Duck prep

[Scott85]

Random question. Why do you age ungutted? Seams counterintuitive so there must be a good reason that I'm unaware of.

I'm getting back into bird hunting and am learning as well. So far I've been breasting , legging, and fridge aging. Or plucking whole (gutted) and aging for 7-10 days. Very excited to try some of these.

How to Hang Pheasants and Other Game Birds

The science behind hanging upland game birds.

honest-food.net

 

[BucksnDucks]

Random question. Why do you age ungutted? Seams counterintuitive so there must be a good reason that I'm unaware of.

I'm getting back into bird hunting and am learning as well. So far I've been breasting , legging, and fridge aging. Or plucking whole (gutted) and aging for 7-10 days. Very excited to try some of these.

I've found the only time gutting is necessary is if birds are shot too close and completely torn up. I've never experienced any foul taste or witnessed guts contaminating the meat of ducks hung by necks or placed breast up on a rack. I also age upland birds in same fashion. Temps are refrigerator cold, say 38/40 max for a long age. I've gone 10 or 12 days but usually stick with a week.

 

[Moserkr]

Pluck ducks. Spatchcock. Now brining all my birds, upland and waterfowl. Some friends told me they dump the brine daily and brine again to remove more blood, up to 4 days in a row. Trying that right now.

Recently just did a half pluck no gut method - pluck the breast and leg on one side, them breast it out, skin on, connected to leg in one piece, also skin/fat on. No gutting this way. Wife cooks it breast side down which is counter intuitive to me but it comes out amazing in a dutch oven.

Never aged a bird mainly cause of unstable temps.

 

[A207X2]

Pluck ducks. Spatchcock. Now brining all my birds, upland and waterfowl. Some friends told me they dump the brine daily and brine again to remove more blood, up to 4 days in a row. Trying that right now.

Recently just did a half pluck no gut method - pluck the breast and leg on one side, them breast it out, skin on, connected to leg in one piece, also skin/fat on. No gutting this way. Wife cooks it breast side down which is counter intuitive to me but it comes out amazing in a dutch oven.

Never aged a bird mainly cause of unstable temps.

Just came home with 7 mallards. Breasted them out in the field, and zip-locked each one separately and put on ice. Got home and rinsed thoroughly 3x, then into the freezer. When ready pulled them out and brined them for 36 hours in 1 cup kosher salt and 1 cup of brown sugar. Changed the brine 3x to draw out the blood. Seasoned them with Webers Brown Sugar Rub, grilled them at 450º for 10 minutes. Thinly sliced at an angle. No gamey taste, meat was moist and tender.

 

[WoodMoose]

Any pics or insight into the pluckers would be greatly appreciated.

I'll try to remember to take pics of our plucker at camp when I get down there this weekend

but it's like most, but in a cabinet with vacuum suction to pull feathers down into a burlap bag - you can tell when the bag gets too full as the feathers start flying!

 

[BucksnDucks]

Just came home with 7 mallards. Breasted them out in the field, and zip-locked each one separately and put on ice. Got home and rinsed thoroughly 3x, then into the freezer. When ready pulled them out and brined them for 36 hours in 1 cup kosher salt and 1 cup of brown sugar. Changed the brine 3x to draw out the blood. Seasoned them with Webers Brown Sugar Rub, grilled them at 450º for 10 minutes. Thinly sliced at an angle. No gamey taste, meat was moist and tender.

Be careful breasting birds in the field, I believe Fed regs require a feathered wing or head must stay attached for ID.

 

[JShane]

Random question. Why do you age ungutted? Seams counterintuitive so there must be a good reason that I'm unaware of.

I'm getting back into bird hunting and am learning as well. So far I've been breasting , legging, and fridge aging. Or plucking whole (gutted) and aging for 7-10 days. Very excited to try some of these.

I've found in my years of waterfowl hunting that a lot and I mean a lot of the conventional wisdom I was given was worthless. Utterly Worthless.

I've dry aged my birds from 3 to 5 days depending on the size of the duck for 4 years now. Stopped gutting them when I started dry aging. I've experienced no impact on the meat. Not once including "gut shot" birds.

As many steps as I take processing my birds if I can stream line the process then I am all for it. My anecdotal information from my own experiences may be helpful to some and to others its a head scratcher and thats ok.

At the end of the day do what your comfortable with obviously and share what you learn with others. You never know when you hit on something that could help another out.

 

[JShane]

I'll try to remember to take pics of our plucker at camp when I get down there this weekend

but it's like most, but in a cabinet with vacuum suction to pull feathers down into a burlap bag - you can tell when the bag gets too full as the feathers start flying!

I appreciate that and I'm looking forward to it.

 

[A207X2]

Be careful breasting birds in the field, I believe Fed regs require a feathered wing or head must stay attached for ID.

Roger that. The method that I use allows for both wings to stay attached. Here's a video I found of the same method I use.

 

[seeth07]

I really want to mess around with brining ducks and having tastes tests with guests. My typical protocol is to wash all duck meat in the sink, put in a bowl, cover with water, to fridge and packaged the next morning or evening. That's just a blood wash, not really a brine.

 

[Nick87]

I really want to mess around with brining ducks and having tastes tests with guests. My typical protocol is to wash all duck meat in the sink, put in a bowl, cover with water, to fridge and packaged the next morning or evening. That's just a blood wash, not really a brine.

I do mone the same

 

[WoodMoose]

Any pics or insight into the pluckers would be greatly appreciated. Thats my next addition to the process as I'm gonna end up with arthritis otherwise.

I've found if I pluck then dry age the skin dries out too much. Leaving the feathers insulates the skin to prevent this.View attachment 258949View attachment 258950

tried that method - meat was excellent

 

[Deleted member 38069]

tried that method - meat was excellent

My guy knows what he’s talking about!!