Smoking whole ducks?

[tunrevir]

I have a couple of ducks in the freezer right now and was thinking about putting them in a brine and smoking them. Anyone have any good smoked duck recipes? I figured I run them through the smoker and finish them in the oven. How long and at what temp should I put them in the oven? My smoker won't get over 165 degrees and probably will only make it to 150 outside in the cold. I did peek at some of the recipes in the smokers library. Thanks!

Tunrevir

[Farley]

We were talkin bout smokin some ducks the other day. Was going to try the pickled brine I use for pheasants. Probably wouldnt go much over 200 in the oven and just long enough to get up to finish temp, because thats all you're using the oven for is bringing them up to temp.

[Gordie]

nutrevir I would just make those ducks into jerky I think they will turn out way better than tring to smoke the whole duck but thats JMO I have tried to smoke ducks and geese and they always seem to bit a bit to dry for my likeing and I have baby sat waterfowl in smoker to many times to do it anymore so I just do waterfowl jerky now

Let us know how it turns out

[hockeybc69]

I did 4 whole plucked ducks about a month ago.

They were a huge hit. Super moist and great taste.

I used my turkey brine recipe and soaked them for 48 hrs.

1 gallon of water.

1 cup Tenderquick or other liquid meat tenderizer

2 cups apple juice

1/2 cup brown sugar

1 Tbsp Liquid Smoke (just in case)

1 Tbsp black pepper

1/4 cup soy sauce

1 Tbsp garlic powder

Use hot water to help dissolve everything. Inject the bird all over. Before smoking, air dry for one hour and rub with brown sugar.

After brining for 48 hrs I added this inside the cavity:

1 TBS butter

Apple slice

Some sliced onion

I then put the ducks in glass pans and poured some of the brine in them to try and retain the moisture.

I did rotate the ducks a couple times during the smoking process(breast up, breast down in solution in the pan)

Put smoker at 200-225. Ensure 175 to 180 internal temp on bird before removing.

[MinDak Hunter]

I would just take them to McDonalds Meats in Clear Lake they charge .99 cents a pound and it save you all the work.

[tunrevir]

I haven't gotten to them just yet but as soon as I finish them up I'll give a report. Thanks for the ideas. Elwood never had duck jerky, sounds interesting. I suppose quackstraps could be done pretty easily in the smoker.

Tunrevir~

[hockeybc69]

Mindak,

What fun is it to have someone else do all the work and create a big mess?

Seriously, 99 cents a pound they charge to smoke whole ducks??? Tempting, but I enjoy doing it myself. Trying different things.

tunrevir,

sliced duck/goose jerky is great. Of course mallard sized ducks is better. Trying to slice a teal breast would be a pain.

I slice it about 1/8" thick, soak in a homemade brine for 24 hrs and dehydrate.

[tunrevir]

Thanks! I'm gonna make up the brine today as I have a vareity of things to go on the smoker. Couple trout, a catfish, some ducks and maybe even a few pices of salmon. Gonna fill that baby up and fire it up:)

Tunrevir~

[tunrevir]

Okay, so I brined and smoked the ducks. I had them on the smoker for 3 hours and ran a couple pans of smoke over them and then placed them in an oven at 250 in a casserole dish with a glass cover for an hour. The ducks turned out mighty fine! They were tender and moist with a nice smoky flavor. I used a brine soloution of 3 quarts of apple juice, 1 qt water, 3 cups tender quick, 1 cup pickling salt, table spoon of garlic salt, table spoon of onion salt and a bag of brown sugar. It tastes like a cross between honey baked ham and duck I put the whole ducks in the brine frozen and left them soak 24 hours, dried them and set them into the smoker. Delicious, looking to do some pheasants and may try some geese next time around. Thanks for your input guys!

Tunrevir~

[hockeybc69]

Glad to hear it worked out good!!!

[hockeybc69]

Oh, did you do the catfish???

[tunrevir]

Yep, did a cat, a couple trout a salmon and 3 ducks for the smokers hodgepodge I let the fish stay in the smoker and ran another pan of chips through while the ducks were in the oven. The catfish wasn't nearly as firm as the trout and salmon but was also tasty.

Tunrevir~