Duck Plucking Fun

"Do you like birds?"

This is the phrase that had a dramatic effect on our evening last night. Dawson's co-worker, Robin, was excited to share the spoils of her husband's hunting prowess with us. So...do we like birds? Well, we do enjoy birding and we like the thought of bird eating, so Dawson responded with a resounding yes. As we were eating dinner last night, he casually mentioned that Robin might be bringing some ducks over later. I had made a duck that Judge Devaney gave us a couple of weeks ago and the results were less than stellar, but we attributed it to having been frozen for almost a year. Dawson's words were, "I'm sure these will be much better....they're fresh."

Dawson headed off for fire fighting and I went for my first exercise session at the YKHC gym. I enjoyed a nice workout and was beginning to relish a relaxing evening at home when the birds arrived....fresh, real fresh. Robin had a big smile on her face and must have walked away with a chuckle at the look on my face as she handed me a plastic grocery sack with 2 fully-feathered, fully-feeted, dead ducks in them. "Wow------thanks!?" Flashbacks from our first salmon experience flooded my memory and I nicely set the ducks in the entryway for Dawson's arrival. But just as I was settling in for my evening, fellow law clerk MB (who was also the lucky recipient of some fully-feathered ducks), called and suggested that perhaps working together might be in order.

So while Dawson was busy heaving charged hoses arounds (for you firefighting novices out there, that means hauling around hoses filled with water), MB, Matt, and I embarked on our first ever duck plucking/butchering adventure.
We pulled out the basic bush survival guide,
Cooking Alaskan, and proceeded to mangle our ducks.

We started with cutting the heads off and were planning on draining the blood from the necks. As it turns out, no amount of shaking the ducks while holding them upside down yielded any blood. OK- so Robin's husband must have taken care of that one, so we moved onto step 2.











Finding the vent. In retrospect, Dawson thinks this is probably the scent gland, however we determined that it must be a nice term for the bungee hole. We found the hole and began pulling out a strip of feathers up the breast from the vent to the breastbone. OK- so far so good. But the next step didn't look fun. MB went first with the de-viscerating and cut a small section of the plucked skin and began the recommended scooping motion for removing the entrails without spilling any unwanted "contents." Well, the first time is not always the charm and a foul smelling green discharge began streaming from her duck. I jumped back and determined that this was definitely not a job for me. Luckily, MB has a nearly limitless supply of water (unlike us) and so quickly engaged in a massive rinsing procedure. She was then kind enough to repeat the experience on my fowl as I was not about to complete that part of the job.

With those tasks completed, we began the basic pluck. Cooking Alaskan recommends a few dips in boiling water if the plucking is hard. Here's a few shots mid-pluck. Keep in mind that Robin told MB that it would take us about 20 minutes. So far, we'd been at it over an hour and a half. And though we thought the job may never be done, here is the finished product.

MB proceeded onto her second duck, and I got our second one started, but I really didn't want Dawson to miss out on the fun experience of duck plucking. He did claim to be tired after a hard night of fire fighting, but I convinced him his presence was required and he ambled over to MB's. As it turns out, he happens to have a few more skills in the duck mutilating process. First of all, he didn't even try the upside down shaking manuever and proceeded boldly to the entrail removing where he didn't even spill a drop. Whereas I battled over the wings for at least 45 minutes, he quickly found the joints and dispatched of them in an instant. And he made the plucking look just as easy. I think he was at least close to Robin's 20 minute time estimate. DeWayne, you would have been proud of your subsistence hunting son. I guess they don't give away those Eagle Scout awards for nothing.

Of course, we were still up until midnight trying to decide exactly what to do with our finished products. But tonight we just finished some tasty duck soup. (Or, as Dawson calls it, "tasty bird flu stu".) We still have a few more duck breasts in the fridge for another cooking adventure.

The blueberry pie we had for dessert was a bit more exciting than the soup, but the soup far exceeded my last wild fowl concoction. Many thanks to Robin for expanding my Alaskan skills!

Dawson's editorial note: Technically the ducks are geese.

Genevieve's editorial note: Did I mention how excited I am for berry picking season?

Dawson's editorial note: Did I mention how excited I am about my resident hunting/fishing/trapping license?

Dawson's final editorial note: For her facial expression alone, the picture of Genevieve holding the bird's wings is worth viewing in its full size glory.

Genevieve's final editorial note: I think berry picking pictures are more flattering too.

P.S. Genevieve is not responsible for any of the links on this page.