Duck, Duck, Goose: The Ultimate Guide to Cooking Waterfowl, Both Farmed and Wild

“Duck, Duck, Goose” really nailed down several points before I even got to the first recipe – Hank Shaw can WRITE, his knowledge of how to find and prepare wild ingredients is exhaustive, and he doesn’t assume you are a trained chef when he puts his thoughts in writing.From the very beginning of the book, Mr. Shaw’s enthusiasm for what, in my moderate experience east of the Mississippi, is something of a lost cuisine is an amazing thing to read. Take the very first paragraph of the book as an example:"Cooking a duck or goose in today’s world is an act of expression. It is a way to find that forgotten feast we Americans once enjoyed, to free ourselves from the Tyranny of the Chicken and shake our fists at the notion that fat is our enemy. Mastering these birds will make you a more competent carnivore. It will help you regain the skills needed to tackle more challenging morsels, such as giblets and wings and rendered fat. Cooking a duck or goose – a whole bird, from bill to feet – is real cooking. True, honest cooking."I’ve eaten in upstate New York (all of the Southern Tier really) all over Pennsylvania, Ohio, West Virginia, Virginia, the Carolinas, Georgia, Indiana, Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, Alabama, Jamaica, the United Arab Emirates, and Afghanistan, and while I will admit, VERY few of the restaurants would show up in a foodie’s guidebook, the only, ONLY time’s I’ve EVER seen duck on the menu was in Chinese restaurants and at Number 5′s in Binghamton, New York. The Peking Duck at the Chinese restaurant tasted like it had been dipped in kerosene and left on blacktop for a week, while the wild boar bacon wrapped duck tenderloin appetizer at Number 5′s was phenomenal. So, two experiences, in just shy of 44 years, is not really a wide base from which to compare waterfowl cookery, but I’m damn well going to do it anyway.Mr. Shaw approaches the topic of how to cook the birds from the very start of the process – what to do after you’ve shot a bird out in the marshes or fields. He addresses hanging the birds versus not hanging the birds, which approach to use in different situations, how each SPECIES of duck or goose might be cared for, and how to use each species, and each part of the bird, for best effect. In fact, because like all hunting, you may NOT get the bird you want, Mr. Shaw even addresses how to use store-bought birds in the same recipes.That’s one of the wonderful, wonderful things about this book – if you spend the day duck hunting, and end up with four different species, this book will enable you to cook all of them without having to think to yourself “Two pintails, a mallard and a teal, what now?”Some of the birds discussed in the book are:MallardTealBluebill (Scaup)GadwallNorthern PintailNorthern Shoveler (Spoonie)WigeonRedheadCanvasback (King Can)Wood Duck (Woodies)RingneckSurf ScoterRuddyDomestic bird breeds and geese are also covered, and I mean COVERED – in the kitchen, this book will tell you which birds to break down, which ones to keep whole, how to break them down, how to store them, how to render the fat, how to sear, how to make your own duck sausage or salami, everything from confit to jerky.Mr. Shaw even covers what the various species of birds prefer to eat, and how that affects the flavor considering what part of the migration or mating season they are in, which, for somebody like myself who may now be poking a shotgun barrel into the sky this year, is very important. I now know that if I am cleaning the bird, and I see orange colored fat, to discard the fat and how to use the bird to avoid the fishy flavor of a crustacean eating duck.Instructions on how to pluck your waterfowl, or if you should skin them, are also included.This book provides hunters and foodies a glimpse into WHY ducks are so treasured in haute cuisine, including some tidbits of history, such as how Canvasback ducks were priced for the table a hundred years ago (the cost of several days wages for an average person.)I gathered from this book that duck and goose is making a culinary comeback. If so, I’m looking forward to it, though my treadmill might groan at the extra miles I’ll have to put on it to compensate.SummaryIf you like to hunt and read, this book is a fantastic window into the world of waterfowl. If you like to cook and you don’t hunt, this might get you curious to try hunting, or to branch out into cooking domestic ducks and geese. This is a wonderful, wonderful bridge between what a lot of the public sees as ‘light beer drinking redneckery’ and ‘pass the canapes,’ which the general public incorrectly sees as a form of snobbery. (In fact, take the case of Duck Dynasty and put them in Downton Abbey… because that’s how the general public probably sees hunters in comparison to gourmet food.) Neither stereotype is true – I work with people who are very well educated, have good golf averages, enjoy the arts, and hunt, and anyone who thinks “Downton Abbey” when they think of haute cuisine needs to read Anthony Bourdain’s “Kitchen Confidential” to dispel that thought.Hank Shaw has effortlessly* bridged that perception gap with a book that could make the most agoraphobic city-dwelling foodie think “Maybe, if I shoot at the sky to get a duck, I won’t notice the lack of buildings wrapped around me…” and at the same time, might make somebody who’s pickup truck doesn’t fit under the average overpass think “Y’know, maybe going into the city for a bite to eat would be worth it!” (Though, honestly, most of the folks I know who hunt would just damn well read the recipes and cook the birds themselves…)

I purchased this book immediately after reading an article in our local newspaper about Mr. Shaw. I have a son who is an avid hunter but primarily lives for duck hunting season and is quite the aspiring cook for all wild game. He does exceptionally well cooking on his own, but I found the article about Mr. Shaw so inspiring and informative I simply had to purchase this book for him. The book itself is extremely well written with helpful hints and recipes that are identified by difficulty for any given recipe as well as identifying all the necessary ingredients and tools needed to prepare each dish. You can tell it must have taken Mr. Shaw a great deal of time to put this book together because it would appear he didn't leave out a single thing. The pictures are not only helpful, but well done and elaborate. I hope my son invites me over to try the, "Duck Sliders!!" The information given on just this recipe alone is amazing and provides the cook with information on what rolls to purchase and how to figure for the amount of guests you will be cooking for. Purchasing this book will not disappoint for the avid hunter or anyone wishing to have some outstanding recipes to entertain with to wow guests by purchasing foul in lieu of hunting for it.I always find everything I am looking for at Amazon.com and find their site one of the best with regard to price and inventory which keeps me coming back time and time again. Always receiving my orders faster than any other site I have ever done business with is just another reason I shop here. This combined with having an excellent customer service department, makes for one happy shopper.

I won't pretend to have an opinion on how this book compares to others focused on domestic waterfowl, as any ducks or geese that pass through my kitchen do so by way of a shotgun. From a hunter's perspective, it is the best waterfowl cookbook that I have ever seen, and my kitchen is full of them. Anything else is a distant second. This is going to immediately replace the time-tested LL Bean Fish and Game Cookbook as my go-to reference for ducks and geese. The instructions are exceptionally clear and the photography is fantastic. The author does a great job delineating which species of bird is best for each recipe, which should be very helpful for beginning hunters or anyone who is lucky enough to be be gifted a couple of wild ducks from a friend who hunts.There are a lot of interesting recipes that cover the use of duck and goose breasts, the most common element available to those who don't pluck their birds in the round. Better yet, there are very specific instructions on the best way to process whole birds including plucking, eviscerating, breaking down, and freezing. These instructions and the accompanying photos are worth the price of the book without a single recipe.The book contains a solid mix of traditional waterfowl recipes as well as Asian preparations that I cannot wait to try once duck season opens. Having spent many years smoking whole birds and making jerky, I can assure any prospective readers that the recipes for both of these methods are spot on and will result in a stellar end product.I highly recommend this book to any and all wild fowl hunters and for anyone else interested in alternative methods for cooking and preserving any sort of waterfowl. It is not often that you run across a book that makes an equally great gift for both your NRA life member father-in-law and locovore hipster cousin, but the author delivers on both counts.

Hank Shaw si occupa da tempo di cucina selvatica dapprima nel suo blog, quindi con diverse pubblicazioni, premiate e molto apprezzate anche da cuochi professionisti. Questo libro è uno dei suoi più riusciti sia per quel che riguarda la parte tecnica, meticolosa, che per le ricette (alcune etno o fusion veramente ben fatte). In modo particolare ho apprezzato la parte finale "Extras", dove predominano le parti "di scarto", cuore, lingua, fegato e una notevole sezione charcuterie (ricette di salumi d'oca e anatra).Malgrado l'apparente distanza geografia e culturale dai nostri lidi, non manca la pasta fresca fatta con le uova d'oca, segno dell'attenzione e della cura dell'autore statunitense per le cose buone.

A must have cookbook for duck lovers. The recipes range from very easy to very difficult, but they are all explained in detail, so no duck is too daunting. There's a good range of options and a lot of useful information about the different kinds of ducks and the variations one should use if cooking wild or domesticated ducks. The book also has a great sense of humour and is nicely put together. Some pretty impressive dishes that with unexpected ingredients but are often easy to throw together.

This book has about 6 blank/missing pages. Think there may have been a printing problem. Tried to get a replacement book, but received no answer!

The book is beautifully made and very nicely written. I enjoyed it a lot. Some recipes are a bit complicated but nothing to far away of the possible.

These books are absolutely amazing! They are full of so many good recipes and really useful tips regarding the breakdown of waterfowl and the different meats/fats that each species has. Definitely plan on purchasing all of the books in the collection!