Wild Ducks

[MobyP]

I just bought a couple of good looking wild ducks, and I wondered if anyone here had experience with their preparation. Obviously these are much leaner than the Gressingham I usually go for, so roasting them whole, for instance, would be a waste.

Equally, if they are that lean, and I decided to braise or confit the thighs, what should I look out for? Lower temperatures? Longer times? Should I lightly pan roast the breasts, and serve red or pink? They seem a much darker meat than usual - will they turn livery - like pigeon/squab - if I over-cook them? And what would they go well with?

All ideas/experience appreciated.

[jackal10]

Wild ducks usally have almost no fat, so can be dry.

Their muscle have worked hard, so they can be tough. Their age can be variable as well. A wild duck will only feed two.

They should not be very gamey - dont hang for more than a couple of days

If shot on the seashore thay can taste fishy, so you need to allow for that in cooking - quite a strong, sharp sauce. This is the time for Seville oranges, and they pair wonderfully (aux Bigarades). Marinade the breasts in lemon, garlic, pepper, bay etc for a day - fairly acidic. Roast the breasts 10 mins or until pink, slice thin, then finish in a sauce made with a little caramel, seville orange juice and rind, port, splash of curacao or gin.

Traditionally they were slow roast whole, but I agree it would be easier to cook in pieces - confit the legs and thighs, and maybe serve the breast pink, sliced thin or braise it. You could consider lightly tea-smoking one. You can make the cofit like a normal duck confit, but you will have to add all the fat.

Stock with the carcasses, and you can extract a little meat for a hash.

The Sporting Wife (Barbera Hargreaves) ISBN 0-85493-121-X has good recips for this and all sorts of game

Edited January 15, 2004 by jackal10 (log)

[rgruby]

The last, and only, time I was able to get a hold of some wild ducks (mallards i think - a hunter associate of my father gave them to him, and he passed them on to me), I pan roasted the breasts, and used the the rest of the carcass, including the legs, to make a sauce.

A wild duck is likely to be lean, but I don't know that they are much leaner than a domestic chicken. The ducks I had had very very dark red to purple flesh - so I'm guessing the colour of the flesh of the ducks you have is not unusual. (Er,I'll try and stop putting two of the same words in a row in the following sentences!) But definitely, don't overcook them - I did this to one pair of duck breasts I had, and they got pretty tough - think dry roast beef. Medium rare at most, I would think. Personally, I would go as rare as you are comfortable with.

I've heard that the type of duck, and what it eats, will affect whether it tastes "fishy" or not. This makes sense, if there are ducks that eat fish or plankton - but I don't know which species are likely to be fishy tasting.

The ducks I got had a slightly gamy flavour to the skin/fat, but the flesh was fantastic (the ones I didn't overcook). I cooked the breasts with the skin on, but removed it before I ate them - because of the gaminess. I didn't think of trying to confit the legs, but I wonder if the gaminess of the fat would carry through to the legs. Perhaps you could render a bit of fat and see how it tastes before you decide to proceed with the confit - although I'm guessing you won't get much fat from the wild ducks themselves - so that might not be an issue.

And, in my case, I just chucked the legs in with the carcass to make a sauce. (I did one with juniper berries and another with cranberries. Yum). The legs on my ducks really didn't have much meat on them at all - not sure it would have been worth the effort to try and confit, or even braise them given how little meat they would have provided.

Good luck with the ducks, and let us know what you did and how it turned out.

Cheers,

geoff Ruby

[Mayhaw Man]

Recently I posted a recipe in this thread. I get lots of ducks this time of year (and when I say lots I mean, literally, a freezer full), mallards, pintails, wooducks, the tiny and delicious green wing teal, etc.

There are many recipes I enjoy, but the one listed in the thread above is really, really good. It is a bit unusual for South Louisana cooking, but you will see it at parties pretty regularly (often the meat is stripped and the meat and gravy are kept in a chafing dish and served along with small bisquits or toast points).

The recipe listed is for four ducks, but it can easily be cut in half.

[MobyP]

Thanks for the help everyone.

Mahaw Man - when I was in the states, I was asking everyone if they'd heard of teal - and no one had. I came back to London, and there are rows of them in borough market. Thanks for the link! That looks like a great recipe.

I have a large tub of duck fat in the fridge, so I think a confit of the legs will allow me to give them a long time at a low heat. The bones I'll give the Keller quick sauce treatment. The breasts I'm a bit nervous about. I can't wait to see my wife's face if she takes a bite and it ends up tasting like herring. She's not the most adventurous eater as it is, but this will send us into couples therapy.

On the side, some orange braised fennel, and chicory tarte tatins (both from Ramsey) and have a bigarades style sauce as Jack recommends. I've done it before, and found it slightly overwhelming - all of the sweetness and acidity. How do people moderate this? Or am I missing the point?

[Adam Balic]

Widgeon can taste quite fishy, teal should be OK. If you overcook the this can increase the 'liverish' flavour. They are quite good in a Salmi and this can sort out the problem of legs v breast coooking time.

If you are using Seville oranges, then the Bigarades sauce shouldn't be that sweet, more acidic. One thing that you can do if concerned about acid etc is to cut the amount of juice down and flavour the sauce with the grated zest.

[MobyP]

Blimey. 50 Million Frenchmen can't be wrong. That bigarades sauce went perfectly with the stronger flavour of the wild duck. The acidity suddenly made sense. (BTW - is it big-a-ra-dees? or big-a-rad?). I deboned the ducks, used the bones for a quick sauce - with some veal and chicken glace, reduced it. For the sauce I used the juice from one orange, and one lemon (lacking a Seville), reduced to a syrup, added a splash of madeira and a nugget of the balsamic caramel that I was using for the endive tatins, reduced. Added the stock, reduced to sauce consistency - and then mounted with some of that French echire butter from Borough - which is really marvellous to cook with.

I confit'd the (v. small) thighs at a very low temp (@100c/220f). After about an hour and a half, they were semi-pliable, but I thought they'd losen up with more time. Turns out the opposite was the case - ended up giving them another hour, and they became tougher. Chalk that one up to experience.

Thanks for everyone's help. I was a bit apprehensive, but it turned into a good meal.

[budrichard]

Sorry I didn't answer sooner but I was hunting.

The only simliarity between a domestic duck and a wild duck is the name and two feet and two wings. Otherwise they are two different birds.

As I have already posted, hanging is not required and can infact be dangerous.

Treat a wild duck like rare beef and roast until rare to medium rare serve hot with some sort of sweet sauce. Put aromatics in the cavity. Any over cooking and it will be tuff.

There are fish eating ducks and coots that are never going to taste that good. There are all sorts of recipes out there to cope with this but they don't really work. A slow braise in some sort of aromatic may help.

Most of the posts that one gets about wild game are from inidviduals with not a lot of experience. I have been shooting and eating wild ducks for 40+ years. Great water fowl! Just don't shoot the coots! -Dick

[MobyP]

I have to ask - what's a coot?

[jackal10]

Like a moorhen, but with different colouring: white beak instead of orange

http://www.eden-mallards.co.uk/images/wildlife/coot_1.jpg

Edited January 17, 2004 by jackal10 (log)

[Jon Tseng]

Got a couple of teal last night, largely on the basis they look so cute (perfectly formed mini-ducks, about the size of a large quail). Browned them in a frying pan and roasted for five minutes - still underdone - roasting another four mins (about 200c). Came out perfectly done - not nearly as gamey as i thought they would be

cheero

j

[Mayhaw Man]

I have to ask - what's a coot?

Coots are inedible. Not only do they eat nothing but fish, but there is very little meat on the bird. They are fun to watch as they have to get a running take off and kind of skitter across the water as they get airborne.

[Adam Balic]

Actually coots, both American and Eurasian eat mostly vegetation (often algae). The proberly taste rubbish, like many slime eating ducks. Baby herons on the otherhand, are by reputation, delicious.

Seville oranges are in season right now (UK), use them while they last and freeze them for later. Also dry the skins.

[budrichard]

American Coot, 'Fulica americana', superficially ducklike species have conical bills, dives for aquatic plants, feet are not webbed. Source, Sibley 'Guide to Birds'.

http://www.mbr-pwrc.usgs.gov/Infocenter/i2210id.html

Source of great joy to veteran duck hunters, when they see a 'newbie' coming out of the marshes with a brace of coots. -Dick

[Adam Balic]

American Coot, 'Fulica americana', superficially ducklike species have conical bills, dives for aquatic plants, feet are not webbed. Source, Sibley 'Guide to Birds'.

http://www.mbr-pwrc.usgs.gov/Infocenter/i2210id.html

Source of great joy to veteran duck hunters, when they see a 'newbie' coming out of the marshes with a brace of coots. -Dick

Sorry I should have worded the sentence more carefully, a coot is definately not a duck of any description. What I was alluding to was that it was possible that coots tasted bad because of their diet, which was similar to some of the more revolting tasting ducks.

Having been hunting for ducks myself, I find it very disturbing that anybody would be green enough to confuse a coot with a duck? In Australia (Vic) there are several rare species of duck that hunters must be able to recognise before they can get their shooter licence. Not the case in the USA?