From time immemorial, every magnificent holiday in Rus' was not complete without game dishes. Wild pigeons, partridges, quails, and wild ducks were the main dishes that decorated the boyars' and landowners' tables. And for good reason wild bird dishes were called royal. Read our article on how to cook wild duck deliciously and correctly.

Of course, these are not the times and wild birds are rarely served on the dinner table, but if you have the opportunity to prepare one of the delicious wild duck dishes, then you can only be envied. Before cooking wild duck, it must first be plucked and washed..

Do not forget that the taste characteristics of a wild bird directly depend on the conditions in which it lived, what it ate, and so on. And also that the duck is a waterfowl, and its meat is quite fatty, since in order not to freeze in icy water in the cold autumn it needs significant fat reserves.

Thus, another key point in cooking wild duck at home is ridding the carcass of excess fat.

There are several ways to help you remove excess fat from wild duck:

1. The first is especially the fatty parts of the duck. pierce with a toothpick and wait until the fat drains;
2. Second - hold a wild bird over the steam within half an hour: the fat will melt and drain.

Now in detail about the process of preparing wild duck

You will need these Ingredients:

• Wild duck carcass;
• Boiling water;
• Juniper berries;
• Spices and salt to taste.

Hunters know that wild duck meat has a specific smell of mud and fish, and in order to get rid of it, there is one little trick - juniper berries. You need to stuff the bird with juniper and let it stand in the refrigerator for a day.

In fact Cooking wild duck is quite easy. First you need to pour boiling water over the wild bird carcass. However, the carcass should be held not by the leg, but by the skin of the neck, this will prevent water from getting inside. Then you should thoroughly salt and pepper the duck on top and inside, stuff it with a couple of sour apples and place it on a wire rack in the oven.

Don't forget to place a tray to collect any juices and fat that may be released.. It is recommended to bake wild poultry at a high temperature - approximately 250 degrees, for 1 hour and 30 minutes, and periodically baste the duck with juice.

This homemade wild duck recipe as close as possible to the cooking methods that were used in the era of kings and nobles.

Of course, duck cooked in this way will appeal to everyone at home, but it cannot compare with the one that will be cooked in the field.

In the field

And for this you will need:

• Foil;
• Wild duck carcass;
• Garlic;
• Mayonnaise;
• 1 lemon;
• Toothpicks.

Recipe wild duck in the field very simple.

Carbine "Moose": variety of models and capabilities.

First you need to remove the skin from the duck and take out the insides. Then rinse the carcass thoroughly, coat it with salt, pepper and lemon juice. Stuff with garlic and coat with mayonnaise. Place the duck belly up on the foil, add a little water inside, tighten the cut with toothpicks and wrap. Cook on the grill for about an hour.

We wish you bon appetit!

Wild duck is not as fatty as its domestic counterparts, fattened on farms and poultry farms, but it is also unlikely to be suitable for dietary nutrition. In addition, its meat is a rather specific product, so in order for it to be tasty, you need to know some tricks..

How to prepare a duck for further use

If you received the hunting trophies in the form in which they flew and quacked, then you will first have to do some manipulations with the duck.

Some hunters advise not to cook the duck immediately after gutting, but to keep it in the refrigerator for 3-4 days. It is believed that this way the game will “ripen”, its taste will become more harmonious, and the specific smell will disappear. In addition, to get rid of the fishy “aroma,” the skin of the duck is often cut off along with all the subcutaneous fat.

Now decide how you will cook the duck. If you decide to bake it whole, then you can start cooking, but if you are going to boil, fry or stew it, then cut it into portions.

By the way, our distant ancestors often did not “bother” with plucking. They simply gutted the duck and coated it with wet clay, and then buried it under the fire and waited for 2-3 hours, periodically adding a fresh portion of wood to the fire. After this, the clay ball was broken, and all the feathers fell off along with the shards.

You can try this cooking method if you are somewhere in nature, where you can make a fire right on the ground and at the same time you have a sufficient amount of clay at your disposal.

Wild duck recipes

Wild duck, like any other bird, is fried, boiled and baked. The only thing you need to remember is that this type of game, especially its small variety, is not very “friendly” with bay leaves, as it negatively affects its taste. And other aromatic herbs and spices, except salt and pepper, are also best not used too actively.

Baked duck with lingonberry jam

Cooking wild duck at home

Lingonberry jam harmoniously emphasizes the taste of baked duck, so it is often used as a sauce when serving this game.

Ingredients:

• Coarse salt - 4 tbsp. spoons,
• Ground black pepper - to taste
• Lingonberry jam - to taste.

Preparation:

Remove excess fat from the plucked and gutted wild duck carcass, and then generously rub it inside and out with salt and ground black pepper. Place the bird on a baking sheet with a roasting rack. Cook in an oven preheated to 230 degrees for 1 hour 40 minutes, basting the duck with any juices released from it every half hour.

After this, remove the bird and let it “rest” for 15-20 minutes. Then cut it into portions. If the breast is meaty, cut into thin slices. Serve the duck on the table along with a bowl of lingonberry jam and any low-fat side dish, for example, boiled potatoes or buckwheat porridge.

Advice from the site: If you don’t have a baking sheet with a wire rack, then make a “pillow” of coarsely chopped vegetables - carrots and onions. Or place the bird on several tight wads of foil, evenly distributed on the tray.

Marinated roast wild duck

Cooking wild duck at home

Sometimes wild duck meat smells like fish, and in order to drown out this smell, it is better to marinate the game first.

Ingredients:

• Wild duck – 1 pc. (carcass weighing 1.5-1.7 kg),
• Onions (large) – 2 pcs.,
• Vinegar - 4 tbsp. spoons,
• Salt, ground black pepper - to taste,
• Butter – 150 g.

Preparation:

Cut the plucked and gutted wild duck into portions and rub them with salt and pepper, cut the onion into large half rings, put everything in a bowl and mix with vinegar. Place under pressure for 10-12 hours. Then melt the butter in a duck pot or in a frying pan with thick walls, squeeze out the duck parts from the marinade and place them in the roasting pan, skin side down, fry over high heat for 5 minutes.

Then turn the pieces over, reduce the heat to medium and cook, turning again periodically, for another 20-25 minutes. The main thing is not to dry out the game. Therefore, as soon as the juice that is released when the meat is pierced becomes transparent, the duck must be turned off.

Serve the roast duck with the boiled potatoes, drizzled with the fat left over from cooking the bird. Or, if you want a lower-calorie dish, garnish the game with lettuce, tomatoes or cucumbers and boiled rice with green onions.

Wild duck stew

Cooking wild duck at home

Of course, it is best to cook such a stew over a fire, but you can cook it at home, as long as you have a cast iron pot or at least a thick-walled pan.

Ingredients:

• Wild duck – 1 pc. (carcass weighing 1.5 kg),
• Onions (medium) – 2 pcs.,
• Potatoes (medium) – 4 pcs.,
• Carrots (medium) – 2 pcs.,
• Tomatoes (large) – 2 pcs.,
• Pickled cucumbers (medium) – 2-3 pcs.,
• Coarse salt - to taste
• Black peppercorns – 10-15 pcs.,
• Green onions – 1 bunch.

Preparation:

Cut the plucked and gutted wild duck into small pieces, place in a cast iron pot and pour cold water almost to the top of the container. Bring to a boil, skim off the foam, add salt and black peppercorns, cover with a lid and simmer the bird over low heat for 2-2.5 hours until the meat is completely soft. Then let the broth boil again and add vegetables (onions, carrots, potatoes) cut into medium cubes.

Cook for another 20 minutes, then add coarsely grated cucumbers and finely chopped tomatoes to the cast iron. Let it boil again and simmer over low heat for 15-20 minutes. When everything is cooked, you can separate the meat from the bones, put it back and bring it to a boil again. Serve the chowder by adding finely chopped green onions and, if desired, a squeeze of lemon to each bowl.

Wild duck meat is not very fatty, but tasty. It is difficult to find wild duck on sale; most often we see it in restaurants, where various delicacies are prepared from it. Recipes for wild duck are varied, you can cook it into a roast, bake it in the oven, stew it with vegetables, make soups, but I will tell you how my mother fries this game.

Cooking Roast Wild Duck

Before you start cooking the meat, the wild duck carcass should be carefully plucked, then seared over the fire (Dad uses a special lamp), then the duck should be washed and gutted. Next, to give the bird softness and make its meat a little juicier, you need to immerse the prepared carcass in cold water and leave it for 2 hours.

Very often, wild duck meat has a specific fishy smell. In order to get rid of it, I can offer an interesting but effective way. To do this, you need a deep roasting pan, preferably a casserole dish, which we fill halfway with water and place the duck in it. Place the roasting pan in an oven preheated to 200°C for 5 - 7 minutes, then remove the roasting pan from the oven and turn the duck over. Place it back in the oven for another 5 – 7 minutes. This method will help rid the meat of an unpleasant odor. Now you can continue cooking the meat.

To fry wild duck you will need the following ingredients

Ingredients:

• Wild duck (we have two carcasses, one small, about 300 grams, and the second larger, weighing about 800 grams),
• Salt to taste
• Spices to taste (it is advisable to use a special seasoning for game),
• Lemon – 1 piece,
• Table vinegar (9%) – 2 tbsp. spoons.

Cooking process:

Before cooking, cut the wild duck carcass into portions and transfer to a deep container. Mom cuts each piece of meat so that the duck meat is soaked more thoroughly.

As a spice for cooking wild duck, my mother used a special seasoning for game; friends from Germany brought it to us; we had never seen anything like it here. But you can choose your own spices for cooking game. The ideal spices for game are: black and red pepper, red sweet pepper, sage, rosemary, cumin, basil, marjoram, and juniper also gives wild duck meat a very pleasant taste. Juniper completely fights off all unpleasant tastes, giving a unique taste and aroma to meat. So the choice is huge, choose to your taste.

Now rub each piece of meat with seasoning and salt, carefully so that the meat is completely soaked. Squeeze the juice from a lemon (small), you can also remove the zest and add it to the meat. Pour the juice over the game and add vinegar. Mix everything thoroughly. You can remove the vinegar and salt and pour soy sauce over the duck meat, we tried this option too, it produces a pleasant aroma and taste.

Stir the meat and cover the container with a lid, put it in the refrigerator to marinate for 8 - 12 hours. During this time, the bird will be saturated with all the flavors and will become much softer.

Then we put the game in a large frying pan and pour over the juice that has been released; if it is not enough, then add half a glass of water. Cover the pan with a lid and simmer over medium heat for 30 - 40 minutes.

Then, when almost all the water has evaporated, open the lid and fry the stewed duck on all sides until golden brown. We didn’t add any oil or fat, just what was rendered from the bird was enough.

Place the finished meat on a dish and, if desired, decorate with fresh vegetables and herbs. I have often come across recipes in which sweet and sour lingonberry jam is often served as an addition to game, to add more piquancy to this already unusual meat.

It should be remembered that meat should not be eaten too often, as it is too fatty and heavy.

Bon appetit and good recipes!

Wild individuals feed exclusively on natural food and live in their natural environment. It is not surprising that the taste of game is much richer, its meat is darker in appearance and denser, and therefore somewhat more difficult to digest.

Poultry has become a familiar product for us, but the benefits of such meat are sometimes questioned. Thus, dishes from wild duck and domestic duck clearly differ in both taste and smell, and household members will certainly appreciate this. However, many housewives categorically refuse and even forbid their hunter husbands to bring home prey. And often the problem is precisely that they simply do not know how to cook wild duck correctly, to eliminate its natural slightly unpleasant odor, remove feathers and gut it, combine it with other products for better taste, and also how to serve it to their loved ones.

Men will help in preparing the carcass - plucking, singeing and cutting. And then the hostess will certainly agree to prepare aromatic, nutritious dishes from wild duck. They can be done both outdoors and at home.

The wild one is best prepared. The recipe resembles the usual roast, but has a number of features. Firstly, in order not to spend a lot of time and effort on careful plucking, it is much easier to completely remove the skin from one or two birds. Then the carcasses are washed under running water and soaked while preparing the remaining products.

We wash and chop one hundred to one hundred and fifty grams of any edible mushrooms, two or three medium onions, peel and cut carrots into slices, and potatoes into cubes.

Wild duck dishes take quite a long time to prepare due to the density of the muscle tissue of the free-ranging bird, so we choose ceramic pots for the oven. Thus, all products will simmer slowly, and the beneficial properties of game and vegetables will not be lost.

First, fry the onions and mushrooms in hot oil until golden brown, then the carrots until softened, then add a piece of butter. When everything is ready, sprinkle the resulting mass with a pinch of salt and black pepper. Set aside.

At this time, we process the carcasses: cut them into convenient pieces, put them in a deep cup and generously season with salt, black and hot red pepper, you can also add ground allspice. Let them marinate for another 20-30 minutes, after which we cook them in hot oil until golden brown. Next, remove the duck from the pan, and fry the potatoes in the remaining juice. So, all the ingredients of our wild duck dish are ready to be placed in pots.

Pour a drop of oil into the bottom and place pieces of poultry. The second layer is potatoes, the third is garlic cut into slices. The fourth layer is fried mushrooms and vegetables. Distribute evenly, pour in a little water (so that there is still 4-5 centimeters left to the edges of the pot), close and put in the oven until fully cooked. When serving, decorate with herbs and sprinkle with spices to taste. Bon appetit!