does wild duck taste close to its tamed counterpart?

[Killerb]

I've had canada goose a few months ago. The person who cooked it dried it out and it was so gamey it tasted like liver and I almost threw up (hate livery tastes).

My friend said I should get a shotgun and go mallard duck hunting with him. He claims it tastes much better than Canada goose. Now I love duck prepared in chinese rewstaurants but they are all farmed ducks. How do the taste differ between wild mallards, geese and their farmed counterparts.

[calgarychef]

Mallards taste like goose, maybe a bit less gamey and not quite so dry and stringy. I love goose and ducks but its an acquired taste, I grew up eating them and bird is my favourite wild game of all.

[bessiedog]

Mallard is real good, most duck is excellent, diving ducks taste muddier than puddle ducks...

They do not in the least taste like farmed duck.
I love farmed duck too, but you'll enjoy mallard. The trick is to clean the bird and cool it quickly, then soak it in milk, yes milk for about a day.... Then cook it however you like.

It is excellent.
Got my last birds just a few days ago.

[happy honker]

I'd bet the foul taste of that fowl was due to the guts and feathers being left on too long.
To avoid or minimize that "gamey" taste you need to get the carcass cooled as quickly as possible. No matter what the animal is, duck, goose, deer.
Overcooking it didn't help either. A lot of liquid in the roaster can help things out also.

[petew]

"Gamey" taste is another word for spoiled meat!!
Wild birds are a similar taste, but diferent from domestic. Neither should taste like rotting meat{gamey}
Pete

[cal33]

Farmed duck is fine, but I would take the worst cooked mallard over the finest tame duck any day. Mallard is as organic as you can get too, by the way. For what it's worth, I too am not fond of Canada goose. Duck is more tender, less bold flavourful (gamey, some might say). Give wild duck a fair chance, I think you will enjoy it. Remember, though, that not all wild ducks are equal.

[cal33]

"Gamey" taste is another word for spoiled meat!!
Wild birds are a similar taste, but diferent from domestic. Neither should taste like rotting meat{gamey}
Pete

True. Is it not the English that like to hang their pheasant, fully feathered, guts intact, until ”ripe”. They say it makes them tender? I think I'll keep my own traditions, clean and cool immediately.

[graybeard]

I've had canada goose a few months ago. The person who cooked it dried it out and it was so gamey it tasted like liver and I almost threw up (hate livery tastes).

My friend said I should get a shotgun and go mallard duck hunting with him. He claims it tastes much better than Canada goose. Now I love duck prepared in chinese rewstaurants but they are all farmed ducks. How do the taste differ between wild mallards, geese and their farmed counterparts.

X2.............

IMO; wild duck and wild geese are an acquired taste. It is all personal from my stand point only, but get used to that puking at every bite. I have tried every recipe in order to make that nasty taste, edible....I am sorry to report that I was unsuccessful.
I even tried soaking the breasts in an orange and brown sugar brine for a day then wrapped bacon around the meat when cooking it.

My plate looked great with all the fixings until I tried to eat it. Now I love bacon and I couldn't even eat that because the nasty taste of the duck leached into the bacon.
You know that great smell that bacon has when you are cooking it; well that smell was not there and I had to open the windows to get the duck smell out of the house.

There is no comparing wild duck to tame duck.... not even close.

Before I laid out all that money for gear try a wild duck and see for yourself if it is what you enjoy.

I really hope you can get your head around it, as hunting water foul is a lot of fun.

For those of you who disagree; I don't shoot water foul any more so there is more for you to enjoy....

Good luck

[madatter]

I'd compare famed raised duck to dark meat on a turkey and wild duck to liver.
Anybody who says they taste alike has a lot different taste buds than me:)
Grew up eating wild ducks/geese but over time I find I'm less tolerant of the strong flavor....no matter how I cook it.
Soaking in milk does does help....

[NSDucknut]

I spent my whole childhood eating ducks. Almost exclusively sea ducks, plus lots of coots and blackducks, and of course teal. The black ducks and teal we roasted like you would a chicken, the rest we always did a stew, which is one of the only ways you eat duck on the east coast.

We never soaked or brined, just seasoned, seared and then into the pot, low and slow for probably half the day, with root veg. and potatoes in the pot later, and doughboys (dumplings) at the end, and made gravy when everything was finished.

Always was amazing, the key was the low and slow cooking, everything falls right off the bone (we used every part of the bird including the hearts). When meat braises for that long and is that tender it pretty much couldn't taste gamey, and got a lot of sweetness added from the carrots/turnips/parsnips/onions. Still one of the only ways I eat wild duck. A quick cook on a duck breast isn't that enjoyable, I like it to basically be the consistency of a fall-apart tender roast beef or pork.

[bessiedog]

Yup, i doubted it

Ive eaten duck and goose since i was little. And ive never cared for it, and quite honestly i was gonna almost stopmhunting them becausebof the taste.

Then a buddy of mine showed me the milk-buttermilk overnight thing. Tastes alot like beef or whatever you flavour it with.

Another buddy showed me the quick clean, cool, pluck and pop it into the crockpot with Liptons onion mix, or shake and bake rib mix..... Slowmcook that baby.

I can homestly say i will sit down and eat a whole roasted mallard by myself.

Try these techniques.

And please get and train a hunting dog.
Youll find a new passion.

[covey ridge]

Early season mallards are no better than diving duck. They are what they eat and that is mostly pond slime. After the crops come off the fields, puddle duck, mostly mallards and pin tails feed and get fat very quick. This is when they are best eating. Many hunters skin their birds or just pull off breasts. This often makes them dry when cooked. Best to pluck the birds and roast with skin on. Do not over cook. They should be pink inside. If you are one that likes meat well done, duck is not for you. When selecting birds for roasting I select one with the least amount of shot damage to the breast. I usually cook two. What's left over makes great sandiches. The only way I have found to make Canada Geese edible is to slow cook them til they fall apart and then add flavor and moisture similar to pulled pork. Goose makes great jerkey and sausage.

[leeaspell]

I spent my whole childhood eating ducks. Almost exclusively sea ducks, plus lots of coots and blackducks, and of course teal. The black ducks and teal we roasted like you would a chicken, the rest we always did a stew, which is one of the only ways you eat duck on the east coast.

We never soaked or brined, just seasoned, seared and then into the pot, low and slow for probably half the day, with root veg. and potatoes in the pot later, and doughboys (dumplings) at the end, and made gravy when everything was finished.

Always was amazing, the key was the low and slow cooking, everything falls right off the bone (we used every part of the bird including the hearts). When meat braises for that long and is that tender it pretty much couldn't taste gamey, and got a lot of sweetness added from the carrots/turnips/parsnips/onions. Still one of the only ways I eat wild duck. A quick cook on a duck breast isn't that enjoyable, I like it to basically be the consistency of a fall-apart tender roast beef or pork.


Mmmmmm.......black duck stew aghhhh lol.

That's how grandma cooked duck as well, slow in stew or soup. I never noticed ducks to be gamey, buy maybe I was just used to it and figured that's how they were supposed to taste. I tried the frozen ducks from IGA once, it was the greasiest most disgusting duck I ever had. Won't be buying one of those again.

[Killerb]

Well ill see how my friend prepares his duck first before I go out hunting for them.

The goose I tried was definitely not taken care of properly. The people who shot it waited until they got home to gut and feather it. Then they tried to cook it the way you cook turkey.

So do you soak it in milk skin and all? Does it matter what kind of milk, butter, skim, whole, 2 percent?

[ganderblaster]

Duck well prepared is delicious! Specklebelly geese are even better.

[covey ridge]

Duck well prepared is delicious! Specklebelly geese are even better.

White fronts or specs are the best:) One problem I have with Canadas is that a younger bird or one under 2 years is not really bad. Problem is with their size I can not tell the difference between them and 20 year old geese.

I would go back to goose hunting if I was nearer to the speclebelly flyway.

[covey ridge]

Well ill see how my friend prepares his duck first before I go out hunting for them.

The goose I tried was definitely not taken care of properly. The people who shot it waited until they got home to gut and feather it. Then they tried to cook it the way you cook turkey.

So do you soak it in milk skin and all? Does it matter what kind of milk, butter, skim, whole, 2 percent?

One thing I try to do is open the wounds a bit and get out as much clotted blood as I can. Then before cooking I put them in the refigerator in a cold salt water soution. If the water gets really red, I drain it and replace with clear salt water.

I've tried milk, butter milk or cream with pheasants but never with ducks or geese.

[magnummike]

I've never tasted farm ducks but if they taste like crap then, yes they taste the same as wild ducks.

Canada geese are good, they taste very similar to roast beef

[Grizzly Adams]

NO. :D And not an ounce of fat on them. When we were newlyweds, the wife tought she'd try Duck a la Orange with a couple of puddleducks I shot. We don't talk about that. :lol:


Grizz

[thumper]

:love0025:
My new bride tried her best to prepare wild duck for me as well! Same results - we don't talk about THAT anymore :)

[WildCanuck]

I make all my duck into italian sausage; it's delicious.
WildCanuck

[ab_hunter]

Waterfowl taste I find is 90% in how you cook it. Hire a good cook. :)

[TangoKilo]

Farmed duck is fine, but I would take the worst cooked mallard over the finest tame duck any day. Mallard is as organic as you can get too, by the way. For what it's worth, I too am not fond of Canada goose. Duck is more tender, less bold flavourful (gamey, some might say). Give wild duck a fair chance, I think you will enjoy it. Remember, though, that not all wild ducks are equal.

After feeding on Monsanto genetically modified corn and peas for its entire life, is it really all that organic??

[a little redneck]

I've had duck prosciutto recently which is extremely good although you normally don't eat lots of it. I tried cooking duck like a chicken once and I had a hard time eating it. If you know what you're doing when cooking duck it can be very good. Just need to learn what to do to make it good and I'm guessing grain fed is much different than slough fed.

[winged1]

I enjoy late season mallards, as well as dark geese. All of my meat is rare cooked, with bird no different. The thigh and leg of a Mallard approaches chicken in flavour. I've only tried farmed duck a couple of times, and wasn't that fond of it.

[GoneFishin']

Wild ducks are good...and goose are too, although we don't usually get the greater canada's because they tend to be much tougher to eat. It all depends on the cooking method as well. I grew up eating wild game of every sort of species so maybe I'm used to it. Snow geese and blues make good roasters too and they tend to be more tender.

To each their own, but how you cook it is either going to make it taste great or kill it altogether.
Duck is good in stir fry or as 'chicken' fingers too...IMO

[covey ridge]

I enjoy late season mallards, as well as dark geese. All of my meat is rare cooked, with bird no different. The thigh and leg of a Mallard approaches chicken in flavour. I've only tried farmed duck a couple of times, and wasn't that fond of it.

Do you find that those late season mallards actually have a layer of fat under the skin?

[bessiedog]

Yes and no.
I find it depends on temp and snow cover.
Late Dec ducks will lose their layer of fat if the snows have covered the feeding fields.
In jan to march when we get to do depredation hunts, those poor ducks are starving.

My last ducks had a decent fat layer, but not as good as mid late nov.

[covey ridge]

Yes and no.
I find it depends on temp and snow cover.
Late Dec ducks will lose their layer of fat if the snows have covered the feeding fields.
In jan to march when we get to do depredation hunts, those poor ducks are starving.

My last ducks had a decent fat layer, but not as good as mid late nov.

Thanks for the reply. I asked to clarify a common thought that mallards do not have a bit of fat. Havn't been into a good feed of field shot mallards for some time, but I seem to recall heavy birds with a good layer of fat inder the breast skin.

[bessiedog]

Best big ducks come from mid oct to mid nov.

Nice, fat, juicy, easily plucked

[bigbadjoe108]

Post #26 in his thread:

http://www.outdoorsmenforum.ca/showthread.php?t=23172

Has one of the best duck recipes I've ever tried. I've changed it a but and stuff with a mix of Provolone cheese, prosciutto ham and spinach. You can use bacon, mozzarella and kale or any combination thereof.

Domestic ducks and wild ones are very different in taste, I love both though.

Wild ducks, at least the ones I get, tend to taste more like beef than anything else to be honest. A chef buddy of mine says it is because they eat the
Same stuff. Not sure a about that though but it does ring true.

[Huntnut]

Anyone ever tried peking duck with wild duck? I've had it with tame but thought that it woudl be good with wild too.

[winged1]

Do you find that those late season mallards actually have a layer of fat under the skin?

I too have seen ducks slim down in late season, but most of my waterfowling is the fews weeks Oct/Nov, and yes, they typically have fat. Haven't seen it for a couple of years, but have shot big Canada's that split open on hitting the ground due to their fat buildup.