Add a few drops of this to the duck to eliminate odor, make the meat delicious, and sweet

Prevent odor before processing

Ducks are fed with bran, rice, grains, alcohol residual, beer residue, banana trunk… the meat will be delicious and not smelly. However, most ducks are fed with plant-based foods as mentioned above, combined with animal-based foods such as fish meal, bone meal, miscellaneous fish, quail eggs… to grow rapidly and gain weight. This is one of the reasons why duck meat has an unpleasant odor, especially during molting.

Experienced people share that pouring a little white wine into the duck’s mouth before plucking will help the duck release the odor from the inside.

Plucking the duck

According to folk experience, handling the duck feathers properly will partially remove the odor of duck meat. You need to boil a pot of hot water, add a little lime or pennywort leaves, grasp the duck feathers and then immerse it in the water. Take the duck out quickly and pluck off all the feathers. The black liquid from the hair holes needs to be squeezed out completely and rinsed clean.

If there is no lime, pennywort or water spinach, you can use salt to make plucking the duck easier. After removing the duck’s internal organs, immerse the whole duck in a basin of cold water to remove excess blood and then immerse it in a basin of hot water mixed with 2-3 tablespoons of salt. After that, you can pluck the duck feathers as usual.

Another way to make plucking the duck easier is to use wine. After removing the internal organs, soak the duck in a basin of cold water to moisten the feathers. Then pour wine all over the duck’s body and let it soak for about 10 minutes for the wine to penetrate the hair holes. After that, immerse the duck in warm water and start plucking the feathers.

Note that you should only immerse the duck in warm water. Using hot water will cause the hair holes on the duck’s skin to contract, making plucking more difficult. In addition, hot water can also cause the duck’s skin to crack.

Washing the duck meat

After cleaning the feathers, you need to wash the duck meat to remove any remaining dirt and eliminate the unpleasant odor. Normally, people use spices such as ginger, vinegar, lemon to eliminate the odor of the duck.

Mix salt and vinegar together and spread it evenly on the inside and outside of the duck. Gently rub to clean the duck meat. Then rinse the duck again with clean water and let it drain. If you don’t have vinegar, you can use lemon. Rub the lemon directly on the surface of the duck and rinse it clean.

You can also use ginger wine and spread it evenly on the duck meat, let it sit for about 30 minutes, then rinse it clean.

Removing the oil gland

The oil gland in ducks, chickens, and geese is the cause of the unpleasant odor. This is the area where the sebaceous glands contain many bacteria and pathogens. Removing the oil gland will not only help eliminate the odor but also remove harmful substances.

Using aromatic spices in cooking

For duck dishes, you can cook them with pounded ginger, dried scallion to eliminate the odor and create an attractive flavor. Besides, depending on the cooking method, you can choose suitable spices, for example, boiled duck can use lemongrass, ginger, and scallion; braised duck can use galangal, fermented rice…