Sunday, December 20, 2009

duck trick and steelhead ready for the smoker



Went goose hunting this morning and ended up shooting a drake mallard. It was beautiful. Four ducks flew by my goose spread. I grabbed my duck call, gave a few quick calls, and they spun around, bowed up and came into my spread. I love it when the calling actually works.

We "wet" plucked the duck and will be making roast duck a l'orange for Christmas eve dinner. When wet plucking, you dip the duck into simmering water before plucking the feathers. After you've plucked as best you can, you still end up with a bunch of really fine feathers that you can't quite get to. The magic tool for their removal is a propane torch. Just a few quick passes with the torch will singe off the remaining hair like feathers without burning the skin. And ready for the oven.

Here is the steelhead ready for the smoker. It's smoking as I write. Looking forward to sampling some at about midnight. I was going to go steelheading again tomorrow, but the forecast is for constant rain all day, so I think I'll take a pass.

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