A basic skill I use all the time is breaking down, or cutting up, ducks, geese and pheasants. Not every bird is worthy of a full-on roast: To me, such a bird needs to be fat, young and not terribly shot-up.
For those birds with broken legs, shot-up breasts, that are skinny or very old, I break them down into parts for separate cooking. Breasts get seared, while legs and wings go into their own kinds of recipes. The carcasses all go into stocks and broth. I waste very little. Here’s how I turn a whole game bird into parts:
STEP ONE: Have a sharp boning or paring knife. This is the one I use
. Can you use a chef’s knife? Yes, but in my mind it is too wide to do a lot of the fine work needed for cutting up a duck or pheasant. A good alternative to a boning knife is a fillet knife for fish; it may be a little thin, but it’s better than a big wide chef’s knife. And make sure your knife is sharp! Remember a dull knife is a lazy servant…
STEP TWO: Start with the legs. I press on the gap between legs and breast to push as much skin toward the breast as I can: That keeps the breasts juicy and tender when you cook them. Slice down in the gap and you will notice you just sliced skin, not muscle — that’s the key. Gently cut downward until you reach the ball-and-socket joint where the leg is attached.
As you slice down, arc the knife under the back of the bird to get all the meat off the thigh, as in the right picture above.
Snap the leg back toward you to pop open the ball-and-socket joint, which frees the leg/thigh. Tuck the knife behind the ball and cut the leg free. As you cut past the socket joint, don’t forget to arc the knife around the little pocket of meat known in birds as the “oyster,” as this is the best part. The oyster is small in wild ducks, but is large in turkeys, geese and pheasants.
STEP THREE: Move to the wings. If your bird still has wings (you often lose one when wingshooting), look for the dark line where the fatty breast ends and the side of the bird begins: This is where you make a cut parallel to that line all the way to the wing joint.
If you cut in the right spot, you will go right through the soft cartilage and free the wing from the body. Don’t worry if you mess it up a few times; it takes practice to know exactly where that spot is.
Now slide the knife along the saber bone, which is a long, curved bone along the bird’s back that looks like a sword; you can see it in the picture above left. Slide the knife along that bone until you get to the joint, which will now be totally free from the body. Finish by removing the wing by cutting a little extra skin from the neck area.
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STEP FOUR: Finish with the breasts. I like to take the breasts off in one piece — this lets me stuff them if I want, and it wastes less skin. Remember skin equals protection for breast meat, which is prone to drying out. I begin by making a cut along a fat pad on the side of the bird.
I then gently start sliding the knife along another fat line toward the bird’s tail end; you can see that line at the end of my knife in the picture above left. To get all the meat, you need a sharp knife and the knowledge that different birds have different breast structures: Ducks and geese have broad plates under their breasts, so you run the knife flat along this plate until you hit the keel bone.
In pheasants and pigeons, that plate is narrow, but the keel bone is very high. So when you hit it, know you have to slice a long ways up until you find the spot where meat ends and skin begins. It takes practice.
Once you get the back end of the breast freed, run the knife along the stout bone along the neck end of the bird, then along the wishbone up towards the keel bone. Some cooks remove the wishbone before breaking down a bird, but I generally don’t.
In the pictures above, I am freeing the meat from one side of the keel bone — freeing the meat is how you should think about this process, rather than “slicing” or cutting” — and I am freeing the meat from the wishbone on the neck end.
Once you have done this on both sides, gently cut the attachments along the top of the keelbone to free the whole breast from the body. I do this by letting the mostly freed breast sides hang.
When you have your breast meat on the cutting board, all you need to to do finish is remember to remove the tenders, as they are only lightly attached to the breast and need to be taken off if you plan to sear the breast solo.
There you go. My advice: Take your time at first, study the pictures and feel free to ask me questions. Every bird will be easier than the last one you did, and this technique for cutting up a carcass works with any bird: Ducks, geese, pheasants, pigeons, turkeys — even domestic chickens.
Once you get the hang of it, it only takes a few minutes to break down a bird.
Great instructions I will try it next time,
I do have some practice and did something similar but with slighty less finesse.
The lst lot of birds I prepare were some Magpie Geese from Australia’s NT I cooked these a couple of ways , one was as a Chinese inspired stir fry Breasts fillets cut into thin strips with 5 spice which was enjoyed by my guests and ourselves. The second way was fillets sliced in half or 3rds to produce 10mm 3/8″thick slabs which were marinated in beer and rosemary then crumbed and fried – “Goose schnitzels” also a great way to try them.
A friend of mine went out goose hunting for the first time and shared some breast meat with me. Some pieces were really good, but the rest had a very off taste. There was a lot of blood clots in some of the meat. I got as much out as I could. I also brined the meat in the fridge before cooking. The smaller breasts were quite good. Does age of the goose affect the taste? Since they didn’t have experience with goose before, was there potentially something they did wrong in the field or while butchering that would have caused it? Are there other factors?
Hey Hank,
thanks for all you do! When aging a duck or goose do you gut before you hang or just leave the guts in there? If you leave them, for how long. The online blogs seem to be split on this..
Nick: I keep ducks whole but have started aging them in the fridge, so cooler temps. I gut geese, as they are a bit too big to hang ungutted; they hold their inner heat longer.
My husband brings back wild turkeys every fall and every spring. On the breast, there’s a tough membrane. We normally remove the membrane prior to cooking…. Do you do it? And if so, what’s the easiest way of doing it without butchering the poor breast?
Jackie: I remove the first layer of membrane, but leave the second. I use a very thin boning knife to do it.
Love Love Love your books!
Do you have an article on bone broth? I am wanting to try bone broth from deer and hog. And really hope you come to the National NRA meeting in May in Dallas.
Thanks. Will render the fat and make either ramen or pho stock.. No reason to let the bird go to waste. Dog will get the post-stock meat, she made a 200 yard water retrieve, so she is entitled.
Hank, what do you do with Sarcocystis birds? I shot a huge fat mallard that has rice breast. Should I just render the fat and toss the meat? Help me Obi one….
Dan: Sad. Yeah, that’s what I’d do — or use the carcass for stock. You’ll be cooking the hell out of the broth anyway and it will be perfectly safe.
Love all your tips and videos. I am a first time Wild Duck cooker from Ontario. I was thinking of roasting my ducks in my ‘WolfGang Puck pressure oven then make your simple sauce with potatoes and veg. Do you think that’s a good idea?
Duck Vergin
How do I remove the feathers from a fresh Canadian goose? can it just be skinned and not deal with the feathers? HELP asap
Janice: Yes, you can skin it, or pluck it as you would any bird. If you use the search function on this website, I have detailed instructions and videos.
I need a brine that I can use on my ducks for a smoker. I don’t know what kind of wood to use when smoking. I have made duck jerky many times and it always comes out too salty. It takes forever to smoke them and the texture is less than desirable.
If you could help me that would be great.
Jeff: Here is my recipe for smoked duck: https://honest-food.net/how-to-make-smoked-duck/
Hello Hank,
Unfortunately, this comment comes too late, as I’ve already dealt with the birds, but I’m hoping that you can offer some suggestions for next time. This is my first year hunting and I was lucky to take four ruffed grouse today. I laid the birds on snow in a plastic bag as I collected them. They went into a cooler with ice packs and were cleaned about 4 hours later. My problem is that most of the birds were gut shot and smelled badly of bacteria once I skinned and gutted them. I chose to breast out the birds, which was a shame because I was hoping to do more with the carcasses. I tried rinsing out the carcasses but they still smelled after thoroughly working them under cold water. Was there something I could/should have done differently?
Thanks,
jason
Jason: Ruffed grouse innards stink no matter what. I just wash the insides out really well and use a paper towel to dry it afterwards. A slight bit o’funk is part of the glory of a ruffed grouse… within reason.
You are more than welcome Hank. Actually that hardly even covers it. As I said, the book was a God-send. It showed me that the sky was the limit, and provided the basics I needed to try different things and create my own dishes.
Through my own experience (admittedly, way too long) I was just starting to catch on to the medium-rare mantra. Then an article in Field and Stream a few years back called The Duck Course got me started making some killer duck dishes, and shortly after that I got your book, and suddenly I couldn’t shoot enough ducks to satisfy my appetite, lol.
Then I discovered your blog here, I was like wow, this dude is my hero! As I also love to hunt just about everything, fish pretty much year round, grow fresh herbs, forage for all manner of wild eats like berries, asparagus and wild mushrooms; and find delicious ways to cook and enjoy all of it to the max.
So needless to say, I am going to be living on here for the foreseeable future. One thing I haven’t seen here yet is one of my absolute faves: Pickled asparagus. I got a great recipe if you want it, but I am sure you can come up with one of your own that would rival it! 😉
Chad
I got a copy of duck duck goose for Christmas last year. Best gift ever! As my wife and I shoot a lot of ducks and geese and have struggled in the past to find many good ways to eat them besides making jerky.
It has opened up a whole new world for me. I have enjoyed waterfowl meat more than ever before! (and as much or more than a lot of other things too!) Nowadays it almost seems a disgrace to make any of it into jerky.
Here’s the thing though: I had always skinned 99% of my birds. I didn’t know about this wet plucking thing so I had always dry plucked and singed. It was such a brutally time consuming process, that I would only do 1-2 per season – and couldn’t even begin to fathom how one might do it with all or most of the birds they shot.
After I got the book though, I at least plucked off every breast thereafter and was searing and pan-saucing like a madman. Well, this season, I am ready to take it to the next level and start plucking a mess of birds, rendering fat, making stock and all that jazz.
Just finished watching the wet plucking video, so now that I can finally envision how to do that and how it works (blew my mind by the way), I am stoked and ready to go. Just got to find me some paraffin wax. I can honestly say I have never noticed it in the grocery stores around here, but I haven’t ever been looking for it either.
So all this leads up to my question finally. Can you pluck ducks and save (eat) the skin this early in the year? I just finished processing my first limit from the Idaho opener last weekend, and it seemed like they had way too many of those juicy not-yet-emerged feathers that are deep within the skin and only have a teeny little tuft of dry material to grab (I think they are called pin feathers but I am not positive). Does the wax get them out too, or is it actually necessary to get every single one of them out? They don’t really seem like anything you would wanted cooked into that yummy skin that you’re going to eat. . .
Chad: Thanks for the kind words! Really makes my day to hear that. Yes, we wax birds this early in the year. I use a bit more wax per duck, and I tend to pull the wax off downward, i.e., toward the feet. This direction seems to grab more of the pinfeathers.
Hi Hank,
I recently removed both whole legs off a domestic goose in order to make confit for a recipe of garbure. Left with a bird minus its legs, is it still possible to roast it “as is” and remove the breast meat at some point, then finish them to a tender medium rare in a skillet as you suggest in your Roast Goose recipe? (I also like the resulting stock I make from the roasted carcass.)
Would I need to make any adjustments to your recipe other than skip the steps regarding the legs?
Lucky
ok, so I have a benefactor hunter that drops off geese and ducks – I am so lucky! so far I have tried to pluck the ducks to no avail so I have resorted to just breasting them out. I would love not to waste the rest of the bird even if i’m just making soup stock.
pray tell… how do you use wax to pluck a duck?
Hi Hank,
I broke down a pheasant last night, and cut it into small strips for stir-fry. I came across some pin-like bones in the lower leg section. Are these worth removing or will they cook down like those tough venison tendons that melt out in cooking?
Thanks so much for your help and blog! I love it.
Amanda
Tim and Chris: Yes, sort of. While I have not yet posted specifically how to pluck a duck (which requires wax), I have talked about how to pluck a pheasant, and this technique works for chickens, turkeys, quail, grouse, chukars and other partridges.
has there been a reply to the de-feathering birds request?
Great post, wonderful pictures. I have another tutorial request. How about de-feathering birds? It seems that there are so many techniques. Which is the most reliable?
Hank, Happy New Year! Hope Holly is recovering well? Thanks for the breakdown on a breakdown! 🙂 Nicely done and well documented.
Excellent instructions and illustrations, Hank. More detailed than my Joy of Cooking… smile. It’s perfect for novices and for anybody who wants to check their technique.
Sylvie
http://www.LaughingDuckGardens.com/ldblog.php
Funder: I am planning on deep-frying the tenderloins, either like chicken-fried steak or as a tempura. I’ll let you know how it turns out.
Great post, thank you! I’ve been practicing on chickens, but I’m not nearly as good as you yet. I’m gonna try your breasting technique. (That sounds racy!)
What do you like to do with the tenderloins? I’ve always cooked them with the breast, but I’m definitely open to new ideas.
Great tutorial…I’ve been wanting to do a duck for awhile now (though I’m going to let someone else shoot it for me).
I second the rabbit tutorial, too. Good info!
Josh: You should cook pheasant in pheasant fat…silly! Or chicken or potatoes or onions or parsnips or…well, whatever suits you.
Lang: I need to go find me a bunny before I can do that. I should be able to get on in a week or two. Check back then!
Excellent info as usual. How about a rabbit tutorial?
Great post, I’ll be referring to it if I ever shoot another animal.
By the way, I used an earlier, great post of yours and rendered some pheasant fat. Now, what should I use it in?
Nice of you to take the time to do all of the great illustrations, Hank 🙂
You’ve reminded me that I have to get my knives sharpened.
Fantastic 101 Hank! The pictures tell the whole story. Nice post.