30 January 2008

The taste of duck

Duck tastes nothing like chicken. The meat has a texture and appearance more like pork, except darker. The taste? Like mud.

I've only eaten one other thing that has a comparable taste, and that was mullet (the fish, not the hair). Ducks and mullet are both mud sifters.

8 comments:

Tania said...

All the duck I've eaten has been ok, though some of it was gamey. Most of my ducks were raised out back, though I've had a few that my BIL shot. I prefer the "out back" ones, if for no other reason than I don't have to worry about breaking a tooth on bird shot.

I don't really care for lamb or mutton. I just don't like the flavor, at all. Goat, it's ok.

MWT said...

I love lamb! Gyros, Indian lamb curry... *drool*

In general, I like meats with flavor to them. I wrote about goat a while back too.

Janiece said...

I think duck is made of teh Nasty.

But I do like mutton (occasionally).

Nathan said...

I'm sure I must have had duck at some point in my life but I don't remember it. I must not have been too thrilled, because I'd have certainly chased it down again if I'd liked it.

Grilled lamb chops (the ribs) are one of the best things in the world. And keep that mint crap in the fridge.

Random Michelle K said...

The only comments my Dad's ever made about duck is that it was greasy.

His grandfather raised ducks on their small city farm, and the ducks would follow his grandfather around. My Dad (as a child) thought this was the coolest thing ever.

Anonymous said...

I love duck when it's done properly. And yea, it doesn't taste like ckicken.

Maybe I'm disqualified from this discussion though, since I also love smoked mooseheart and salted boiled pig tongue. I fancy liver too.

John the Scientist said...

I love duck. But the taste is "darker" than chicken. I had always assumed that it was due to the higher heme content (birds that fly a lot have darker mean because of higher purine, myoglobin and hemoglobin content.

Actually the taste of duck is largely due to the fat that keep the suckers boyant:

Ducks and geese swim. They have a fat layer beneath the skin that keeps them buoyant. In the Journal of Food Science, Yuan Liu and his co-workers reported that the famous Nanjing water-boiled salted duck had about 90 volatile components in the fatty acids extracted from the fat. Fifty-seven of the compounds were deemed to account for the typical flavours of duck meat.

Eric said...

Sounds like some of you had bad duck. It's an amazing bird when it's done right. I roast one around Thanksgiving most years, unless I'm doing something with family.

This past December, I roasted one for friends--we did kind of a potluck thing with everyone bringing something. There were no complaints about the bird. Stuffed with apple and pear, rubbed down with salt, pepper and paprika, roasted for around 2 1/2 hours. Pretty much your basic Joy Of Cooking version. Melts in the mouth.

I have no idea what the cook did to ruin yours, MWT, but if it tasted like mud, it probably wasn't so much duck as it was whatever was done to it. All the fats JTS mentioned should make it succulent (if I'm not mistaken, the fat not only helps it float, but keeps it warm in the water).

My personal tired joke is to say that the only difficult part of cooking duck is getting the sailor outfit off of it. I should probably give that one a rest.

Anyway, see if you can get one prepared correctly, or even try roasting one yourself some time.