Many waterfowlers flare from cooking their game, fearing a “gamey” taste or dry, tough meat. Not Phil Robertson, a.k.a. the Duck Commander. With years of duck hunting experience and his own flock of products, including calls, videos, and a line of Cajun seasonings, Robertson will have you ready to bag your limit with his tips and tasty recipes for delicious waterfowl meals.
What’s on the Menu?
According to Robertson, how a duck tastes varies greatly by species and its diet. Most diver ducks like bufflehead, goldeneyes, and mergansers, feed predominantly on invertebrates and fish, which explain their strong, perhaps objectionable taste. On the other hand, puddle ducks that feed mainly on grain, seed and aquatic vegetation are more desirable for the table.
Robertson’s favorites include green wing teal, wood ducks and pintails. “Woodies,” he explains, “eat corn and rice, but they’d rather have those pin oak acorns, just like deer. Green wing teal like to skim little grass seed and rice.”
Mallards, the perennial favorite of duck hunters, tend to be a little coarse. He offers that wigeons eat moss which can affect their flavor. His least favorite species is the shoveler. “They always have that wide bill groveling around in the mud, and they smell about the same.”
Duck Prep
Ducks shot in warm weather should be dressed in the field and make their migration to your kitchen on ice. When it’s cold, Robertson dresses his ducks when he returns home. “We get back from our hunt and immediately hand-pick our ducks,” - a skill he claims few women know. “There ain’t nothing’ better on the face of this earth than a duck-pickin’ woman, but they’re getting harder to find every day.”
After picking the duck, Robertson suggests this 7-step field dressing method:
- Remove the wings with game shears, leaving the head, neck, legs and tail feathers.
- Hold the bird by its head and feet over a gas burner and quickly singe the tiny downy feathers off the body
- Cut off the head and neck, legs and tail feathers, including the small pointed oil bag.
- Make an incision from the belly up to its breastbone and remove the windpipe and entrails.
- Carefully examine the duck for shot and remove them with tweezers or the point of a sharp knife.
- Leave the skin on the duck to hold moisture.
- Rinse in water before storing or cooking. Ducks can be frozen for up to three months in doubled-up freezer bags with a little water added, but in the Robertson household, they’re typically eaten the same day they’re shot.
Any ducks with protruding breastbones or very little fat should be discarded.
While there are many recipes for grilled or barbequed duck, Robertson believes that ducks are best cooked slow.
“When you’re too tied up that you can’t take time to cook something slow, you’re just too doggone tied up,” he says. “You need to lighten your load.”
So follow the Duck Commander’s orders - fire up the oven and take time to enjoy the rich flavors of waterfowl!
Baked Duck
Ingredients:
4 or 5 whole ducks with skin on
peanut oil
flour
1 large onion, quartered
1 bell pepper, quartered
3 or 4 celery stalks
6 to 8 garlic cloves, whole or chopped
2 large oranges, peeled, seeded and quartered
1 pound of Cajun style sausage, cut into ½ inch slices
1 cup wine (red or white as desired)
salt
pepper
Phil Robertson Cajun Style Seasoning (mild or spicy)
cooked rice
Directions:
Preheat oven to 300 degrees. Brush ducks carcasses with oil and roll in flour seasoned with salt, pepper and Cajun seasoning. Heat a quarter-inch of oil in a heavy Dutch oven on a stovetop. Brown the ducks evenly on each side.
Remove the Dutch oven from the heat and add wine, sausage, onion, bell pepper, celery, and garlic. Top with oranges and season to taste with salt, pepper and Cajun seasoning. Cover and bake in an oven for 2 ½ hours.
Remove from the oven. Place ducks and sausage on a serving platter and spoon the remaining vegetables over them.
Return the remaining liquid in the Dutch oven to the stovetop and add ¼ cup flour and seasonings. Stir over low to medium heat for 20 minutes or until mixture is brown, adding water as to achieve the desired consistency. Serve gravy over cooked rice.
Serves 8 to 10
Quick Tip: For Perfect Portions
A large duck, such as a mallard, will serve two people. It takes three wood ducks or pintails to feed four. Serving teal? Allow one per person.
Duck Gumbo
Ingredients:
5-6 whole ducks with skin on
3 cups flour
2 ¾ to 3 cups peanut oil
2 to 3 medium onions, chopped
3 bundles of shallots, chopped
a handful of parsley, chopped
a head of garlic, finely chopped
2 pounds of hot link sausage, sliced into half-inch pieces
2 (12 ounce) packages of cut okra
a bay leaf
salt
pepper
Phil Robertson Cajun Style Seasoning (mild or spicy)
rice
Directions:
In a large, heavy (uncovered) pot of water seasoned with salt, pepper and a bay leaf, boil ducks for two hours or until tender. Hint: If using more than one pot to boil ducks, add a bay leaf to each pot.
While the ducks are boiling, make the roux: In a large heavy pot over low heat, make a paste of flour and peanut oil. Stir constantly, scraping the bottom in a figure-eight pattern to avoid burning and ensure even blending.
Gauge the doneness of the roux by its color: If it’s the color of peanut butter color, it’s halfway done; when it’s a rich hazelnut color – it’s ready.
In the final minutes of preparing the roux, place onions, parsley and garlic and three-fourths of the shallots (reserving the remaining quarter for garnish) in a separate pan. Heat until wilted and add to the roux. Season with salt, pepper and Cajun seasoning and simmer for 10 minutes.
When the ducks are done, remove them from the pot and discard the bay leaf. Save the broth. Debone the ducks and cut the meat into chunks, watching for any hidden shot.
Add broth to the roux, filling pot to three-fourths full. Hint: Pour all but a cup of the broth into the roux. Swirl around the remaining broth. Any missed shot loosened by boiling will clank in the pot.
Add duck meat, sausage and okra. Increase heat and bring to a boil. The oil from the roux will surface and should be skimmed and discarded. Cover, reduce heat and simmer four hours.
Use the remaining broth to cook the rice: two parts broth to one part rice. Serve the gumbo over rice with a sprinkling of chopped shallots.
Serves 10 to 12
