We raise Muscovy or Barbary duck. They are wonderful homestead animals since, given good grounds, they forage a large portion of their food. They are much much more intelligent than chickens, which makes them harder for us to harvest. They are bug-eating machines! They lay a “fair amount” of eggs and love to hatch eggs and raise young. Our first batch matured in the fall and laid through the winter. We have mostly kept our originals rather than expanding our flock with their offspring, and they have not laid in the winter since then.
The males are twice as big as the females, around 6 pounds dressed for the males vs 3 pounds dressed females. They are MUCH harder to defeather than chickens are. We can harvest and pack 4 broiler chickens in an hour, but it takes us at least an hour for each duck. Because of the labor involved, and their gourmet status, they are $6/lb.
I am a simplistic cook, so just put something handy in the cavity (garlic, basil, onion, etc) and stick in the oven at 350. Key is to cook it only to medium rare or less. It helps to cut the wing tips off before cooking – they just get in the way afterward. They are much much less fatty than the Pekin ducks you usually get as duckling, but I save the fat for other cooking.
Here are some relatively easy, good sounding recipes:
- From D’Artagnan
- How to pan roast a duck breast tutorial
- How to pan fry Muscovy duck breasts
- Mostly really simple suggestions for cooking duck breast
- Duck with potatoes, creamed savoy cabbage, and red wine sauce
- Barbary Duck with Honey and Thyme – very easy, and one of my standards.
- Chargrilled duck with plum and chilli salsa
- Peppered duck breasts with wild mushrooms and cream
- Barbary duck with peaches
- Balsamic glazed duck breast with lentils
- Sugar tea smoked duck breasts
- From Grimaud Farms
- Braised Duck Legs for Idiots
- Roast Duck Legs with Caramelized Garlic
- Crispy Braised Duck Legs
- If you like sushi, try substituting duck breast for the fish.
