I've been re ignited to get back into some waterfowl experimentation from some reading I've been doing recently. Any thoughts or suggestions?

I'm fairly adept at smoking the birds, but I've seen some additions to the simple smoke as well as a duck bacon.

Seriously.

I don't have a lot of birds in the freezer but there are some and fall is coming. Any suggestions y'all might have would be appreciated.

I have one good method for geese, so maybe you haven't seen this yet.

Breast out the bird and lightly score the breasts, then marinade in a bag with olive oil, sea salt, and fresh rosemary for a few hours (use more or less of the salt and rosemary to your taste). Then grill until they are rare-medium rare and let them sit under foil to continue cooking a bit. Just DO NOT overcook them because I've found there is a fine line between "just right" and "boot leather" with goose on the grill.



If in doubt you can always cube the breasts, wrap with bacon, toss on Italian seasoning, and pan fry 'til the bacon is done. This works really well for cooking just one bird at a time.

This is so simple it's hardly worth describing, but many people apparently don't know about it, so.....take a few goose or duck breasts, depending on how many you have, their size, and how many you're cooking for.....simply cook them in salted butter (don't let heat get so high that you burn butter), at least a stick if you're cooking very many, until rare to medium rare (absolutely no more than that), and serve them warm. It is quite good and as simple as it gets. If you're of a mind, excellent gravy or sauce can be made from the drippings.

pound the breast flat, the wrap some green chiles and swiss cheese inside and roll them up. wrap the roll in bacon and throw it on the grill. when it comes off the grill drizzle some creamy italian dressing over the top

Wow! Every one of these sounds good! We always gave our ducks and geese away to the less fortunate in the neighborhood, but not any more!

Pound 'em flat with a tenderizer hammer, soak 'em for a while in Morton's Tenderquick, then dredge them in sour cream and crushed corn flakes. Follow up by chicken-frying them and you're good to go.

Alternatively, slice them thin and saute them hot with vegies to make fajitas.

Last year I cubed up a bunch of duck breasts and used them in place of cubed pork in a green chile stew - that was pretty darn good too.

Speaking of fajitas, I slice the breasts in strips (across the grain), marinate in a bag with terriaki sauce, maybe some soy sauce, a spoon of frozen orange juice mix, and coca cola. I layer the strips in a hot pan and toss the sliced onion, green, red, and yellow bell pepper over the top of that. When the duck is ready to turn/stir I mix it all up and cook until the veggies are finished and serve with warmed tortillas. Very good fajitas!

hey, scott - just caught this post. i'm ashamed to say that i don't do much with waterfowl (an oversight that i hope to correct over the enxt year or two) but i would be inclined to agree with gato: simple, simple simple. often, when looking for the "perfect" way to do something, the perfect way to do it is over-looked. evan's treatment of waterflowl looks really delicious, as well.

one thing i have been interested in is doing duck or perhaps even goose as charcuterie; i.e., dry-cured and possibly smoked. a friend in south africa has made duck proscuitto and goose pastrama - both look like slices of heaven. as an experiment, i intend to try either proscuitto or pastrama with duck breasts, as soon as i can get some. i'll keep you posted.

the only other thing i can think of is that i've seen where duck and korean flavours seem to go well, but haven't tried any personally.

Gentlemen,

Muchas gracias for all the advise. Its not that I'm completely un versed, its just that I'm looking to diversify.

The fajitas and stir fry I enjoy very much. A simple hot smoke and then eaten as a cold cut it also delicious. I saw an article regarding duck philly steak sandwiches as well as the duck bacon article that got my curiosity aroused. The corn flake recipie definately has my attention. Gato, I think I've failed with your recipie with the wrong heat, I'll get after it again.

If y'all don't mind, I do recommend the hot smoke/ cold cuts route. Brine birds in standard brine 6 hours or less. Rinse well in cold water. Over a period of maybe four hours, run the birds up to a temperature of 160 degrees in the smoker. Skin on. Let cool overnight refridgerated at some point and then the next day serve cold, sliced, skin on as drumsticks and sliced breast. Peel skin, dip in sweet hot mustard or alternative and snack away.

Again, thanks, and any additional suggestions are appreciated.

I still like to pluck some of my birds and roast them its a pain but worth the work. roast them at a high temp to get the skin crispy but not overcooking the meat. If you skin them you loose all that great fat.