[smokin berlinet]

My wife just made a nice dinner with duck.... it was unbearable... the smell/taste of the duck was nasty. Now, my wife is a wonderful cook, and has cooked game before, even duck and it was phenominal... But this duck was given to us by a friend... why is it so gamey? i had the same issue with 2 deer i have had processed out here(different butcher each time).. but when i process them i have had no game taste.. Now i believe the game taste comes from the way it is/was handled.. correct me if i am wrong. I always clean my game asap, keep it cool, and soak it in salt water to help remove excess blood... trim excess crap off meat...etc etc... I have been eating game my entire life and never had anything gamey until I came to Idaho... is it the game? or the food sources they eat? or is it the handling process? Back home we always processed everything ourselves...Thanks in advance for the input..

 

[Burnt Drag]

In the south as well as everywhere else, bucks in run are loaded up with hormones that make the meat taste foul. I've also eaten duck that were shot close to the beach and .... same thing.. aweful. They eat muck off the bottom and minnows that give the meat a fishy taste. I wonder why this happens. Swordfish that have pink meat is indicative that they've been chowing down on Royal Red shrimp. And we thought we were the only ones enjoying RRs... BTW the swordfish with the pink meat are delectable. Or, so I've heard!!!

 

[billin]

swordfish

they call thm pumkins down south cause they are slightly well pumkin flesh colored down there and the locals swear they taste better never noticed a difference myself.

 

[Try'n Hard]

My wife just made a nice dinner with duck.... it was unbearable... the smell/taste of the duck was nasty. Now, my wife is a wonderful cook, and has cooked game before, even duck and it was phenominal... But this duck was given to us by a friend... why is it so gamey?

Was it a dye dapper? AKA coot? I killed a couple out by Jim's fish camp a few years back and cooked the breasts......... GROSS!!! I swear right now that septic smelling mud came outa the meat when we cooked it!

 

[Hopin4aboat]

Don't know what the issue is. I smoked some teal a couple weeks ago that were stuffed with orange and braised in a lemon orange brown sugar vinagrete glaze and they were amazing. I soaked it in salt water for a day or two but thats the first I've ever soaked and none I've ever cooked were overly gamey not sure what the issue is.

 

[smokin berlinet]

Nope they weren't coots...or any mudd/garbage ducks. these were mallards.. all the ones i shot my wife cooked were amazingly delicous..justseems to be with ones i did not shoot or clean... but with all game...

 

[Grassflatsfisher]

I'm not much on duck, to greasy. I've had it grilled a dozen or so times but thats about it. I could take it or leave it. As far as your deer I've never heard of the salt water trick. I always get mine on ice as quick as I can. I soak it in ice and drain it periodically over several days. The only time it's ever gamey to me is when it's an old buck or one that was running of ha been runnig when I shot it. A lot of times it's not the taste but the texture in those circumstances. It's chewy or tough to eat. A good trick to clean the taste up is to soak it in milk or butter milk for a little bit before cooking. I eat so much deer meat that regular beef taste funny to me now.

 

[bcbz71]

I smoked some teal a couple weeks ago that were stuffed with orange and braised in a lemon orange brown sugar vinagrete glaze.

Then throw out the teal and eat the glaze.

Duck is certainly an acquired taste...one that I never acquired!

 

[snapperfan]

Never had duck that I liked.

 

[biminitwist]

Can't speak for the deer, but the ducks likely were eating more fish and mollusks and such (bottom sludge) instead of vegetation. Most birds taste like what they are eating. Most of this collects in the fat which is located in or just under the skin. If you have doubts about the diet of the birds, just remove the skin and fat and wrap in bacon and foil to keep it moist. I've done this even with coots and it works pretty well.

Hope this helps,

BT

 

[biminitwist]

Forgot to add - To test the birds, slice off some excess skin and toss in a frying pan. If the results are smelly, skin the birds.

BT

 

[Try'n Hard]

It's just wrong to waste good bacon on a coot! - sorry

 

[Hopin4aboat]

Every coot that runs by this year better be carefull I got something for them. I love gumbo and coot is awesome gumbo meat. Oh and the teal it didn't need it but was ten times better with it!!!

 

[bluskies]

Hey Smokin, just got back from Idaho, didn't have any luck on chuckar's but the huns and valley quail hunting was great. Wish I had a few more days to hunt out there. I think deer season opened on Wednesday. Duck's were closed, but I was imressed on how many I saw.

 

[ONEOLDCHIEF]

My wife just made a nice dinner with duck.... it was unbearable... the smell/taste of the duck was nasty. Now, my wife is a wonderful cook, and has cooked game before, even duck and it was phenominal... But this duck was given to us by a friend... why is it so gamey? i had the same issue with 2 deer i have had processed out here(different butcher each time).. but when i process them i have had no game taste.. Now i believe the game taste comes from the way it is/was handled.. correct me if i am wrong. I always clean my game asap, keep it cool, and soak it in salt water to help remove excess blood... trim excess crap off meat...etc etc... I have been eating game my entire life and never had anything gamey until I came to Idaho... is it the game? or the food sources they eat? or is it the handling process? Back home we always processed everything ourselves...Thanks in advance for the input..

Smokin,
you answered your own question... Most meat if not processed properly and quickly will generally ruin the taste of any meat... I do not know your friend and not trying to knock him, but that may be the issue. I process everything I catch and kill, gamey taste eliminated, mostly... I did have this boar hog once, soaked him for a month... The possums would not even eat him...

As for the deer, you may have not gotten your own, they may not have clean up behind the last deer they processed, the deer may have been in rut, or had been running when killed... Always soak for at least a week in ice, drain every day...
What the eat has something to do with taste as well...

Good luck in the future...