Pintails taste funny?

MD

MD

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Does anyone else find pintail ducks odd flavoured? I live on the coast. Maybe it's the little snails they eat in the mud that makes 'em taste funny.

I find them tolerable but my wife hates 'em.

She is not fussy. This is a woman who insists bring moose hooves home for soup, loves deer, moose and bear and has even insisted we eat road kill raccoon and beaver. We buy pig's heads from the Chinese butcher and make head cheese and soup or buy then already roasted for a treat. She loves Canada goose most, then mallards, then snow geese, then widgeons.

But pintails? She says they taste metallic and just strange. We had a pheasant given to us a while back and she roasted that and it was clean, fresh smelling but she hated that too. She doesn't like grouse either so I just quit shooting those. I was never crazy about grouse anyway and just felt sorry for the stupid little phuquers anyway.

Anybody want a 20 gauge Ithaca?
 
billdick said:
There's no such thing as a good tasting duck it's just that some taste worse than others. Hahaha
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Surprised to hear that from Saskabush where they eat grain only. I'm perfectly happy with geese and ducks here on the west Coast. The mallards are great! They eat in the potato and cornfields and dabble a bit in streams and ponds. Even if they go to the salt water on and off I still find them choice table fare.
 
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I agree with billdick on this one, except that I would add the word "wild" to his sentence.

Domestic duck is fantastic. Bring on the confit !!

Also, grouse is some of the best game meat available on the planet, IMO.

Different strokes...
 
MD said:
Fine with me. The more people who believe that, the less competition in the duck fields.
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I have to agree with this! With the exception of certain divers, I think ducks are fantastic. I think the problem most people have with the flavour of wild duck is in how its cooked. Duck should never be overcooked. Duck breast is best served cooked no more then medium.

I too have no problem with people passing up on duck hunting. Less people using my duck blind...
 
FLHTCUI said:
I think she needs to use some rendered bear fat to add some flavour to those pintails MD.
That or stop eating the ones with steel shot in them.
You know the metallic taste you mentioned;)
Rob
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Funny Rob.

Yes, I'm thinking of switching to Season Shot next season. see below:

Season Shot is made of tightly packed seasoning bound by a fully biodegradable food product. The seasoning is actually injected into the bird on impact seasoning the meat from the inside out. When the bird is cooked the seasoning pellets melt into the meat spreading the flavor to the entire bird. Forget worrying about shot breaking your teeth and start wondering about which flavor shot to use!
 
ironsighter said:
I agree with billdick on this one, except that I would add the word "wild" to his sentence.

Domestic duck is fantastic. Bring on the confit !!

Also, grouse is some of the best game meat available on the planet, IMO.

Different strokes...
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Grouse is great but I wouldn't take it over a mallard any day of the week! Duck is just sublime, I think the haters probably grew up on chicken fingers and fishsticks ;)
 
I thought you were joking about the Season Shot till I googled it. Too bed there is no release date yet. It seems like a great idea long overdue.
 
Pintails on the prairies are in my opinion the best tasting waterfowl tablefare. They pluck up nice and have lots of white fat. With this said, I once shot a couple pintail up on the Hudson Bay coast near Churchill Manitoba. I remember these ducks being very strong, much like greater scaup I once hunted along the Great Lakes.
 
As with all birds, their gaminess is going to be influenced by what they have been eating.

As for grouse, their is a big difference in the colour of their meat and flavour (gaminess) based on the species.
The best eating is the ruffed with its white meat and delicate flavour (more like domestic chicken than any other grouse). Best in summer annd early fall. Once the snow hits and they switch to eating pine and spruce needles, they will get gamier.
Next comes the blues, which as considerably bigger, a little darker meat,and can be a little tougher to chew.
Sharptails come next with a darker red meat, and a bigger birds as well. These can be pretty gamey later in the fall, after the green leaves and grasses are gone.
Spruce hens are very dark meat and very gamey.
Ptarmigan, also have a very dark meat and gamey flavour.

I have never duck hunted, but imagine that they are as varied in meat color, size and taste as the grouse are. Have eaten domestic duck and like it. My wife makes duck for our Easter meal every year.
Have hunted Canada geese once, and have eaten them twice. Not bad. But I think if they had been cooked by someone with more knowledge in their preparation, then it would have been better.

Everyone has their own preferences on wild game flavour. I do not shoot the sharptails or spruce hens as I do not care for their strong taste, but my mentors grandson prefers them to all others.
 
I’ve never had wild duck but I’m more than curious about them, I’d expect what they eat will have some bearing on taste. I’ve enjoyed the Canada goose I’ve eaten, they were really tasty.

As for grouse they’re my favourite, even the spruce I enjoy regardless of what they’re eating. We’ve been trying to cook them differently every time we pull them out of the freezer, just love em.
 
Exactly ... over cooked and taste like a tough piece of old liver, cooked hot and fast to medium they are delicious.

JJ
 
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