Wild Duck Preparation

How are they cleaned?
Breasted, whole, skint (skinned)?

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wood ducks

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Seasoning of choice, rare side of medium rare and enjoy.

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Looking for ideas on how to cook some wood ducks from this weekend. I’ve seen videos of 24hr+ sous vide methods that effectively confits the duck, however, they are always using farm raise birds (more fatty; lighter meat). Have any of you tried this out? Happy to hear any other cooking methods that y'all have found successful.

I’ve always made a gravy or duck poppers but want to add some variety to my meals this season.

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Almost no way to cook a summer duck wrong...as long as you do not overcook it. Duck is VERY easy to overcook...it needs to be rare at best or it will be tough, dry and chewy...but cooked rare summer duck is especially tasty!

Whole ducks you have options like pot roast over rice, smoked, etc. The key with wild birds is to cook either low and slow or to a medium rare if grilling or searing breasts. I’ve had good luck brining and smoking whole birds for something different than burning them down over a gravy. Your skin on breasts can be done on a cast iron skillet. Get a good oil (I’ve been using duck fat last couple of years) and score and salt the breasts on the skin side to dry and crisp skin. After resting for a while throw in a skillet with hot oil starting meat side down and sear to a medium rare no more than 2-3 min a side. With a crispy skin wild duck breast seared like this can be as good as a steak if cooked properly.

I chicken fry ducks a good bit

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I chicken fry ducks a good bit

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Only way I have found to eat snows other than jerky or sausage....breast em out, pound the good and batter and fry. Very tasty. But roasted / baked / smoked or grilled????Mergansers are about as tasty LOL....

this is how I cook teal and it works just as well for woodies...

J Folse's Pot Roasted Teal...

my go to method is pot roast low and slow after browning the hell out of them and the veggies. I usually stuff the cavity with long slices of onions, bell peppers, and an apple or slice of sausage.
I like to add large chunks of turnips in the gravy to smother down with the ducks.

Another way we cooked some last year after we had a pile of greys and mallards: we did the plucked and gutted and seasoned ducks in the "big easy" greaseless fryer outside while we had a few drinks after the hunt. The bigger ducks did better than the teal.

With wood ducks being so small you gotta be very careful.

Plenty of marinades that are good snd then just grill them rare to med rare as said. How many ways do you need?

I’ve cut larger breasts into small cubes and strips and marinaded them then cooked on shish kabobs.

You can use other peppers then just jalepenos and other veggies for that matter. I’ve made bacon poppers with bell peppers, onion, etc.

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Marinade for a week min turning bag/container every couple days, wrap in thin bacon and grill med rare.

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Never tried marinading them that long. I will give it a go.