had some fun today!

[gjk5]

Went down to the Gunnison River and shot some Canada Goose and Mergansers (duck), had a blast!

Now to figure out how to cook the goose (and maybe the Merganser, but it's a fish-eating duck and has a funky smell)

[gjk5]

some pics:

http://i290.photobucket.com/albums/ll274/gjk5_photos/IMAG0235.jpg

http://i290.photobucket.com/albums/ll274/gjk5_photos/IMAG0222.jpg

http://i290.photobucket.com/albums/ll274/gjk5_photos/IMAG0214.jpg

http://i290.photobucket.com/albums/ll274/gjk5_photos/IMAG0210.jpg

[BigSlick]

You want something out of this world, soak the duck overnight in wine or fruit juice and roast it on 400 or so for maybe 20-30 minutes in the oven or on a smoker.

Then cut the temp down and let it ride until a leg turns easy in the socket.

That'll melt most of the fat off and the wine will kill the duck/fish game taste and sweeten it up enough to make it unbelievable good.

Roast some potatoes and vegetables with it - especially some onions and carrots as the wine brings out the flavor in those bigtime.

But, if it was me, I'd make some duck gumbo myself ;)

[Blackdog]

Cool pics. I like the panorama shot with the train.

Those sawbills (fish ducks) can be a challenge to make palatable. Slick's method looks about the best I've seen.

Those geese should be good eatin'. Do you pluck 'em? Or, just fillet 'em out?

[gjk5]

sounds good slick, I just breasted these. I had other places to be late Sat so I didn't really have time for a full dunk/pluck.

And yeah BD, that Merganser may be hard to eat. Took me hours to get the smell of the blood off my hands.

That property was cool, near the entrance we are right below a subdivision (you can see them up on the cliff) but you come around a bend in the river and BAM! you are in the canyons (where the train pic was taken). Found some petroglyphs on the cliffs and the guy who took us said if there were no snow we could pick up all kind of arrowheads. We are gonna go back and build some blinds for next season when it warms up.

[nitesite]

Yoooo Ahh a Velly Handsome Man!

That sure is nce hunting land for sure. The scenery is awesome. There is nothing, and I really mean nothing, down here in Alabama to quite compare with that!

Goose good. Smelly duck I don't know about. Good luck!

That Lab dog is young, isn't it?

Thanks for sharing your experience, pard.

[gjk5]

yep, she's about 8 months old. she was trained as an upland dog, but he decided to give her a shot. She would get in the canal if we broke the ice at the edge but was having NONE of getting in the Gunnison. Lost a Mallard drake due to that.

[MullahElRon]

Cool pics.

[gjk5]

thanks, not bad for a cell phone huh?

[BoltNut]

Maaaaaan, I do love bird huntin', and really miss the waterfowl side of things in recent years.

There are several good ways of making that diver-duck-flat-head-fish-eatin' bird edible, but it would be tough to beat Slick's method. I breast almost all of my birds, since I hate pluckin', skinnin' and gettin' all nasty. If you take those duck breasts and beat the snot out of them with the metal mallet, make real thin cutlets, bread them with Italian Bread Crumbs, roll with prosciutto ham and a mid-to-strong cheese...great cordon bleu can be had.

[gjk5]

that sounds pretty good......

[gokyo]

Anything with some acid will help kill the fish flavor.

the fishy smell comes from a organic functional group called an amine.

Here is the generalized reaction

R-NH2+HA--> R-NH3+ + A-

In this reaction the organic amine reacts with the acid (HA). The product will longer smell fishy and will be very much less volatile (smelly).

So I vote Slicks solution. Wine is acidic most fruit juices are acidic. If it was me. I would marinate it in mix wine with vinegar or make sure to use a acidic fruit juice like orange or lemon-aid. By the way sour tasting = acidic which will neatralize the fishy taste.

[BoltNut]

...By the way sour tasting = acidic which will neutralize the fishy taste...
Which is why lemon/lime juice is so good on seafood...just DO NOT soak the meat for very long in citrus only, or it will start to actually "cook" the meat. I like the wine and/or vinegar and/or fruit juice suggestion. I've been working with a bunch of recipes at home that offset sweet-with-sour, acid-with-mellow, etc. GOOD STUFF! :mf_toff:

[BigSlick]

I don't know about all the chemo of it, but I do know it'll make even a mud duck taste good ;)