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Clean and Process Your Birds
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All too often, when I take clients
out duck hunting in Texas, they try to give me all the ducks when we are
done shooting for the day. I like to eat quackers, and so does my family,
but we can only eat so many a year. Y'all need to take home your birds.
The main reasons I hear for not wanting the birds is that they taste bad,
the hunter doesn't know how to clean them, or they think that cleaning
them is too much work. Here is the "how to" of cleaning and processing
ducks to make it as easy as possible, and make them taste as good as possible.
Plucking, The Hardest Way, But
NOT that Hard!
If you decide to pluck them,
for cooking whole, It is MUCH easier to get it done if you first dunk them
in very hot water that has some parrafin melted into it. The hot water
expands the pores around the feather bases and lets them come out easier.
The parrafin wax will keep feathers from blowing all over, and lets them
peel off the skin like a coat. Be VERY CAREFUL when dunking the birds into
the water so as not to get burned. Use insulated tongs to hold the ducks,
or a similar device. When removing entrails, be sure to get ALL of them,
including the dual spleens, which are packed tightly along each side of
the backbone, behind the guts. A baby spoon will help get these organs
out of the cracks between the ribs where they connect to the backbone.
Your finger tip will work, too, but watch out for broken bones. THEY HURT
when they poke you.
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Breasting, Pretty Darned Easy,
Actually!
Shears can make breasting
easy! Flip the duck onto it's breast and use the shears to cut along both
sides of the backbone from head to tail. Then just grab the head and pull
hard to remove all the entrails along with the backbone, head, neck and
tail. All that's left to do is to peel off the skin from the breast, cut
off the wings and pull the legs, if desired.
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Filleting, Easy AND Fast!
To fillet out the breast meat
easily, place the bird, back down, on the edge of table with it's head
hanging off the near side. Grip the skin firmly where the breast makes
a dip at the base of the neck (the craw). Rip this skin downward a bit.
Turn the duck head away from you and peel the skin off the breast, working
from the ripped craw toward the sides and belly of the duck. Stop skinning
when the breast is clear, You do not have to completely remove the skin
from the carcass. Now, with a fillet knife, make a deep slice along each
side of the breast bone. Continue filleting along both sides of the breast
plate until the fillet comes loose from there, finish removing by cutting
loose from the wishbone.
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Finishing Touches, To Make 'Em
Taste Good!
Many people complain about the
liver like taste of duck or greasiness. The taste can be made MUCH milder
by getting as much blood out of the meat as possible. Wash the cleaned
birds thoroughly, squeezing out the blood. Then soak the ducks in refrigerated
water for at least a full day. Change the water at least three times, and
put just a little vinegar in the water (less than a teaspoon) with each
change. Only birds cooked with the skin on might be greasy. All fat is
between the skin and meat. Truth is, if you are cooking skinless duck meat,
you will usually have to add bacon wraps or something like that to keep
it from getting too dry. For skin on cooking, just cut a few small slits
through the skin along the underside. This will allow the melted fat to
drain off as you cook.
FOR
RECIPES, CLICK HERE!
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