So I just shot my first ducks...!

B

birdman86

Member
Rating - 100%
7   0   0
Location
Calgary
Bit of a spur of the moment, I'm new to all this but saw a bunch of teals in my dugout. Bought my waterfowl license, grabbed the shotgun, managed to get three. The dog mangled ones wing but overall pretty solid.

Then I started looking for ways to process them...damn, I should have done more research leading up to tonight. Seems like some guys field dress them immediately(ish), other guys throw them on the garage floor for a few days. Some guys pluck them, some guys skin them, some guys just fillet off the breasts and chuck the rest. I'm overwhelmed with what to do. I ended up doing this to get like...1/3 lb of tiny little teal breasts. Super quick but seems wasteful.

So...how should I think about this? Do you process the birds same day, or let them sit untouched for a few days? Some guys talk about the latter but I'm worried about bacteria growth.

Do you skin them or pluck them? Seems like guys say the skin keeps the meat juicy but that it only applies to older/larger birds so something like a small teal, just get the meat and keep it simple?

Any tips to search out/remove the shot? Since the birds are so small I like the idea of plucking/gutting and roasting them whole like a chicken but I can't be feeding guests pellet ridden meat.

Pretty stoked, am hoping to rack up a good supply of birds so maybe a month from now I'll know what I'm doing and my dog'll stop treating them like chew toys.
 
Teal can be plucked pretty easy when still warm. Real early season birds may be full of pinfeathers so they are easier skinned.

I like teal whole - skinned or plucked - and split them down their backbone and opened up. I place then open on a plate and weigh them down with another weighted plate and put them in the fridge overnight. The next day I will baste them with lard or bacon fat while cooking them hot on the BBQ. Cooked so that the breasts are still pink in the centre they are wonderful with just a touch of salt on them.
 
Early season I'd clean them as a quick as possible. I breast as per common internet descriptions of such but retain legs and thighs to freeze and use in slow cooker recipes. Later in the season or if they feel like pin feathers are few and I will pluck and draw them similar to a bird from the butcher shop and roast, smoke or BBQ as I see fit.

When day time highs reach single digits nights are freezing or nearly so I may leave them a bit before processing but until then I deal with them asarp.
 
NHunter said:
Teal, yuck, lice everywhere....focus on big drake Mallards....and enjoy a very fine meal....
Click to expand...

I'll add Blacks,too. Pluck and clean them the day they're shot and put them in the freezer. Thaw them in water in the fridge when you're ready to cook them like you would a whole chicken,with home-made dressing and roasted in the oven. That way, depending on how many guests for dinner,you can cook as many as you need. Red wine and bon appetite. YouTube has videos and recipes.:cool:
 
Most early season ducks up here in Canada are not very good table fare I find. Later in the season or toward the end when mallards, pintail and such get into crops, some great tasting birds can be had...if your culinary skills are up to par. Exception it seems are canvas and redheads which are always delicious I find.
 
btabin said:
I really want to get into bird hunting myself but I really don't know where to start.
Click to expand...

I'm going through exactly this and learning a ton every day. I'm one of those "I have a lab, I should learn to hunt birds" kind of guys. I highly recommend Steve Rinella's Complete Guide to Hunting, Butchering and Cooking Volume 2 (Small Game and Birds) - having read it, he covers pretty much everything I've found online re: different breeds, butchering, and how to cook them but in one place instead of a bunch of blog posts and (sometimes argumentative) forums. Then just go find some water you can hunt on and give er! I've been cruising the drainage ditches on our farm and finding plenty of bird groups floating around.

To answer my own questions in the OP (like I said, learning lots every day but still a long ways to go),
1- Aging is okay, hanging head up, ungutted and unplucked, but do it where flies don't have access and only in temps ~5C. Or just pluck and gut your bird then sit it in the fridge for a couple days before freezing. Or just process it immediately, there's no real evidence that aging is a must.
2- Pluck them ideally, but lots of guys just cut out the breasts and chuck the rest. Depends how you feel about wasting the rest of the meat, but for small teal's there really isn't other meat to speak of. Keep the heart liver and gizzard for....I don't know yet, just keep them and freeze them in water.
3- Haven't figured out how to deal with shot yet. Just be careful in cleaning and accept that hunted bird meat may have pellets in it I guess. Pay attention to entry/exit wounds.

Edit to add: I'm stoked to report that tonight I finally got my dog to pick up and deliver to hand! So far he's always crunched them, sniffed them, then left them. Not cool. But after a few days of yanking a dead bird on a string around the yard he finally brought it right back to me tonight, just had to get the cheese out for motivation. Feels GOOD!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom