Duck breast prep

[Ghanson4]

Does anybody have a good strategy for removing the bloody liver taste from duck breast? I remove my breast with the skin still attacked to help it from drying out while cooking but it still ends up looking like a bloody hockey puck.

 

[Yellowhammer]

Does anybody have a good strategy for removing the bloody liver taste from duck breast? I remove my breast with the skin still attacked to help it from drying out while cooking but it still ends up looking like a bloody hockey puck.

What kind of ducks are you cooking? Some definitely eat better than others with woodies being one of the best and mergansers being one of the worst but I like most of them with a little marinade in Italian dressing and dale's then grill to medium rare. Soaking in salt water should reduce the taste some but if you're cooking it till it's well done you're prolly never gonna like it. Another thing you can do is get rid of the skin and fill the breast with cream cheese and jalapeno and wrap the duck breast in bacon.

 

[gadrahthaar]

OP, i agree with yellowhammer here. If you are getting liver taste from puddle ducks you are probably overcooking - treat them like you would fine beef - red in the middle is just fine. If you are talking about diver ducks, it might be a function of what they are eating - the best solution for this is Hank Shaw's pastrami or corned duck recipes.

 

[Ghanson4]

What kind of ducks are you cooking? Some definitely eat better than others with woodies being one of the best and mergansers being one of the worst but I like most of them with a little marinade in Italian dressing and dale's then grill to medium rare. Soaking in salt water should reduce the taste some but if you're cooking it till it's well done you're prolly never gonna like it. Another thing you can do is get rid of the skin and fill the breast with cream cheese and jalapeno and wrap the duck breast in bacon.

Thanks for the tips, most of the ducks I cooked were wigeons. Hoping with moving back to the PNW I’ll get more mallards

 

[BoomSmack44]

Bleeding the meat in a pan of water has always worked for me. You can also try soaking the breast in milk.


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[TristanJH]

The simplest answer is to treat duck breasts like a good steak. I grew up eating a lot of duck and not really loving it because we cooked it hard. These days though, it's duck and goose that gets me the most excited about cooking.

For breasts only, you're starting off on the right foot by leaving the skin and fat on. Duck and goose fat is luscious and flavorful and worth its weight in gold. Salt & pepper generously and sear in a smoking-hot pan skin-side down. Once the skin is sufficiently brown flip it, add a pad of butter, garlic and herbs and give it another 1 minute or so. Let it rest 5 minutes on a cutting board & then go to work!

If you like that and love shooting ducks, then a great place to start exploring more recipes is here. Soon you'll be plucking your fattest mallards, sprig and woodies whole, saving legs for duck confit and rendering carcases for fat to uses on everything else. Specimens of the aforementioned species and a few others can easily make for a meal worthy of last rites.

 

[N2TRKYS]

I cut the skin and fat off. No need to keep it on. Soak it in salt water for several days, replacing the mixture everyday.
I’ve found the over cooking thing to be a complete myth. I’ve tried it medium and rare and none tasted well until I started soaking mine. I now cook mine to a medium to medium well, depending on the dish, and love it.

 

[Jsunkler]

I soak all my waterfowl in saltwater overnight, makes a difference in my opinion

 

[Holocene]

+1 to TristanJH.

As some have said, salting a day ahead, soaking and cooking to rare/mid rare are the three tips to keep duck tasting clean. The livery taste is blood and/or overcooking.

Any boggy taste comes from that duck's diet. Divers are going to taste this way. Most puddle ducks will not, but that's also diet and location specific. For example, a winter mallard feeding in corn will taste great. A pintail hanging out on the Oregon coast eating marsh weeds and maybe some molluscs will taste like the coast. This is from experience.

I would add that not all duck fat is delicious. If the duck is a diver (or even a puddler who's been hanging out at the coast or an estuary eating fish and mollusks), then you probably want to remove the skin. Just tastes too boggy for my tastes when cooked fresh.

Hank Shaw has a good video out there suggesting to cook a little of the fat to know whether it's tasty or boggy. Sort of fussy, but a good way to know what taste to expect.

These days, I shoot puddle ducks and woodies for fresh cooking and soup/confit.

Anything else goes into duck salami that I make with my butcher friend. This stuff is the real deal cured salami with mold on the outside and is a revelation. The spices and curing mask the boggy taste of divers. I set aside a lot of leg meat, diver breasts, etc. throughout the year and make 10# batches of salami.

 

[100percent]

Does anybody have a good strategy for removing the bloody liver taste from duck breast? I remove my breast with the skin still attacked to help it from drying out while cooking but it still ends up looking like a bloody hockey puck.

Lots of dale's seasoning, garlic salt, ground pepper
WRAP TIGHTLY IN APPLE WOOD BACON
cook to medium-rare (bacon will be just right)!
Unwrap bacon, feed the duck to your dog then ENJOY your bacon!

 

[jspradley]

Cook it rare to medium rare. It takes some getting-over eating birds rare but it's worth it!

 

[scooter25]

The best way I've found is marinate in Coke overnight and cook to medium like you would a steak.

 

[KurtR]

this has been amazing

http://www.theamusedbouche.com/2011/03/03/small-indulgences/

 

[tt_johnsclist]

I have a ton of professional experience shooting and cooking ducks. This is the recipe I recommend for everyone as a “go to” basic starter:

How to cook a duck breast perfectly.

Step by step instructions on how to cook duck breasts perfectly every time.

honest-food.net

To make it even better do it on a grill instead of a pan and use your favorite steak spice instead of salt and pepper.

As others have mentioned cooking to medium rare and not beyond is extremely important.

Canvasbacks and some redheads are the only diving ducks worth attempting to eat.

Shovelor and some gadwall are the only dabbling ducks not worth attempting to eat.



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[KurtR]

only duck i have found not good has been a merganser