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Wild Duck

post #1 of 10
8/9/08 at 2:19pm
Thread Starter 
I have a freezer full of duck and goose breasts from hunting... anyone have any good recipes for these so I can use them us? Thanks so much!!
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post #2 of 10
8/12/08 at 12:12am
I am also from Eastern Washington, and spend quite a bit of time outdoors. Ducks and geese make up a large part of my family's diet. We like to use them as you would beef, and found that simple preparation is best. Here are a few ideas.

Mix a 1/4 cup of olive oil with 1 T Worcestershire sauce, 1 t fresh cracked pepper, and 1 crushed clove of garlic. Marinate the duck or goose breasts for an hour at room temperature. Remove from marinade, and salt and pepper liberally. Grill hot and fast to no more than medium rare (best served as rare as you can stand it), and serve with a horseradish sauce (same as you would serve with Prime Rib).

The key is to not overcook it. It will be slightly stronger than beef, but very similar if served rare.


I also serve the breasts cooked "Carne Asada" style.

1 Beer
juice from 4 limes (about 1/2 cup)
1/4 cup of brown sugar
1 T ground Cumin
1 T Oregano
1/2 cup Soy Sauce
1 can whole Jalapenos with the juice
1 bunch of Cilantro torn up
1/2 t Allspice

Marinate for 24 hours, salt the duck/goose, and grill hot and fast to no more than medium rare. Slice and serve on tortillas, with guacamole, black beans, fresh cilantro and a good Pico de Gallo. The chiles in the marinade are also grilled and served alongside the sliced duck to add to the tacos for more heat. This works with beef or chicken as well.
Never trust a skinny cook
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post #3 of 10
8/12/08 at 5:54am
Thread Starter 

to Geese4u

I SO agree: Never trust a skinny cook!! And thanks so much for the duck recipes! I don't think we've completely got used to the taste of wildgame and certainly not brave enough to serve it medium rare - BUT I will try!
In a search for recipes, I found one lady that soaked the duck meat in milk for a while and kept squishing the meat until all the blood ran out - labor intensive! Happy Hunting!
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post #4 of 10
8/14/08 at 7:06am
Goose breasts should be thought of as beef. They are a very dark meat, and toughen up quickly from over-cooking.

I prefer broiling or grilling them to the medium rare stage, then saucing with any of a dozen possibilities.

If you decide, next season, to keep some whole geese instead of just breasting them out, they can be roasted. Or smoked---my preferred method.

Duck, on the other hand (excluding sea ducks) are neither as tough nor as dark as goose. Keep in mind, too, that diving ducks and puddle ducks have distinctly different flavor profiles.

I have, literally, hundreds of ways of preparing them. Before posting recipes, though, I need to know if you prefer sweet or savory dishes, as wild duck lends itself to either. And what sort of ducks you have.

One cautionary note: Many recipes for domestic duck, from a flavor point of view, work well with wild duck. But the cooking times are radically different. If you cook a wild duck as long as a domestic you'll wind up with shoe leather or worse. So adjust accordingly.

Meanwhile, here's one recipe everybody seems to like; even those who claim not to like duck:

Fried Duck In Ginger Sauce

Bring 3/4 cup water to boil. Add 1/2 cup each of sugar and apple cider vinegar, stirring until the sugar dissolves. Meanwhile combine a tablespoon of cornstarch with the same of soy sauce and a quarter cup of water. Stir this into the vinegar mixture and cook the sauce over low heat until it thickens. Add 1/2 cup sliced pickled ginger to the sauce and set aside

Cut the meat of an uncooked 3-4 pound duck into large cubes, leaving a bit of skin attached to each.

In a bowl stir together 2 lightly beaten eggs with 3/4 cup flour, 3 tablespoons water, and 1/2 tsp salt until a smooth batter is formed. Dip the duck cubes in the batter and fry them, a few at a time, in deep, hot oil until they are golden brown. Drain on paper towels, transfer to a warmed serving platter, and pour the sauce over the fried duck.
They have taken the oath of the brother in blood, in leavened bread and salt. Rudyard Kipling
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post #5 of 10
8/14/08 at 7:41am
Thread Starter 

Wild Duck

Whoa! Does that ever sound good!!:bounce:
I have often stirfried duck or goose, slicing very thin while partially frozen, but never with as tasty a sauce as your Ginger sauce sounds!
We do prefer savory dishes and apparently I've obviously overcooked it! Nothing I hate worse than dry meat. If all else fails, we make jerky from the abundance and that is quite popular!
Thank you so much for your input! Do you have a website/column? I can't wait to surprise my family with this recipe!
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post #6 of 10
8/14/08 at 8:57am
No, no column or website. I used to write a game cooking column for an outdoor magazine, but that was in a far country, and, alas, the girl is dead.

It’s not just waterfowl that overcooks. All game has to be monitored, whether it’s mallards compared to LI duckling, or beef compared to venison. Game has virtually no fat, compared to its domestic analog. On one hand, this makes it healthier. But on the other hand you have to add oil or liquid, and cut the cooking times way down.

Don’t forget that stewing and braising are great ways to cook waterfowl without overcooking. Duck or goose gumbo, in fact, is an especial treat. And waterfowl lends itself to soups, too, particularly when using things the birds feed on, such as corn and celery.

At any rate, here are a few more duck recipes for you to try.

Duck Kebabs


Take the breasts from 2-3 wild ducks, and, leaving the skin intact, cut the meat into pieces about 1 x 2 inches.

In a bowl combine ½ cup each of extra virgin olive oil and tangerine juice (orange juice can sub), 1 tablespoon grated tangerine zest, 3-4 tablespoons minced onion, and a couple of bruised garlic cloves. Add the duck and marinate for two hours.

Thread the duck on soaked bamboo skewers alternating with unpeeled tangerine wedges that have been blanched in boiling water for 3 minutes, and stuffed green olives. Salt and pepper the duck to taste and broil it either over hot cols or in the broiler, about 4 inches from the heat source, skin side facing the heat. Broil about 8 minutes, turn the skewers and broil for 5 minutes more, or until the duck is crisp on the outside and pink within.

If desired the kebabs may be flambéed with a mixture of warmed Cognac and orange flavored liqueur.

As I mentioned last post, divers and puddlers have different flavor profiles. Each type can be subbed for others of its kind. That is, divers can sub for divers. But it’s rare that divers and puddlers can sub for each other. In case you have some divers in the freezer, here’s a recipe for:

Bluebills in Sour Cream


Flour, salt, pepper and paprika
¼ cup butter plus extra as required
1 small onion, sliced
4 oz mushrooms, sliced
1 cup beef bullion or broth
½ can mushroom soup
Sour cream
Breasts from up to 8 bluebills or other diving ducks

Combine the flour, slat, pepper and paprika. Roll the breasts in the seasoned flour, shaking off any excess.

Heat the butter in a heavy skillet (cast iron preferred) and brown the breasts. Transfer them to a casserole dish.
If necessary add more butter to the skillet and sauté the onions and mushrooms. Transfer them to the casserole. Add the broth and soup to the skillet and simmer briefly. Pour over the breasts.

Put the casserole in a preheated 375F oven for one hour. Dust before servings drop some sour cream on each breast and return to the oven for five minutes.

It’s rare that we have leftover duck. But when we do, we enjoy it in:

Corian Bracey’s Duck Salad


2 cups cooked duck meat, cubed
1 cup apples, cubed and peeled
1 cup tangerines, peeled
½ cup celery, finely diced
1 cup strawberries, sliced
¼ cup French dressing
Lettuce

Mix the first five ingredients with French dressing. Serve on beds of lettuce.

Finally, if you take my advice and keep some whole birds this season, try them in the classic:

Chesapeake Barbecued Duck


Preheat oven to 375F.

Spatchcock* two mallards or other puddle ducks. Bake about an hour, basting every 10 minutes with barbecue sauce. Turn birds breast sides down and cook another half hour, basting.

For the sauce:

½ lb butter
½ cup catsup
1 tbls sugar
1 ½ tbls lemon juice
1 tbls Worchestershire
1 tsp salt
2 cloves garlic, mashed
1 small onion, chopped
½ tsp Tabasco or other hot sauce
Pepper to taste

Combine ingredients in a saucepan. Simmer covered 5 minutes.

*To spatchcock birds, place them breast side down on a cutting board. Make lengthwise cuts with kitchen shears on either side of the backbone. Remove the backbone. Turn the birds breast side up and open like a book. On older birds you might have to score the inside of the breastbone to get them to lie flat.
They have taken the oath of the brother in blood, in leavened bread and salt. Rudyard Kipling
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post #7 of 10
8/14/08 at 9:35am
Thread Starter 

Wild Duck

Yummy, Yummy, Yummy!!!! Thank you so much for the extra recipes!
Yes, I learned my lesson about lack of fat on game: pheasant. The first one I baked whole - yuck! All subsequent ones have been simmered and then made into "chicken" and dumplings or homemade noodles!
The Gumbo is a Superb idea! I like making soup, too, but would you cook the meat first or cook it in the soup?
Thanks again!!
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post #8 of 10
11/27/09 at 4:53am
My thanks for the ginger sauce recipe. We used this initially on some snow goose breasts, grilled rare, and then on some fried duck breasts. They were both outstanding, and the grandkids loved them. On the first dish we were unable to get the sliced pickled ginger, so we used fresh ginger thinly sliced. The next dish we used the picled ginger. We thought they were equally good. Grandchildren are the ultimate food critics, and they approved of both.

We are going out this weekend to try to gather some more ingredients. Thanks again.
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post #9 of 10
11/27/09 at 7:00am
Glad it worked out for you, OldPro.

Thanks to the sushi thing, pickled ginger is much more commonly available. But if you can't find it, it easy to make your own:

Pickled Ginger

10 oz fresh ginger
Boiling water
1 1/3 cup rice vinegar
3 tbls cider vinegar
2 tbls white vinegar
1/2 cup plus 1 tbls sugar
4 tsp kosher salt

Peel ginger. Slice crosswise into paper thin coins. Place in a heatproof bowl and cover with boiling water. Let stand two minutes. Drain.

Combine remaining ingredients in a nonreactive saucepan. Stir over moderate heat until sugar and salt dissolve and the liquid is near steaming.

Put ginger in a clean glass jar and pour in the hot liquid. Let stand until cool, then cover and refrigerate.

This version will not have the pink color of the pickled ginger you get at the sushi bar. But it tastes just the same.
They have taken the oath of the brother in blood, in leavened bread and salt. Rudyard Kipling
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post #10 of 10
11/27/09 at 7:04am
Do you have a website/column?

Things have changed, PurpleFroggy, and I now have my own webpage. You can find it here: Outdoor Sports Advisor. Unique outdoor recreation articles and reviews.

If you're specifically concerned with food, just click on the "outdoor cooking" button. But if you're into the outdoors, you might find the whole site interesting.
They have taken the oath of the brother in blood, in leavened bread and salt. Rudyard Kipling
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