Food Smokers and Smoking Tips/Tricks/Techniques

Ducks flavor: You are what you eat. Ducks eating grain & corn taste and smell waaaay different than ducks eating on the saltwater flats. Black ducks can be bad, geese are even worse. Wood duck tastes great anytime, teal too.

If you're trying to pull the duck flavor out of a duck I suggest you stop hunting them and just go make chicken or turkey jerky.

A good thing to do with ducks/geese is to use the meat and make "Slim Jims" out of it - not quite the dehydrated chips like jerky but damn good snacking. My local guy needs 30# minimum to do a batch...

Good luck in the field, I've only been out once for duck this year - lost my honey hole to greenies.

 

While it's not a rub necessarily, this is a pretty good seasoning blend that is salt free. I use it sometimes on meat or even in rice dishes to give a little extra depth of flavor.

Frere Jean Salt-Free Cajun Seasoning, 4.5 Ounce Shaker

https://www.amazon.com/Frere-Jean-Salt-Cajun-Seasoning/dp/B00GW5VK92

 

Never been duck hunting. May have to give it a shot.

 

I see what you did there...

 

Ba dum cha

 

You mean coots?

 

coot...or mud duck...target practice only...not for eating

 

Not coots

A black duck - you've probably never seen one - no white on the speculum like a mallard
male


females look the same but with a mottled nose

They are very close to mallards but have a larger gland at the base of the bill to handle salt - as a result, they are more on the coast than inland.

 

coots are ocean birds

 

we have them here in Idaho if Im not mistaken...

 

I’m seven hours from any ocean and we have them in the winter. I’ve massacred countless ones with a .22 rifle. We call them “water chickens”.

 

Not always.

In NV too.

 

also known as live targets

 

Thanks for the correction - Didn't know they were common inland.

Ever see a halequine duck? The only place I know them to be is Gloucester.

Recipe for coots/sea duck/mergansers/etc.
in a large stock pot, put in a brick and a cleaned bird. Boil for a week, discard bird, eat the brick.

 

Us coots can come in many forms. I know my build page has the bird reference posted from another member, but I always thought a "coot" was some redneck type of dude although neither of those are where my name comes from.

 

It's important to understand the origin of the words used for a nickname:
a toothed wheel whose teeth engage the links of a chain

 

http://www.thermoworks.com/DOT
What you guys think of this or go with the normal prob

 

Nothing at all wrong with that one but you still need a pit probe. I'd spend another 60 and get the Thermoworks Smoke. More heavy duty, longer probe, and all in one. Plus you get a remote. They have a wifi bridge device that's extra if you like tech with your cook.

 

what I have learned from this thread: @scottalot has cooties. I think they make an ointment for that.