wild duck

[peter yeoman]

I have just been given 2 ducks to cook that were shot by a mate of mine . I had a look at the weber book ,it says to brine them in salt for 4-24 hours ,then cook em ....Any other recipes for cooking ducks in a weber?

[Buccaneer]

Put grated carrot and red wine (something like claret) in the brine would be my tip.

Undercook rather than overcook.
Remember if you are collecting drippings for gravy to use cold water, and I'd use cranberry jam or orange marmalade to make the gravy.

You could stuff it with celery, apples and grapes and parsley.
Cook the same as domestic duck.

[peter yeoman]

Thanks Bucc,
When you do brining ,do you mix all the ingredients and heat it up to mix together ,or just simply add it all together cold.?

[Captain Cook]

Thanks Bucc,
When you do brining ,do you mix all the ingredients and heat it up to mix together ,or just simply add it all together cold.?

Peter
The important part is to have it all fully disolved. If your brine mix has a lot of Salt and Sugar in it then heat up half of the fluid and disolve the solids add additional fluid if after heating it doesnt all disolve then add Ice to cool it down instead of the rest of the fluid. The brine mixture should be cold to start the brining process. A tip is if you are adding aromatics add them while the brine mixture is warm - this has a tendancy to extract the aromatic oils better.

Cheers

Cap'n

[Commander Cody]

capt,

good call with the tip on the aromatics.

a couple more ways to ensure you get maximum flavour......blanch your fresh aromatics in boiling water, just dip them in and take them out......then put them in your mortar and pestal and give them a good pounding, maximum damage..but don't make paste out of them..

the oils will be, then do as the Captain suggests....

kevin

[peter yeoman]

Well I brined the duck for 18 hours, Fired up the weber, washed and dried the duck,stuffed the duck ,put a bit of salt and oil over it ,then cooked it for an hour and a quarter , and the result.......Terrible ...anyone want the other duck?

[bbqmad]

Yes Peter

Have to agree with you while it wasn't a wild duck i brined one and cooked in kettle got the skin realy good and crispy........and was left thinking well that was a waste of time / money.

Glen

[Smokey]

Was it a wood duck?
They taste like swamp water.
Been there done that