfish like other kids ate burgers. Mmmm — Mike T.
More info on the plucking and gutting, please. Photos are always appreciated. Raising my own, and will need to dispose of “extra” drakes.
Stumbled on this post while looking at duck recipes. Great stuff. I’m a hardcore duck/goose hunter. Between myself and my two sons, we take many birds home during the course of a season (40-50 geese, slightly lower # of ducks) For the sake of time, we always breast them out. Now that I’ve seen this post, I’ve hung 6 pheasants in the garage for 3 days and am thinking about plucking ducks. Question: Do you really pluck all your birds by hand? There’s got to be a better way. I can’t imagine plucking 6 Canada Geese during a single session..it would take hours! I”m wondering if a picking machine makes sense. Thoughts?
Dave: Yes, I pluck every bird by hand. I wax them, which helps a lot. Still, plucking six Canadas at a shot would make me queasy.
There are plucking machines available on the market. They are several hundred dollars, but if you shoot 75-100 birds a year, it will pay for itself. The machines have rubber “fingers” that rub off the feathers. I’ve used them a few times, and once you get the hang of it it will not damage the ducks. Nothing beats a hand-plucked bird, though!
Came home with 13 ducks from this weekend hunting next to Fazio. They’re being cleaned at Broadway, but I’ll try to render some fat and save it for making confit or tortillas. This a a great post and inspirational, maybe I’ll try plucking and gutting after the next hunt.
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