Need duck recipes, both for meat and eggs

[me&thegals]

Hey, all you in the duck world! I never thought I would be, but the longer I organic garden, the more I think animals need to have a part in the rotation. I just had a friend find a bunch of Rouens on CL. He wants to butcher, but I'm wondering about how they would work on a farm.

I don't want to hijack, so if there is another thread about this, would someone mind directing me? I searched "ducks" and came up with 19 pages!!!

My main questions:
1. Do Rouens need water?
2. Do they need special feed, or would chicken feed work through the winter?
3. Could I mingle them with my chicken and turkey flock?
4. Would they hang around the gardens in the warmer parts of the year?
5. Do they gobble up ALL vegetation, or what do they mainly eat?

Thanks much!

me&thegals

 

[~gd]

Hey, all you in the duck world! I never thought I would be, but the longer I organic garden, the more I think animals need to have a part in the rotation. I just had a friend find a bunch of Rouens on CL. He wants to butcher, but I'm wondering about how they would work on a farm.

I don't want to hijack, so if there is another thread about this, would someone mind directing me? I searched "ducks" and came up with 19 pages!!!

My main questions:
1. Do Rouens need water?Everything needs water, but they don't need a pond if that is what you mean
2. Do they need special feed, or would chicken feed work through the winter?If it is not overmedicated it will work fine
3. Could I mingle them with my chicken and turkey flock?Maybe, but I would recommend seperate housing since they make a mess with their water that would be unhealthy for land birds
4. Would they hang around the gardens in the warmer parts of the year? probally but they like to hunt for insects and might go where they can find more like a dirty stable or a bad compost heap
5. Do they gobble up ALL vegetation, or what do they mainly eat?They have favorites, usually the same as your favorites ~gd

Thanks much!

me&thegals

 

[me&thegals]

Thanks so much, gd!! Yes, I meant a pond Our chicken/turkey feed is unmedicated. Good to know about making huge water messes--not great in the barn in winter. Also good to know about protecting favored veggies. Thanks so much!

I've been reading about Muscovy and Rouens being good eating. What are people's favorite for meat?

Also, what's a good basic roasting recipe? Is slow and low preferable for duck meat?

 

[miss_thenorth]

I house my scovies in the barn with the chickens etc. They do make a big mess with the water in the winter. My solution to this is to put a kiddie pool underneath the water. In winter, I use a heated dog bowl. I put a few bricks in the pool for the chickens to walk on, and when there is enough water/ice, I take the kiddie pool outside and give it a shake to get rid of the ice. In the summer I use a big 5 gallon chciken waterer and keep it outside, so when they splash and make a mess--it is outside. Now, talking about scovies, they have never gone after my gardens. The chickens are worse, since they seem to think it their personal dust bath in the spring. My ducks tend to hang out around the shrubs surrounding the house in searchof bugs, and at night, they gather underneath our dusk-to-dawn light eating moths. Scovies, and I assume other ducks also, have big, runny, nasty poop. The only thing I don't like about them, especially when they do it on my patio. If mine actually reproduced this year, we would keep them. And it's not for a lack of trying--all four of them went broody 4 times, and not one hatched a single duckling. I have not given up hope since one is stil setting. But I think we are going to get either appleyards, or cayugas next spring. All ducks should be good for eating. (although I do not like wild duck) Scovies are good, I think they taste more like goose. Pekins are what you buy at the grocery store usuallly. Ducks, mine anyways, are really good bug eaters.

ETA, I feed mine chicken food, and they like scratch too.

 

[Shiloh Acres]

Some good answers on the ducks. I didn't have a problem with mine with the plants but I pulled LOTS of weeds for them when they were babies and as they were growing I would toss the weeds in their pool which encouraged them to eat them. I think I ended up kind of training them to eat certain weeds this way. They pretty much always preferred the ones I had fed them. They ate mostly bugs anyway, with chicken feed being their second favorite. Vegetation came in after that as far as preference.

As a matter of fact, once they discovered I kept 40 pounds of feed in the chicken coop, they started raiding it. I had to put a barrier that the chickens jumped over to keep them out.

Mine preferred anyplace shady in the summer. If you want to encourage them to be near the garden, shrubs or garden plants that give shade are good. You can also place a kiddie pool or even something smaller like a cement-mixing tub near the garden. They tend to want to be under shady cover and near water, but mine regularly patrolled the whole place.

Depending on what you want them for, different breeds are better. Roens are mostly meat birds, but I think they are fairly ok for other uses too. I love the mallard pattern but don't like the flightiness of mallards so I hope to get a few Roens in my duck flock next year.

 

[me&thegals]

Thanks, everyone, and thanks, savingdogs, for graciously allowing such long detours!

 

[savingdogs]

No problem, I'm interested in all these topics. I have cayugas too, but I actually just sold off two of them. The drake was a pest and everyone is sooooooooooooooooooooo much happier with him gone.

I had read that muscovy are a different kind of duck than all the others and pekin, rouen and cayuga are all "mallard" types and taste fairly similar.
While I have read that Pekin/muscovy crosses are the very best duck eating, I have also heard muscovy described that way.
We tried eating Pekin duck cooked as "Peking Duck" at a chinese restaurant, and frankly, I had to remove it from my mouth.
However we also tried muscovy breast slices served on a salad and it was ambrosia.

Both were fancy restaurants we were taken to for special occasions so I don't think it was not cooked correctly. I just don't like the greasiness or the gamey flavor of the mallard type ducks, that is why we chose muscovy for meat. Our neighbor who raises Pekin says they are the best tasting....

We got our cayuga for eggs only but we find the muscovy eggs are larger and they lay more eggs, pretty much one a day. Most eggs are like jumbo chicken eggs but every now and then we get a monster sized one.
My ducks seem to like all the same things as the chickens except they don't eat any meat proteins. They have anihilated every single plant in their enclosure.
I have my chickens and ducks in the same pen but with different houses, but I see my ducks lay their eggs in the chicken coop, which actually is quite convenient for right now, not so sure if I will like it in winter when it is always wet here and the chickens escape in their to get dry.
But as to recipes, I see I need to rethink the confit. It doesn't taste fatty?
I also wonder if perhaps the way I rendered the fat made it unpalatable. When you cook in duck fat, how exactly do you collect it? I boiled the less desireable parts and when it chilled picked up the fat clumps off the top. But it smelled gross! But we did not get a lot of duck skin as we are still learning how to properly pluck.

 

[Sebrightmom]

I have ducks everywhere. My cayugas have gone crazy. They have hatched over 50 ducklings. I have sold most of them, but still have over 16 for sale. I have never killed anything before. I have butchered a deer before or should I say helped. I have been trying to sell all of these ducks. They are most than half way grown. I was thinking about try to butcher a few myself. I have never had duck meat before. I have heard it is very good. My husband is a hunter. I figured if he would kill them because I can't, I could clean them.

I was wondering if someone could help with a few questions.

What is the best way to storage them in the freezer?

Should I skin them or pluck them all?

Is the bleed out method the best to kill them?

I hate to eat them, but I need to get my numbers back down and atleast I know they have been feed healthier foods.

 

[Bourbon Red]

Yep - bleed them like a chicken. I know lots of folks who like to skin their ducks - I could NEVER figure out how to skin a bord. I do pigs and cows all the time - birds? fergit it. For ducks get your water HOT - like 180F (instead of the 155F for chickens...) - splach a little on the duck and rub a handful of liquid dish soap all over the duck to break up the oil in the feathers - once the duck looks kind of bedraggled - dunk it in the scalding water and start plucking. It takes longer than a chicken - but then again a duck is MUCH better than a chicken! If your ducks aren't full-feathered - don't kill them - check under the wings - pluck out a little of the down (on a love bird - it won't hurt them) and check to see whether there are any pin feathers - if there are they aren't ready - if it's clean - start killing. It takes a while so get comfortable and pluck away. When you gut the ducks be sure to save the globs of fat from around the inside of the tail area. Add these to the extra scraps of skin, etc. and put in a heavy pan and render out the fat - like lard - in a slow oven - don't let it scorch! Strain it into jars (HOT!! - like 250+) and seal. Store in a dark place. Wonderful stuff duck fat! Only thing better is goose grease....

 

[ohiofarmgirl]

I could NEVER figure out how to skin...

you just arent trying hard enough
;-)

ha! just kiddin'...

Sebrightmom - you will LOVE to eat them

and save all the fat... potatoes roasted in duck fat is just like heaven....