Eat the duck you harvested, not just parts of it.
Among our recipes, we also share pickled duck hearts and gizzards, don’t be squeamish, give it a try. Pickled meats are hit at camp and family gatherings when served correctly.
In South Dakota, we shot corn fed mallards that were fattening for migration and it was certainly true that every duck deserved to be plucked because that yellow fat grills up great. As you move south during migration that fat layer is often reduced. As a duck prepares for migration they put on a-lot of fat to fuel that flight south, they do this by eating more carbohydrates than energy burned,,,, just like Uncle Bob at Christmas dinner!,,,,Ok, so maybe Uncle Bob just got fat, he isn’t flying anywhere.
Ducks store fat in their abdominal cavity, along their intestines, and under their skin. This produces a very succulent duck when the skin is left on a whole bird and roasted. We prefer the use of a Weber or Green Egg style grill over propane or the oven because you can get more of a smoky flavor to your cooking.
Ok, so once ducks get to their southern wintering grounds, they actually tend to lose fat because for weeks to months they are not migrating anywhere, they are just making daily movements, so ducks tend to lose weight at southern latitudes during winter. For this reason, it is noticeable that duck recipes tend towards gumbo and duck kabobs and less so whole duck recipes in the south when compared to the north. This doesn’t mean you can’t shoot a prime wigeon, pluck it and grill it if you’re from Louisiana, we are certainly speaking in generalizations. By far my favorite duck to grill whole is a drake mallard shot in a corn field in December during a snowstorm just as a strong cold and snowy front moves into the Great Lakes region. That duck is sure to be prime and ready for the grill!
The good news is that this is the least ingredient-intensive recipe we produce.
Duck, Oil, Salt, Pepper…REPEAT. Easy, Easy, Easy. Just don’t overcook the buggers!
Ingredients
Whole plucked prime mallards (2 prime mallards fit well in the middle of a large Weber, you could maybe squeeze a few smaller mallards in there, or 3 wigeon/gadwall sized ducks, and probably 6 green-winged teal)
Canola oil
Salt
Pepper
This recipe is dedicated to Dr. Dave Ankney who probably did more for waterfowl science, conservation, and management than most of us could imagine in our lives.
Step 1
Use a Weber Jumbo 22-inch grill or similar sized Green Egg – the size of the grill matters because ducks differ in size, but it should be a large, rounded grill.
Step 2
Prepare whole mallards by rubbing the entire duck with canola oil, then salt and pepper the breast up duck.
Step 3
Fill two grill chimneys with charcoal, place paper in the bottom to light, continue to push paper into the bottom of the chimney holes as needed to get constant smoke from the top of the chimney
Step 4
Cook those chimneys until you just see a red glow in the layers near the top but not entirely up to the top.
Step 5
Pour out the charcoal using the handles of the chimneys on either side of the grill to produce indirect heat and immediately place the ducks breast up in the middle of the grill, close the lid with the top and bottom vents 100% open.
Step 6
Start your clock to exactly 22 minutes (for mallards).
NOTE: Cooking time is critical, do not overcook the duck. If the meat is gray and tough, you did I all wrong. It is overcooked. You may wish to cook different sized ducks using this same recipe. If yes, the fork test is at the bottom and reliable.
Step 7
Pull ducks off grill and rest for 5 minutes to let juices reabsorb into the meat.
OTHER TIPS.
Other tips – Use shagbark hickory or small pieces of apple wood to add smoke. Soak them in water for 24 hours and then freeze immediately. Right after turning over the chimneys and putting the top grill plate down add some frozen hickory bark or apple wood as smoke flavor. Over the 22 minutes it will smolder and smoke just perfectly.
If you are worried about feathers on your plucked duck you can certainly do all the fancy stuff, but we’ve hand plucked for decades without much issue, just don’t leave too many feathers, don’t feel like you have to boil and then flame away the feathers, just do the best you can. The feathers don’t taint the flavor, that is mostly about presentation for restaurants.
Enjoy.
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