How to soak wild duck before cooking

Wild duck meat is highly valued due to its usefulness and unusual taste. Wild duck on the table is a rare product, as it is almost impossible to buy.

Wild duck in the oven

More often, wild duck is prepared by hunters or those who were able to purchase it at the market. The peculiarity of the meat is its spicy taste. This is why it is so important to properly prepare the bird and marinate it. Due to the fact that wild ducks feed on fish, their meat acquires a specific taste.

To make wild duck delicious, you need to use proven cooking recipes. It is not recommended to prepare wild duck soups; they can be fried, stewed and baked. The broth can be cooked using duck giblets.

How to Prepare a Wild Bird

Like any bird, if it is not dressed, you need to pluck the feathers and remove the insides. Rinse the carcass thoroughly, both inside and outside. Cut off the paws, neck, wings. Dry the carcass with a napkin. The final stage of preparing wild duck is searing over a burner.

Residues of soot may remain on the duck and will need to be washed off. Searing will remove any remaining feathers from the carcass.

If the bird is purchased, you should skip these points. The duck will need to be washed, cleaned, if there are partial remains of feathers, singed. If you plan to bake the whole duck, it is simply dried and marinated. If you fry the duck in pieces, you need to cut it into portions. Rinse the pieces and dry.

There is nothing complicated when preparing the bird; it must be clean and gutted, according to the recipe. The entrails, heart, liver, and navel are removed. You can use them to prepare rich broths and pates.

The intestines are thrown away. The head, legs, and wings are fed to animals or duck soups are cooked. First courses have a specific taste; special recipes are needed for them.

By cutting up a carcass correctly, thrifty housewives do not waste anything in the kitchen, even in the case of game.

Video: How to cook baked duck with honey crust

Today we have duck in the oven again...in pieces. Last time I told you, and today I will be happy to share a basic recipe for how to cook duck so that it is soft and juicy in the oven.

Therefore, if you have a whole duck, or duck pieces, and you don’t know how to deliciously cook duck in the oven, welcome to my kitchen, where I will tell you in detail and with step-by-step photos what to marinate the duck in, so that it turns out juicy, soft and tasty, and how to bake it correctly.

Many people are interested in the cooking time for duck in the oven - we will also discuss this aspect of the recipe in more detail. So, a detailed excursion, for you, my dear readers - how to cook delicious duck, a recipe with step-by-step photos at your service!

Ingredients:

• 1 kg. duck (whole or pieces)

Marinade:

• 4 tbsp. soy sauce
• 3 tsp grated ginger
• 2 tsp honey
• 1 tsp mustard

To submit:

• Cherry sauce

How to cook duck so that it is soft and juicy in pieces:

I used duck legs for this recipe, but any parts of a duck on the bone will work, as well as a whole duck carcass. I prefer to bake the duck in pieces, because then it does not need to be cut into portions when cooked. This does not affect the juiciness in any way, plus the duck in pieces will cook faster in the oven. It is advisable to use chilled meat, or frozen pieces of duck on the bone in a vacuum.

Combine all the ingredients for the marinade in a deep plate.

And mix until smooth. You should end up with a thick paste like the one in my photo.

Next, mix the duck pieces with the marinade in a large, deep bowl. If you are using a whole duck carcass, make sure that the marinade is evenly distributed. Cover the bowl with cling film or cover with a lid and place in the refrigerator to marinate for at least 6 hours, preferably overnight. I usually marinate the duck in the evening, and put it in the oven at 10-11 in the morning, so that I can get a hot and rosy meat dish when the guests arrive.

Place the marinated duck pieces in a heat-resistant dish of a suitable size. If you are roasting a whole duck, then you will need a duck pan or a dish with high sides.

Next, seal the mold tightly with foil in two layers, much like in my photo. And we send the duck to bake in a preheated oven at 180 degrees for at least three hours. After three hours, you can open the foil slightly and pierce the meat near the bone to check the readiness of the duck.

If you want duck with an appetizing crust, I recommend removing the foil and keeping the meat under the top grill for 15-20 minutes. As a rule, modern ovens have such a “Top Grill” function. If there is no such function, place the dish with the duck on the top level of the oven and turn on the top heat at 200 degrees.

Serve the duck immediately, before the dish has cooled. An ideal addition to oven-roasted duck.

Friends, this is the end of cooking duck at home in the oven. I really hope that you will like my version of how to marinate duck for roasting and how to cook duck in pieces in the oven!

I wish you bon appetit and look forward to your feedback and comments on the recipe.

How to remove a specific smell

Inexperienced housewives avoid wild duck because of its specific smell. If you cook it without pre-processing, the meat will taste like fish.

Some people like it, but others are discouraged from cooking duck meat. To avoid an unpleasant taste, you need to do the following procedure:

• Lightly simmer the carcass in boiling water for about 5 minutes, or place it on a baking sheet with water inside the oven. Turn on the oven for 7-10 minutes, turning the duck once. Under the influence of steam, part of the specific odor will disappear.
• Residual fishy odors are masked by marinating in special spices and seasonings. As a result, duck tastes no different from poultry.

Due to the natural value of the bird, its consumption will benefit the body. Adherents of hunting cuisine, having prepared their prey, will be pleased with the result. If everything is done correctly and not in a hurry, the poultry meat will be juicy, aromatic and not tough. The time spent on preparing game is justified and makes the hunter very happy.

If the duck is baked, it will not lose its golden crust. When fried, it will also brown. When stewed, the duck is saturated with its own fat, the meat becomes juicy and tender. The boiled or oven-aged duck is cooled, chopped or left whole.

Having dealt with the unpleasant wild duck smell, you can begin preparing dishes according to the selected recipes.

What is the best way to marinate duck?

The main ingredient in pickling is salt. The whole carcass or pieces are generously rubbed with it. Salt gives meat not only flavor, but also makes it soft and dries out moisture. As for spices and seasonings, they are usually chosen according to individual characteristics - some like it spicier. For some, it’s more aromatic, while for others, black and red pepper in the marinade is enough.

To get rid of the fishy taste, you can add seasonings with a specific flavor - ready-made mixtures, spices for wild duck. You can take the following fragrant herbs:

Cooking poultry in the oven

The pre-marinated duck is placed in a baking sleeve or wrapped in food foil. If you plan to cook several ducks at once, they can be wrapped together in a large piece of foil. Do not throw away the remaining marinade; it can be useful at the final stage of baking.

Duck with vegetables in the oven

The roasting time of the carcass depends on the size and type of wild duck. There are more than 100 varieties of them in nature. Large ones will take longer to cook, small ones faster. The cooking time is affected by the age of the duck - young birds cook faster, but with older game you need to tinker.

• The standard baking option involves keeping the carcass inside the oven for 35-40 minutes.
• Then you will need to cut the foil on top and twist it on its sides to form a basket.
• The open duck is cooked for another 20 minutes. Now you will need to check the readiness of the carcass.
• If the skin is well pierced and no bloody juice flows from it, the game is ready. Another very important point is to let the duck brown.

If a lot of juice forms in the foil, you can remove it with a spoon. Lightly pour the juice over the duck and bake until golden brown. The game baked in this way is sprinkled with lemon juice, covered with herbs and vegetables and served. According to the rules of wild duck, recipes for cooking in the oven do not involve anything complicated.

Wild duck goes very well with homemade marinades, baked potatoes or boiled rice. The whole duck is served to the table. To serve, it is cut into portions with special scissors.

If the wild duck is well baked, the meat easily comes off the bone and simply melts in your mouth.

Wild duck in a slow cooker

Modern technologies make it possible to prepare hunting dishes with less time. If the usual cooking of game in a cauldron takes a lot of time.

Wild duck in a slow cooker

In a slow cooker it cooks very quickly. The prepared pieces of poultry are placed in a multicooker bowl, where you first need to add a little vegetable oil. A lot of onions are laid out on top; they will give the bird juiciness, softness and a special aroma.

If desired, you can add pieces of carrots, sweet peppers or tomatoes. Garlic is added to the duck at the final stage, since its aroma will disappear during cooking.

Fans of spicy dishes can add a couple of pieces of chili pepper. Since the duck is marinated in the slow cooker, there is no need to salt it.

If there aren’t enough spices, you can add a little to your liking:

• Turn on the multicooker to stewing mode and forget about it, depending on the model of the kitchen machine for 1.5-2 hours.
• After this time, open the lid of the multicooker, assess the degree of readiness of the game, chop into pieces; if they are soft, the duck is ready.
• If the meat is raw, turn on the stewing mode again. This happens very rarely, when the wild duck is very old. Basically, one mode of the “Extinguishing” program is enough.
• Remove the finished pieces from the multicooker onto a dish or portion plates and serve with a side dish, herbs, and vegetables.

Marinated duck in turnip broth

For this dish you will need:

• ½ turnip;
• 1 PC. onions;
• ½ carrot;
• 0.7 l of water;
• salt + pepper;
• Bay leaf;
• duck (2 - 2.5 kg)

Place a pot of water on the stove and bring to a boil. We send there finely chopped turnips, carrots and onions. Throw in the bay leaf and salt the broth. Cook it until the vegetables are ready.

Then cool the broth and grind it using a blender into a puree mass (just remove the bay leaves). Salt the bird, season it with pepper and generously cover it with marinade. Place in the refrigerator for 3-4 hours.

Then we place the bird with the marinade in a sleeve and place it on a baking sheet. Preheat the oven to 190-200 degrees and bake the ducks for 60-80 minutes.

Baked wild duck with apples

Pickled game is stuffed inside with sour apples. Simirenko, White Nalivka, and Antonovka apples are well suited for this purpose. You can use any sour apples. For piquancy, housewives often add a pear cut into slices:

• Sew up the peritoneum with thread or pin it with toothpicks. Cover the bottom of the duckling pan with foil or grease it with vegetable oil, and place the stuffed game there. Place in the oven for an hour and a half.
• Periodically water the wild duck with the juice formed in the ducklings.
• Adherents of hunting cuisine with a gourmet taste can add a sprig of tarragon to the duck roast. You can also pour lemon juice on top.

To get a flavorful side dish, place potato wedges around the edges of the game 20-30 minutes before it’s ready. Moreover, there is no need to clean it. Simply wash, cut into 4 pieces, add salt and bake. The potatoes will be saturated with duck juice and fat. Apples and spices will fill it with a special aroma.

This duck is served on a large platter, with game placed in the center and potatoes along the edges. Slices of ripe tomato and sprigs of basil placed around the edges will add bright notes to the dish.

In any serving, freshly cooked duck will conquer everyone with its taste and aroma.

Useful tips

Wild duck with prunes

• They pluck the duck in the yard or on the balcony. If you do this in the kitchen, you should be prepared for the possibility that feathers may fly around the kitchen and there will be an unpleasant odor. This must be done carefully, put the feathers in a bag, and periodically wash your hands and the duck.
• When searing game over a fire, to avoid burning the skin, it must first be rubbed with flour or coarse bran.
• When cutting up game brought from hunting, you need to remove the shot, otherwise someone will get it when eating the duck. Eating duck with shot is unsafe; you can break a tooth.
• If there is very little time for marinating, you can not marinate it for a long time, but simply remove the top layer of fat and skin from it. Aesthetically, a duck without skin may not look very attractive. But this method will help you cook game without a specific smell in a short time. This tip will be very relevant when they want to cook a duck right away, directly during the hunt.

Thanks to the manipulations done, the hunter's catch will allow him to get enough of the wild duck prepared no worse than by professional chefs.

Cooking wild duck is presented in the video:

Noticed a mistake? Select it and press Ctrl+Enter to let us know.

This method was used to prepare ducks, black grouse, hare, and roe deer. So, first things first. If the meat is frozen, then in the evening we put it in water, changing it several times (about once every 2 hours, if the meat is bloody, then first I change it a couple of times every half hour). Next, I let the meat cook, adding about half a spoon or a little more than 70% of vinegar essence, which helps remove the specific smell of game, while after cooking the meat does not smell like vinegar. During cooking, add salt to taste. Cook the meat until almost done. Let it cool and dry. Cut into portions. Rub the pieces with garlic. Chop the onion. I try to take onions with a “heap”, but this is a matter of taste. You can also grate carrots on a coarse grater. Pour sunflower oil into a thick frying pan and let it heat up. Fry the onions and carrots a little, so in the process of further cooking they will reach normal. Next, add pieces of meat and sprinkle with spices. I prefer to take spices without a flavor enhancer (sodium gluconate); it is best to buy them separately and mix them yourself. You can, of course, take ready-made mixtures. Fry the meat, uncovered, until a crust appears. We take the meat out onto a dish and sprinkle with pre-chopped herbs (dill, a little parsley, etc.). As a side dish, you can use rice (I like it best with game), boiled potatoes, or simply chopped fresh vegetables (tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers). The cooking process doesn’t take much time, everything turns out tasty and aromatic!

What spices are best to use when cooking game to reduce the smell? Marinating game.

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• How to remove the smell from game

The meat of young animals often does not have strong odors. But what to do if you come across an adult male? Believe me, the smell when cooking such meat is not the most pleasant. And if we can cope with the toughness of meat in an adult by long cooking, grinding into minced meat, or by beating off pieces, then the smell will remain.

Any smell can be masked: either we will use pickling or special spices.

Let's start with marinating.

1. Marinating takes time. Minimum 1 hour - with the obligatory stuffing of the piece (we make small cuts and coat with marinade so that the piece is salted and saturated with spices). Large pieces (1.5-2 kg) will require 3 or more hours to marinate (it is better to leave the meat in the refrigerator overnight).

For the marinade, you can use a weak solution of vinegar (it is better to use apple or balsamic) or 40% alcohol (25 ml per 1 kg is enough).

We also add salt and various spices to the marinade.

Recipes:

Boar neck cooked in a baking bag >>>>

2. Spices and seasonings.

One of the very bright seasonings is Khmeli-suneli. Perfectly masks odors and adds piquancy to the dish. The composition usually includes: ground coriander, turmeric, shamballa, chopped bay leaf, red pepper, ground dill seeds, cardamom, chopped parsley and dill, garlic. Khmeli-suneli is great for preparing minced meat dishes (manti, dumplings, cutlets, meatballs and meatballs from various game).

Boar dumplings with Khmeli-suneli seasoning >>>>

Curry seasoning also does not lag behind Khmeli-suneli. It masks odors well and gives a bright yellowish tint to dishes. Ingredients: turmeric, ground coriander, fenugreek, red pepper, crushed cumin.

Recipes:

Recipe for boar meat stew in sour cream sauce with curry >>>>

The most powerful spice is Zira (cumin seeds). Perfectly masks the smell of even the most adult individuals (elk, reed boar, adult goat, wild geese and ducks). Cumin seeds should be added to stews (goulash, pilaf, stew with vegetables or cereals). Please note: Zira has a very strong smell, you should add it little by little, adjusting the taste of the dish to your own taste.

Recipes:

Pilaf from adult roe deer >>>>

Goulash from a piece of elk leg in a sweet and sour filling of apples and tomatoes>>>>.

Dill seeds. Gives a light anise aroma. Used in combination with Curry and Khmeli-suneli seasonings.

Recipe for fried wild boar ribs with dill seeds>>>>.

Garlic. When fresh and in a marinade, it is an excellent odor masker, but during the cooking process its aroma, it seems to me, simply disappears. It is better to add at the very end of cooking.

Smoked paprika. Another very good seasoning. It is best to add it to fried ribs of wild boar, roe deer, elk, etc. By mixing it with flour and salt, it sticks to the ribs and forms a sauce similar to barbecue sauce with a characteristic smoky aroma.

Recipe for roe deer ribs with smoked paprika >>>>.

And of course, bay leaf and black peppercorns. Our most wonderful and most common homemade seasonings. They should not be neglected here either. Add them to the broth during cooking and stewing.

In order for wild birds (wild duck, wild goose, partridge and pheasant) to smell less, after shooting it, it is highly recommended to immediately bleed it, pluck it and remove the skin from each carcass. Even if you didn’t do this right away, you can pluck and remove the skin at home. And be sure to soak in clean, cool water for at least one hour.

If you simply fry game in a frying pan, in my personal experience, the meat will not turn out soft. Be sure to fry the pieces, then add water and simmer for 1 to 3 hours. The time depends on the size and maturity of the individual. Then we evaporate the liquid and fry until golden brown. Cooking recipes can be found on our website.

When boiling and stewing game: if the meat is fragrant and you want to add spices, it is better to do this when the foam no longer forms. It is better to divide the total amount of spices by 2 times. Add the first portion at the beginning of cooking or stewing the meat. The second one is towards the end of cooking. Then you can control the amount of pepper and other spices; sometimes too much spice is not good either. People have different tastes.

How to deliciously cook wild duck at home

Wild duck meat has a sharp, unpleasant odor reminiscent of fish.

To get rid of it, uncut poultry can be kept in the cold for several days. Also, when cutting, the skin is removed along with subcutaneous fat - it is this that is the source of the unpleasant odor.

After removing the giblets and entrails, the carcass is thoroughly washed and soaked for several hours in cool water with the addition of table vinegar in the proportion of 1 tbsp. l. for 1 l. After this, you can start cooking.

1. Peel the apples, cut into slices, remove the seeds.
2. Cut the onion into thin half rings.
3. Dry the washed carcass with paper towels. Rub salt inside and out. Place apples, onions and rosemary sprigs inside.
4. Brush the duck generously with olive oil. Place in a baking dish.

Wild duck meat is quite tough. It should be baked for at least 2 hours at an oven temperature of 200°C. An hour before the duck is ready, you can add potatoes, cut into large slices. You can serve the prepared meat with a vegetable salad.

Duck with mustard and honey

Prepare the following products in advance:

• 2-kilogram poultry;
• 2 tbsp. honey;
• 2 tbsp. mustard;
• 1 glass of water;
• salt + pepper.

Mix mustard with honey. Salt the duck, season it with pepper and rub it generously with marinade.

Place the bird, back side down, on a lightly greased baking sheet. Pour water here and put it all in an oven preheated to 190-200 degrees. It takes about an hour to cook at this temperature. From time to time, baste the bird with any liquid that has accumulated on the baking sheet.

To make sure the duck is cooked, pierce it with a needle. If clear liquid leaks, remove the dish from the oven. But pink liquid is a sign that the bird is not ready yet. I recommend serving this dish with fresh vegetables.