Question for you waterfowlers

[fadetoblack188]

Do you guys eat all the ducks you shoot?... i no brant tastes horrible and there only a few on longisland sure that some what taste good.  Is there any where i can donate the birds i am not going to eat?

[ants]

One of the reasons I got out of water fowl hunting was that they tasted like //// no matter how I cooked them. Even corn field ducks. I never found that magic formula.

[greybeard]

I stopped shooting old squaw, because no matter how I tried to cook them they were pretty bad.I tried them a few different ways.

I rarely shoot divers for the same reason, but if I do decide to shoot one, I'll eat it.

I don't shoot mergansers because of the warning about eating them. They do make nice mounts though, especially the male hooded Merganser(my opinion).

 

 I think that mallards, greenwing teal and wood ducks are ok. and can be good if prepared to YOUR taste.

I'm not a fan of black ducks, sometimes they are not so good, but I'll eat them.

 

I cut way back on waterfowling, because I'm not a fan of the meat. I do love calling them though.

 

I like Canada geese.. breasted, cut in strips , membrane removed, pounded with meat mallet, marinated in olive oil and garlic, then bbq..spiced to taste...I'm a terrible cook, but I can bbq geese.

 

If ducks tasted like squirrels, I'd be out every day.

 

As far as donating, I never heard of it being done, but it's possible. Supposedly, when the State kills off a bunch of resident geese, they donate them to the homeless. You can ask the DEC

They oughta donate brant to welfare frauds and you'd see how fast they'd become honest and get a job...

[greybeard]

ants, I saw your post after I did mine, I thought the corn fed ones were better. Thanks, for that information, now  I'm glad I never traveled to get ducks.

[ants]

ants, I saw your post after I did mine, I thought the corn fed ones were better. Thanks, for that information, now  I'm glad I never traveled to get ducks.

I had permission to hunt late season ducks/geese in a corn field in Weedsport NY for years. We would do real well ,but Same thing …..No good eating. It always pissed me off. I have access to fields 5 minutes from my house, that are filled with geese and ducks (late season) but why bother if they taste like crud and I can't give them away?

[moog5050]

I was just telling phade that I want to learn to hunt ducks because I like the meat.  So I am guessing that the wild ducks don't taste like what I order in a restaurant?

[PWGUNNY]

The duck you order in a restaurant is likely the white domesticated duck.  The ducks I've hunted and eaten were pretty bad.  Blacks, mallards, geese and couple others were passable.  I tried many different recipes but none made a duck meal all that good.  Brant were the worst.  My buddy and I used to give them to his Salvadorian workers, but after a while they didn't want them anymore either.  We stopped hunting ducks after that.

[ants]

I was just telling phade that I want to learn to hunt ducks because I like the meat.  So I am guessing that the wild ducks don't taste like what I order in a restaurant?

NO FREAKING WAY !!!!! not even close. If you like a strong, STRONG  liver taste, you will be all set.

[fadetoblack188]

I LOVEEE duck hunting but dont like the birds, and i dont want to shoot them and put in the garbage.  I am going to have to find a place that will take them for the homeless. 

[Doewhacker]

If I get a bunch I want to make sausage with them, I figure you can't go wrong that way.

[Early]

We consider woodies and mallards to be great table fare.  Geese, on the other hand, require an overnight soak in V-8 to cut down on the livery taste....thereafter, they, too, are good.

[moog5050]

Well I guess that makes it easy.  Thanks for the info.  Not a big fan of liver so I guess I will pass on the ducks.

[ants]

I use to give my water fowl to an elderly Italian couple I know. They lived through the depression where food was food. They gladly took my ducks/geese for a while but eventually said "no thanks..too a-strong" BLAAAHHHH!!

Edited December 30, 2013 by ants

[Doewhacker]

I had Goose that was cooked in Wine/broth and it reminded me of Venison.

[Hoss315er]

Thought about doing more waterfowl hunting but not wanting to eat them has been the main reason not to hunt them. Does anyone just feed them to your dogs/retrievers?

[Doewhacker]

Any one in my area (Saratoga county) that does not want Duck's and Goose send them on to me.

 

I will even help shoot them if you like.

[greybeard]

 I live in Nassau County where there is 0 hunting except for waterfowl.. Five miles from my house, by side streets I can launch my kayak and get into good waterfowl areas. I have  other spots that are close too. I hunt weekdays, I leave late,  and I can get waterfowl(not always), so it's very convenient.

Except for good days crow hunting, I get more birds waterfowling then any other bird hunting,

Ducks are not destructive to crops, that I know of. They are not predators of small birds, and eggs, like crows, so , although I don't have to justify it to anyone, it kinda bothers me to kill them and not enjoy eating them.

I will still hunt ducks, at times, but will take only a few for the season, and only those that taste o.k.(I will hunt Canada geese though since, as I wrote, I like to eat them.)

We all hunt for our own reasons. I don't judge anyone who thinks differently, or even just  likes the wing shooting, but I have to do what works for me.

 

Moog.. Try one, you may like it... Some guys enjoy them

[mike rossi]

We eat all of ours and no the dogs don't get any lol... I don't believe my wife marinates anything, if she does I am positive it is only for a couple hours and definitely not overnight. We usually eat game right after hunting as a matter of fact and think it tastes best fresh.  I do know they are only cooked to the raw side of rare. We have another face book page called Cooking Doves and other Game Birds. It was intended to be called Cooking Doves and other Small Game Birds - but FB wouldn't take the name. We might put some teal recipes on there and likely larger ducks at some point. Face Book has an excellent RSS feed and allows us to make a standard post and a duplicate in the "notes" section on the top right corner. That doesn't sound like much, but if you open the notes section and/or subscribe to the RSS feed you will see it is really handy especially for recipes. FYI: that FB page was created as an auxiliary to our dove hunting advocacy page specifically to address the anti hunting premise that mourning doves are not edible. Anyone on our other page please also follow our cooking page as well. 

[greybeard]

I was just telling my wife about this thread and she reminded me that I used to cut ducks into small pieces and fry them with hot Italian sausages. She'd laugh when I would say that I liked it and tell me the flavor that I tasted was the sausage, not the duck. She'd tell me that  , if you have to disguise the flavor that much, it's not worth eating it. I forgot all about that

[virgil]

My buddies grill the brant breasts and feed them to the dogs. I take the mallards and blacks and make jerky. The duck jerky is easy to make and it's a great snack while out in the duck boat.

[greybeard]

Do the dogs bite them afterwards ?  (joke)..   Actually, I agree that  it is a pretty good idea. Good protein

 

[mike rossi]

I was just telling my wife about this thread and she reminded me that I used to cut ducks into small pieces and fry them with hot Italian sausages. She'd laugh when I would say that I liked it and tell me the flavor that I tasted was the sausage, not the duck. She'd tell me that  , if you have to disguise the flavor that much, it's not worth eating it. I forgot all about that

 

Yeah, I used to make up some real ducked-up recipes too. Being a dago myself, used a lot of what I was familiar with and it wasn't always the best choice, especially with waterfowl,  but not as bad as school cafeteria  lunches. Prior to that my mother was a pretty good game cook , but I never paid attention. My wife, who told me I was like a cave man when she met me, does even better. I leave the cooking to her, otherwise, according to her, it would just be a waste of food...

 

I have not hunted tide water for some time, but I don't remember brant as being poor table fare. I still remember those nasty school lunches though...

[mike rossi]

I LOVEEE duck hunting but dont like the birds, and i dont want to shoot them and put in the garbage.  I am going to have to find a place that will take them for the homeless. 

 

What did you get for ducks? A brant is actually a goose and some ducks are easier to cook than others.

[tidriver]

I wonder if the chinese restaurants would take the ducks to make peking duck? I know if hawaii, the locals hunt wild boar but cannot serve them in restaurants because the boar were not fda apporved.

[mike rossi]

I wonder if the chinese restaurants would take the ducks to make peking duck? I know if hawaii, the locals hunt wild boar but cannot serve them in restaurants because the boar were not fda apporved.

 

Yeah, you just need to let the FWS agents and the DEC conservation officers know when and where the transaction will take place...