doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com OT: Eating Ducks

I love duck hunting. Done it since I was 7, but this is the first year I can remember not going after them. Why? Partly becaused I moved and didn't have time, partly because my brit is getting old and I need to upland hunt as much as I can, but the main reason is that I would so much rather eat a chukar than a duck! I like duck, I cook it many different ways, some of them tasty, but the best duck dish pales in comparison to quail, chukar, and most upland birds. Two words: quail fettucine. Mmmmmmm. Do any of you have the same dilemma?

I miss it though. Watching the sunrise, birds working the dekes, talking to hen susies, seeing the rhythms of the marsh. I think next year I'll get out anyway, and maybe I'll just let them land in the dekes (or maybe not (wink wink), so I can watch them, like I used to do when I was ten, with two decoys over my shoulder on my bike, with hipboots on, just so I could watch ducks in a local marsh.

It's amazing how the seemingly small things always bring back the memory of the marsh and duck hunting. The smell of the marsh is like no other. The odor of spent paper shells, the sounds of huge flocs of blackbirds filling the skies and the sound of cattails blowing in the wind will always remind me of duck and goose hunting with my father and brothers. And I'll never forget the first time my father allowed me to hunt the marsh alone, just me, my 12 foot home-made duck skiff and my trusty Sterlingworth (and the hen mallard that I brought home). Finally I was a man.

I grew up hunting the famous Horicon Marsh in Wisconsin and hunted it frequently until recently when my yellow lab became too old to make it through the cattails. Although I get out a few times a years with my brothers and their Chesies who still hunt it 2-3 times a week during the season, my time is now spent hunting grouse and sitting on my deer stand.

Although duck can be prepared into a tasty but still somewhat gamey dish, I agree that there is nothing like a grouse prepared with a blackberry and currant reduction!

If you skip the fish ducks, and select mallards... then BBQ on a Weber kettle with your favorite BBQ sauce, not past medium rare, slice thinly, and wash down with corn squeezings... yummy. Like roast beef, really...

Biggest error is overcooking duck. Or over marinading...

The finest eating non domestic creature is a mallard that carries .5" of Canadian grain FAT. They need nothing but to be picked and roasted. The less fat mallards get skined and stuffed into the better endowed.

Of all my hunting memories, waterfowl stir me the most.
Tom C touched on it and lit up a host of feelings I'd thought I'd forgot.

Most all other endevors pale in comparison.

Shotgun you must know little about ducks. When mallards sold for 25 cents, canvasbacks sold for ten times that. Divers like cans, redheads, ringnecks, and scaup do not eat fish. And they don't eat corn out of cowshit like mallards do. Goldeneyes and large mergansers do eat minnows and small fish. I would not trade a fat roast canvasback for a season's worth of mallards. I bake ducks with nothing in them at 275F for a long time...four hours for a big canvasback. No seasonings to ruin that nutlike flavor!

When cleaning ducks, slit skin around neck, down both sides of the backbone, then down in front of the anus, but behind the legs. Then shear through down both sides of the backbone and around both sides of the synsacrum and pull head, backbone, lungs,intestines, and rear end of duck out as a unit. Virtually blood and odor free and no cut intestines. When cooking, fold the legs inside the body cavity so they do not dry out during cooking.

I agree, a cornfed fat northern mallard is yummy, but they aren't always available. As for memories however, waterfowling is hard to beat. Some of the best memories in my life are of duck hunts with my dad before he passed away. Maybe I'll build that 12' bluebill skiff this summer to get me back in the game, maybe carve a decoy or two...

There was a
blues singer in Columbia, SC who wrote a song called "Maybe next Week Sometime" which was about his lifes' dreams sliding away... Action, men! hit that project now!
Best to you all in he comming year!! David

Hal - in 40 years of duck hunting I have never heard of cleaning a duck like that. I have already passed that info on to my brothers and will certainly try that next year. Thanks for the tip.

Tom C.

I've heard about cleaning pheasant's that way, I'll try it next time I get a duck or goose.....

Mike Doerner

My wife and I enjoy the taste of wild game, and rank mallard and cans among the less flavorful ducks. I think canvasbacks brought higher market prices simply because they're bigger. We like roasted ringbills more, and put top priority on teal, the tastiest little game birds on earth! We roast all game birds hot and fast so the inside meat is almost rare, and never ever marinate to hide the taste!

Unfortunately, my advancing years and the flyway's westward drift have made waterfowling more trouble than pleasure for me, and I sold my old 1954 Alumacraft Ducker this past year. I paid $135 for it in 1968, and sold it for $1,800 in August. Nice return on a 38 year investment, when you count all the days on the marsh!

BTW, if you haven't tried a Czech booya made with coot breasts, you've missed a fine and rare waterfowl treat!