Duck from Start to Finish
Well…perhaps not start, after all I didn’t breed ducks to lay the eggs which were hatched to get these ducklings, but you get the drift.
On the morning of a mad September day I hatched out a scheme to raise a flock of ducks with the express purpose of getting some fellow cooks together to learn how to slaughter, butcher & cook said ducks, to make the traditional French winter dish, Cassoulet. Hence was born Duckfest 2010.
What makes this idea even more madcap is that I pulled in my longtime internet friend, Kate Hill, who I had only ever met once–briefly–in a crowded room. Doubly amazing is that she agreed to the plan which brought her from Gascony, by way of Boston, for this New Year’s Day adventure.
And so I launched into an investigation of raising ducks to a standard rarely seen in the US. Not only did I choose a breed which is less than common here, but I also chose to raise them in a slow and natural manner. The Rouen duck is a large slow maturing duck, currently on the watch list for possible extinction, with only around 5000 breeding ducks in existence in the US. To me they seemed the perfect duck for such an experiment.
This was a chancy move on my part, with a little under 4 months from the time the ducklings arrived till the time of Duckfest. To be truthful I cut it close. The ducks we harvested could have been much larger. Rouen ducks usually take 6 to 8 months to reach full maturity and their adult weight of up to 10 pounds. Nevertheless, the birds have been the easiest ducks to care for that I have raised.
As we tried to create momentum around Duckfest, I tweeted a Daily Duckling photo on Twitter to keep interest aroused and share with everyone how the ducks were growing. This soon become more a labor of love than I could have ever imagined. Almost everyday as I fed and took care of the ducks I would shoot off some photos with my iPhone, trying to capture their quirky, odd, and addictive behavior. Of course, the real danger in doing this is in bonding too closely with the ducks, and not wishing to “do the deed” when the time came. But, by keeping the object of the exercise in focus I soon began worrying whether they were going to be large enough? Would there be enough fat for making Confit? In fact, even after I had slaughtered five of them I had nightmares that they would be like chickens with little or no fat on them, or have no me
at to speak of. After all I was taking them for use at 4 months instead of 6, or 8….
I realize now, I needn’t have worried. I instinctively knew what I was doing, how I was raising them and why. I could have relaxed and trusted my instincts. In order to raise these ducks in as natural away as possible, in the limited amount of space I had to give over to duck rearing, I moved the ducks around between spaces allowing them to graze, in addition to giving them a home-mixed feed of alfalfa, barley, cracked corn, sour milk & the poultry layer crumbles I use. They spent a month cleaning up the slugs and remaining vegetables and herbs in the polytunnel. After that, I moved them back to a smaller pen outside their house for fattening up. By letting them out of the house everyday–we have too many predators: mink, raccoon, otters, and eagles, to leave them out all the time–they could exercise, in a limited space, and have access to water for grooming. They were fed inside the house on a gruel of cracked corn cooked in whey or sour milk. A month of this regimen left their fat and flesh sweet and tender.
And so came the date–January 1st, 2010. Or, actually a few days before when I had to slaughter and prepare 5 of the ducks so they would be ready to Confit for our kick-off New Year’s Day Cassoulet. The chance to work with the ducks a few days before Duckfest gave me an opportunity to brush off my rusty duck processing skills and to work through the best way to present how to work with the ducks we were going to be using immediately. I also had four rabbits to process the same day, and I will unequivocally say that I much prefer dressing out rabbits than duck. However, once a few tricks were remembered the whole thing went quite well. On the Saturday of Duckfest, Kate and I were able to walk all the participants through the experience and process without a hitch. I am really proud of everyone who attended for getting in there and not missing a chance to participate fully, from slitting the ducks throats to plucking and gutting.
While the ducks weren’t full sized, they were still a respectable 4-5 pounds dressed, which is more than I could have hoped for, given the time frame. Unfortunately they were just undergoing a molt from their adolescent plumage to their adult feathers and colorings, so there were a great deal more feathers to pluck…. Still they cleaned up respectably. Especially after we gave them a Brazilian Wax treatment–painting & peeling poultry wax off helps remove the pin feathers and guard hairs which are otherwise almost impossible to remove any other way than singing.
What we were left with was some amazing naturally raised ducks with fantastic flavored meat. The perfect vehicle for learning about simple flavors and traditional French methods of working with duck. Kate Hill guided everyone through the breakdown of the carcasses and the use of the resulting meat with such clarity and ease that I am confident that everyone who attended walked away with the skill and confidence to work with duck in the future.
As for me, I still have 25 ducks to raise for a little while longer for another project. Many people have asked if I would raise ducks again, if I would raise Rouen ducks again and if I would host another Duckfest again? Too all of which I answer a resounding “Oui, avec plaisir!”
Like most things I enter into–farming, pigs, ducks–I stumble onto them almost by accident and discover that with enough hard work and patience I can find them infinitely rewarding in numerous ways. As always, my challenge now is to find ways to do it better and easier, both for myself and the ducks. I will also consider staggering batches of ducks so I am not trying to raise 40 of the same age all at once. I also plan on studying better ways to deliver their water so we both don’t get so wet.
Be sure to check out the fantastic photos shot by the participants of Duckfest here.
Technorati Tags: duckfest 2010, ducks, poultry, waterfowl, livestock, farming, agriculture, meat, food, cooking, podchef, Kate Hill, gascony, confit, cassoulet
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Nice synopsis of the event! Thank you for guiding us gently into the good night of duck harvest and processing. I never could have imagined myself raising and processing ducks and had some serious doubts after the fourth engulfing of wet feather/blood/Dawn dish soap/steam aroma. That was quickly forgotten after tasting the fabulous feast of magret that night! This has been an life-changing experience for me. I hope that Brett and I can edify your efforts in our future ducky endeavors.
I cannot applaud the “Accidental Agrarian” enough for staging an incredibly great time – I feel so lucky to have been one of the participants in this first ever Duckfest, and truly hope there are many more, whether I can attend them or not. (I’m frankly working on getting over to Kate Hill’s in Gascony France, next, but would love to see Neal & family again anytime). He’s also an awesome if humble cook himself, and made the whole thing look easy, tho you could tell he was working like a dog behind the scenes. A truly wonderful time, I learned a ton, and ate some of the best food I’ve ever had in or out of France. Seriously. Now to get to the 700+ photos I took that weekend.. or they’ll never get seen;).