Cleaning preparing ducks

fitzy_fitzy

Lads
Just wondering what your thoughts are on preparing ducks.
How long do you leave them hang?
When do you gut them?
Do you just remove breast and legs?
Any other tips?

Jimy1971

I leave them hanging for 2 or 3 days and gut them when I'm skinning them then.

Double Barrel

Fitzy
I clean (gut) ducks and geese as soon as possible. I usually pluck them but sometimes skin birds. They can hang cleaned and feathered or plucked for a week or more in a cold room/fridge.

The roast skin is some of the best eating there is.

Wild duck is best eaten rare.

The juices run red, not clear, think big juicy rare steak.

The meat itself is a deep garnet red.

The taste is closer to steak than to chicken.

It is easy to overcook the meat, ........ continue reading at the link below:

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showpost.php?p=68781016&postcount=136

More good eats here:
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=68781016#post68781016

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charlie10

i pluck enough off the breast to tear the skin open ,cut the wings and legs with a scissors and take the whole bird out of the skin ,

fitzy_fitzy

I have a couple of mallard hanging since Sunday without gutting.
I was told by a friend to leave them a couple of days before doing anything. Was going preparing them tonight. I have done this a couple of times in the past as I was advised to do so.
But researching it today I am getting loads of different opinions.
Have I been leaving it too long?

charlie10

i find the skin and feathers come away easier ,i saw a video on youtube of plucking birds using parrafin wax defo worth a watch you can use bee's wax too it looks the job but pricey stuff

fiestaman

charlie10 wrote: »

i pluck enough off the breast to tear the skin open ,cut the wings and legs with a scissors and take the whole bird out of the skin ,

What way would you cook them then when they have no skin on?

cookimonster

fiestaman wrote: »

What way would you cook them then when they have no skin on?

Supremes and Legs: They can be pan fried either whole or cut into strips as for aiguillettes (fillets from breasts).

My personal favorite is confit, salt the meat over night seasoned with black pepper and thyme (star anise, ginger, garlic etc can be used). Wash off salt the next day. Use melted duck fat (shop bought) to cover the meat. Again spices and herbs can be used to infuse flavor to the meat through the fat. For the healthly option olive or rape oil can be used. Cook in a low oven 85C - 135C until tender (meat fibres should separate when pressed with finger).
Eat straight away or allow to cool and store in fridge. You can eat cold or reheat in some of the oil on the pan or oven. The original oil / fat can be re-used for the next meat.

Remember with wild duck 'low and slow' or 'high and quick' anything in between your better off eating the welly.

PS
For sea ducks soak meat well and marinate, for whole unskined duck remove oil gland at the tail to avoid the potential of a rancid taste.

shotie

duck can be gutted straight away the only bird i hang is pheasant every other bird id shoot would be cleaned and gutter as soon as possible.

fiestaman

cookimonster wrote: »

Supremes and Legs: They can be pan fried either whole or cut into strips as for aiguillettes (fillets from breasts).

My personal favorite is confit, salt the meat over night seasoned with black pepper and thyme (star anise, ginger, garlic etc can be used). Wash off salt the next day. Use melted duck fat (shop bought) to cover the meat. Again spices and herbs can be used to infuse flavor to the meat through the fat. For the healthly option olive or rape oil can be used. Cook in a low oven 85C - 135C until tender (meat fibres should separate when pressed with finger).
Eat straight away or allow to cool and store in fridge. You can eat cold or reheat in some of the oil on the pan or oven. The original oil / fat can be re-used for the next meat.

Remember with wild duck 'low and slow' or 'high and quick' anything in between your better off eating the welly.

PS
For sea ducks soak meat well and marinate, for whole unskined duck remove oil gland at the tail to avoid the potential of a rancid taste.

Ok, i have teal and mallard breasts in the freezer, are you saying i can confit these? If so how much salt do you need & is it basically a marinade of salt and spices for overnight? Do you just put the breasts in whole then in a stew dish and pour in fat/oil until covered completly? How long would it need do you think. This sounds good if it can be done as id like to make pies then out of the tender confit meat.

cookimonster

Just rub salt over the meat, your not looking for a crust more so a even coating. By rubbing it in with your hands your get the desired effect. If you can get ground spice all the better, try your local ethnic shop, these can be mixed with the salt. Try 15g spice per kilo of meat. Keep the hot spices down to 1/3 or less of aromatic spices ie 1 tspn chilli to 3 tspn garlic, 3 tspn ginger etc. The same for more potent spices such as cinnamon, star anise, corriander etc. Important not to soak meat after salting other wise you will reverse the curring process.
Preheat oven I would lean toward the 130 Mark but no higher. Cover the meat in the oil / melted fat. Here you can add bay leaf, sliced onion, ginger, whole chilli etc. Idealy bring the oil to a simmer and then place in oven, your basically poaching in fat.
How long to cook? That depends but your looking at about 2 hrs min.
If you have sealable containers when the oil has cooled put the meat in the container and cover with oil and allow to go cold seal and refrigerat for about a week to improve flavour.
Confit meat is lovely in spring rolls, pastys and with salads as well as served as a main with potatoes cooked in the confit grease.

fiestaman

Thanks for that cookiemonster, il have to give that a try.

pedroeibar1

fitzy_fitzy wrote: »

I have a couple of mallard hanging since Sunday without gutting.
I was told by a friend to leave them a couple of days before doing anything. Was going preparing them tonight. I have done this a couple of times in the past as I was advised to do so.
But researching it today I am getting loads of different opinions.
Have I been leaving it too long?

To answer your original question, all meat needs to be hung to allow the proteins to denature, which causes the meat to become tender. Two days in a cool shed is adequate for duck, three days should not be a problem particularly as they have not been drawn. Pheasant take longer, deer even longer again.

The hanging period is dependent on the meat and the daily temperature. Sticking with duck, if the duck is heavily shot it should not be left around for long (risk of cross infection from gut to meat). Drawing /gutting the bird and then hanging it is a bad idea because it increases the possibility of cross infection, attracts flies like a magnet and the meat also can be damaged by condensation due to temperature changes. I'm not a 'health & safety' freak but shooters need to know how to handle game. Don't handle it right and you can get very ill. For example, all birds/animals (including humans) carry salmonella, but some strains of it are more harmful than others. Salmonella is transmitted via the faeco-oral route. Bluntly, an infected bird/animal s#1ts the salmonella bacteria in its cr@p, and the bacterium will live for months in water, soil, and manure. Eating or drinking contaminated feed/water is mainly how wild game (and humans) become infected. A badly handled game carcass is a prime medium to transfer nasties. Believe me, you do not want that to happen to you.

Preserve = confire in French so Confit de Canard simply means preserved duck. It is a classic peasant dish from the SW of France and the classic recipe, best IMO, is without spices. It is not suited to wild duck because they do not have enough fat and are much too tough. Confit de Canard dates to the late 1700’s when the French started to use maize to forcefeed caged geese & duck raised for their livers (foie gras) ; in those days before refrigeration they needed a way to keep the ‘bye-product’ from very fatty birds, hence confit. It applies to legs and thighs, the breasts were sold for Magret de Canard.

To prepare Confit, the legs with thighs are rubbed with salt and left overnight. The salt is to draw the moisture out, it has nothing to do with curing, (that is a much longer procedure) and adding spice at this stage is unhelpful to the process. The pieces are then well dried off by rubbing with kitchen paper, (definitely NOT washed off) completely covered in a casserole (no lid) filled with duck fat and cooked for a long time (several hours) at a low temperature. If you are stuck for duck fat you can use lard but for a few quid you can buy a fat duck in Lidl/Aldi for under a tenner and use its fat – that’s far cheaper than buying actual duck fat. Do not use oil, it has nothing to do with Confit, and will disturb the balance in the duckfat.

When finished and still very hot the pieces can be transferred to sterilized Kilner jars. Each will keep for several weeks PROVIDED the fat covers all the duck pieces. Traditionally duck confit is served grilled and crisp, on a bed of potatoes that have been cooked and then fried in duck fat with some onions. You should not need a knife to eat it. If you want to spice it up, the time to add your spices is to rub them in and leave for a while prior to grilling. Always save excess fat for the next job and duck/goose fat is the very best anytime for roast potatoes.

cookimonster

Well Fiestaman, here we have the beauty of Boards you now have a choice for confit, the traditional method in the previous post or the contemporary method as posted by yours truely:p.
Note to other budding 'cookies' the confit methods can be used for rabbit, pork, boar, fish and game birds and they all go well with sweet based sauces..........recently had confit of duck necks and carcass...... literally finger licking good.

pedroeibar1

cookimonster wrote: »

Well Fiestaman, here we have the beauty of Boards you now have a choice for confit, the traditional method in the previous post or the contemporary method as posted by yours truely:p.
Note to other budding 'cookies' the confit methods can be used for rabbit, pork, boar, fish and game birds and they all go well with sweet based sauces..........recently had confit of duck necks and carcass...... literally finger licking good.

Confit is a process for preserving something (fruit = jam = confiture). With meat it is preserved preferably in its own fat, which is why it usually relates to duck and geese. It is not a recipe, it is a process. Follow the correct process, achieve a correct product and then do what you like with that product in a recipe. Washing the product with water after salting is plain wrong, it is not part of the confit process - the whole idea of the salt is to remove the moisture, washing it puts even more water back in. Confit is usually done with birds; there is a similar process for pork (rillettes), and in the Middle East they do something similar with lamb (Qawrma) which is minced lamb preserved in its own fat (from its tail). I have never, ever, heard of a 'fish' confit although there are recipies that allow for shrimp or lobster to be slow-cooked in butter, but they are not true confits.

Last weekend I sent back a potato gratin in a well-known hotel- it had been made with a bechamel sauce instead of slow-cooked with cream. I was told that was the contemporary method of cooking it. I replied it was a contemporary shortcut, was false, wrong and to take the dish away. On paying the bill I deducted the charge for the potato but added it back on again as part of the tip/service charge, which seriously pissed off the M d' because he knew I was right but could not admit it as he had to support the idiot in the kitchen.:D:D

cookimonster

pedroeibar1, you are far too 'traditional' for me, I too love traditionally prepared food and am dismayed when any dish is misrepresented in the menu copy be it fast food or Michelin stared.
I also enjoy modern innovative dishes and many of todays classics are regional variations of other dishes where ingredient availability and cooking techniques forced the modification of the dish.

The art of home produced confire (preservation) has declined dramatically in most modern regions of the world and in the case of confit meats it is practiced more so for immediate consumption and menu varity then long term storage of perishable commodities. The use of good qualty oils is a valid variation and adds a different dimension. If hygiene is good and commodities sound, the submerging of properly cooked meats in oil and then stored in the refrigerator (hence depriving aerobic pathogens of oxygen and warmth) will extend its shelf life beyond its normaly acceptable storage life of approximately 3 days post cook.

Just a point to note, I said wash off the salt and pointed out not to soak meat. The salting is in fact the start of a curing process where moisture in cells are drawn out and causing the skin and meat to stiffen (this is a technique that can be used on fish to give a firmer product). A quick wash in running water will not reverse this process, but will ensure that no serious amount of salt is left on the surface which IMPO can detract from the eating experience.

Try confit of Halibut with citrus foam or Google anyone of the numerous confit of 'fish' dishes out there.

Tawny Owl

"Last weekend I sent back a potato gratin in a well-known hotel- it had been made with a bechamel sauce instead of slow-cooked with cream. I was told that was the contemporary method of cooking it. I replied it was a contemporary shortcut, was false, wrong and to take the dish away. On paying the bill I deducted the charge for the potato but added it back on again as part of the tip/service charge, which seriously pissed off the M d' because he knew I was right but could not admit it as he had to support the idiot in the kitchen."

I could just picture myself opposite you at the same table, and you giving the waiter the full lecture on what is what, I am only laughing my sides off, not at you but with you to I back you up well done I would have loved to see the faces on all of them.:D;)

pedroeibar1

cookimonster wrote: »

pedroeibar1, you are far too 'traditional' for me, I too love traditionally prepared food and am dismayed when any dish is misrepresented in the menu copy be it fast food or Michelin stared.
I also enjoy modern innovative dishes and many of todays classics are regional variations of other dishes where ingredient availability and cooking techniques forced the modification of the dish.

The art of home produced confire (preservation) has declined dramatically in most modern regions of the world and in the case of confit meats it is practiced more so for immediate consumption and menu varity then long term storage of perishable commodities. The use of good qualty oils is a valid variation and adds a different dimension. If hygiene is good and commodities sound, the submerging of properly cooked meats in oil and then stored in the refrigerator (hence depriving aerobic pathogens of oxygen and warmth) will extend its shelf life beyond its normaly acceptable storage life of approximately 3 days post cook.

Just a point to note, I said wash off the salt and pointed out not to soak meat. The salting is in fact the start of a curing process where moisture in cells are drawn out and causing the skin and meat to stiffen (this is a technique that can be used on fish to give a firmer product). A quick wash in running water will not reverse this process, but will ensure that no serious amount of salt is left on the surface which IMPO can detract from the eating experience.

Try confit of Halibut with citrus foam or Google anyone of the numerous confit of 'fish' dishes out there.

I see where you are coming from. I am familiar with the role of the salting process – it is equally useful for cell wall destruction in preparing aubergines (to get rid of bitter juices) but rinsing does put them back – ever pour water on a dry sponge? Same thing.

Maybe I am an old fart, but if something is described as a confit it should be that. Next people will be saying it is acceptable to put sweet corn in ratatouille ‘because it adds colour.’

Thirty years ago we had nouvelle cuisine, everything raw and in microscopic portions (because Michel Guerard’s wife wanted him to lose weight and had a daddy rich enough to fund him in Eugenie les Bains.) So we suffered.

Twenty years ago we had the offal period, where everything had to be sweetbreads, kidneys, heart, tripes and oxtail. (Imagine that the signature dish of a 3star Michelin was an oxtail, slow cooked, boned, stuffed with truffled foie gras, put back together, rolled in egg & breadcrumb and fried. We suffered on.

A decade ago it was necessary to stack everything sky high (sometimes even needing a skewer) on a plate and top it off with a thatch of deep-fried leek julienne. (At least that looked “Irish”, like something out of Bunratty Folk Park!)

Today it is some glob covered in bubbles and given a pretentious name – or else it is a fish made look like a banana or an icecream made with porridge and escargots. How can anyone with taste buds think that highly-seasoned black pudding is a suitable partner for scallop? (I attribute that infernal calamity to Colin O'Daly when he was at the Park, maybe wrongly?)

There should be symmetry in a dish – for example duck fat has a flashpoint that is symmetrical with its meat; mixing in rapeseed oil screws around with that and has an impact on the texture and flavours.

I have been a big fan of Harold McGee and the science of cooking since I discovered him in the early 1980s. Nor do I disrespect new developments – sous-vide, using sound waves, etc., but I draw the line at being given the loan of a set of headphones and an iPod to create mood music while I eat an oyster ‘on a tapioca beach’ covered in salty bubbles.

Frankly, I do not subscribe to the codology of Blumenthal and others, who are in ‘menutainment’ rather than cookery. And pay£500 for lunch for 2, ............ you’d have to be a Fat Duck or a Daft F to do that

Rant over, enjoy your duck whatever way you prepare it!:)

cookimonster

Most of the cuisines by the time they reach the high street have been so bastardised that they pay little respect to the original concept and hence us mere mortals have no idea of what we are missing or should be seeing. I've ate multiple courses from Michelin menus and to be honest after the 5th or 6th course, you begin to forget the what you ate at the start.
A few years back I missed the Fat Duck experience, but those who did go said it was an experience but not necessarily one to repeat (several had Burger King while waiting for the flight home).

Today I love simple food prepared simply, but that is not so say plain. The combination of the various ingredients will add depth to the overall taste. One chef I trained under had simple advice and that was 'what ever you do do it with taste'. Meaning nothing should be brash or over done flavour wise.