# Jan 1 2018



## goosefreak (Aug 20, 2009)

We’ll, it was a tough start to 2018 this morning but, we ended up taking home our 2 man limit by making a major adjustment and the rest is history..

Make adjustments. Sometimes they are small and sometimes they are big..

Does anyone have a good pintail recipe I could try? I might want to do this one different than the norm..


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## Fowlmouth (Oct 4, 2008)

https://honest-food.net/how-to-cook-duck-breasts/

Now if I could just shoot a Pintail...:grin:


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## paddler (Jul 17, 2009)

Just buy the book. You can roast pintails whole, pan sear the breast as in Rob's link, etc. Shaw's sauces are good, too. I recently roasted a pintail whole and had fried hominy as a side with red currant jelly sauce. Very traditional meal. Try it, you'll like it.


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## LostLouisianian (Oct 11, 2010)

My favorite way to cook ducks is simply breast them out and season the breasts with my favorite seasoning for steak. I get out an old cast iron skillet and put a little olive oil and butter and get it up decent hot on medium high. Then 2-4 minutes per side depending on what kind of duck it was. Let rest for 5 minutes and then you'll swear you're eating fillet mignon.


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## JerryH (Jun 17, 2014)

Salt, pepper and butter


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## LostLouisianian (Oct 11, 2010)

JerryH said:


> Salt, pepper and butter


Yep that's what mine look like too! I have done them on BBQ grill for the same amount of time on high heat and they look like that as well.


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## paddler (Jul 17, 2009)

*Cross Hatching*

On ducks with lots of fat, cross hatching the skin and cooking them slow will render the fat better and cook them more evenly.


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## Raptor1 (Feb 1, 2015)

goosefreak said:


> We'll, it was a tough start to 2018 this morning but, we ended up taking home our 2 man limit by making a major adjustment and the rest is history..
> 
> Make adjustments. Sometimes they are small and sometimes they are big..
> 
> Does anyone have a good pintail recipe I could try? I might want to do this one different than the norm..


That's a good limit there, congrats. I was planning on hitting it on New Year's but had some chest pain and so off to the ER, they told me everything was OK. So I went out this morning against the advise of some upset family members. Suspect it was the little smokies that caused some bad heartburn. lol When you have days like yours it makes it all the work worth it. You been running with any motion?


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## wagdog (Jan 6, 2009)

goosefreak said:


> Does anyone have a good pintail recipe I could try? I might want to do this one different than the norm..


Be sure to check out the link to Hank Shaw's blog that was posted previously. He has some great recipes. I like roasting my ducks whole if I can get some help plucking them. I've followed Hank's recipe for roasting them whole and it has worked well with the exception of one duck.

That particular duck was an extremely fat pintail and I should have slow roasted it (Hank also has a recipe for that) instead of using his high heat roasting method. It wasn't a loss at all. After taking the pintail out, letting it rest, and realizing that there was too much fat insulating the meat (completely rare y'all), I took the breasts and leg quarters off the bird. I went ahead and broke out the cast iron skillet and some bacon grease. Had to score the skin a little and then cooked them to a nice medium/medium rare in the pan. Bacon fat mixed with duck fat is heavenly and probably took a year or three off my life...those years suck anyhow.


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## LostLouisianian (Oct 11, 2010)

wagdog said:


> Be sure to check out the link to Hank Shaw's blog that was posted previously. He has some great recipes. I like roasting my ducks whole if I can get some help plucking them. I've followed Hank's recipe for roasting them whole and it has worked well with the exception of one duck.
> 
> That particular duck was an extremely fat pintail and I should have slow roasted it (Hank also has a recipe for that) instead of using his high heat roasting method. It wasn't a loss at all. After taking the pintail out, letting it rest, and realizing that there was too much fat insulating the meat (completely rare y'all), I took the breasts and leg quarters off the bird. I went ahead and broke out the cast iron skillet and some bacon grease. Had to score the skin a little and then cooked them to a nice medium/medium rare in the pan. Bacon fat mixed with duck fat is heavenly and probably took a year or three off my life...those years suck anyhow.


Try spatchocking the duck then putting it on a pellet grill .... your tongue will slap your face silly over it.


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## wagdog (Jan 6, 2009)

LostLouisianian said:


> Try spatchocking the duck then putting it on a pellet grill .... your tongue will slap your face silly over it.


I've spatch****ed (man what a terrible name) chicken and other birds. Never thought about doing a duck. Do you like brining them first before smoking? If it'll make my tongue slap both sides of my face, say my sunday school lesson backwards, or slap my mama, I gotta try it.


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## Fowlmouth (Oct 4, 2008)

Raptor1 said:


> You been running with any motion?


Just a mojo spinner........


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## hamernhonkers (Sep 28, 2007)

Sweet bag! I'd love to kill a limit like that. It's been so long I don't remember what it's like. 

Sent from my SM-G930V using Tapatalk


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## wyogoob (Sep 7, 2007)

wagdog said:


> I've spatch****ed (man what a terrible name) chicken and other birds. Never thought about doing a duck. Do you like brining them first before smoking? If it'll make my tongue slap both sides of my face, say my sunday school lesson backwards, or slap my mama, I gotta try it.


See http://utahwildlife.net/forum/26-recipes/17667-smoked-wild-duck.html

.


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## wyogoob (Sep 7, 2007)

Went in the smoker this afternoon:


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## wagdog (Jan 6, 2009)

wyogoob said:


> See http://utahwildlife.net/forum/26-recipes/17667-smoked-wild-duck.html
> 
> .


Thanks goob. I'll give it a whirl when I get some more ducks.


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## wyogoob (Sep 7, 2007)

*they gotta look nice*



wagdog said:


> Thanks goob. I'll give it a whirl when I get some more ducks.


I've just taken a serrated knife and sawed the backbone out. They clean up really nice that way, especially if you're going to smoke them whole.

.


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## SCtransplant (Jul 31, 2015)

Dutch oven......


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## goosefreak (Aug 20, 2009)

Okay guys, so I’m a believer in the whole leave the skin on thing.. I cooked 1 canvasback today.
Skin on breast, I cut the skin in a cross hitch pattern and then I generously salted it with corse salt on both sides and lightly seasoned it with garlic salt and ground some black pepper over it.
I let it sit on the counter like that for 30 minuets, then I patted it down with a paper towel 
I then took a cast iron skillet and put a splash of olive oil and a decent size slice of butter in it and put the breast skin down in the skillet, 
THEN I turned the stove on to MED heat and let it warm up with the breast to cooking temperature and cooked it skin down for 6-8 min then I flipped it over and cooked for another 5 minuets or so.
I then pulled them out and let it rest on the cutting board for 5 minuets before slicing. 
It turned out to medium rare 

Daaamn boy! That was some good eatin..


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## paddler (Jul 17, 2009)

goosefreak said:


> Okay guys, so I'm a believer in the whole leave the skin on thing.. I cooked 1 canvasback today.
> Skin on breast, I cut the skin in a cross hitch pattern and then I generously salted it with corse salt on both sides and lightly seasoned it with garlic salt and ground some black pepper over it.
> I let it sit on the counter like that for 30 minuets, then I patted it down with a paper towel
> I then took a cast iron skillet and put a splash of olive oil and a decent size slice of butter in it and put the breast skin down in the skillet,
> ...


Nice. Since I kill so few canvasbacks I treat each one like gold. I roast them whole as they were served in restaurants back in the days of market hunting. I prefer them a bit more rare. And, they deserve a nice sauce. You should try the fried hominy, too.


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## goosefreak (Aug 20, 2009)

Well, I cooked the other canvasback along with the pintail.. skin on of course.. i put a slice of butter under each breast..

I’m glad I decided to try that skin on thing!
I’ve been missing out all these years..


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## LostLouisianian (Oct 11, 2010)

Tastes like steak doesn’t it.


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## Raptor1 (Feb 1, 2015)

goosefreak said:


> Well, I cooked the other canvasback along with the pintail.. skin on of course.. i put a slice of butter under each breast..
> 
> I'm glad I decided to try that skin on thing!
> I've been missing out all these years..


The only one I've ever shot is on the wall and I usually don't see many and shoot at less. Haven't shot at any this year, have seen a few but they were out of range.

So what is the verdict? Pintail or Canvasback at the same time which is better?


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## goosefreak (Aug 20, 2009)

Raptor1 said:


> goosefreak said:
> 
> 
> > Well, I cooked the other canvasback along with the pintail.. skin on of course.. i put a slice of butter under each breast..
> ...


Honestly, they were both taken care of the same and both seasoned and cooked the same. If I were to rate them in star value I would give the pintail 4.7 stars and the canvasback would get a 4.9 star rating..
It was neck and neck but, the canvasback seemed to have a slight edge on tenderness


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