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The Modern HomesteadThe Modern Homestead
  • Home
  • Overview
    • The Integrated Homestead
    • Life on the Homestead
  • Grow It!
    • Soil Care
    • Composting
    • The Homestead Garden – And More
    • Fungi
    • Greenhouse
    • Homestead Tools
  • Poultry
    • Poultry Overview
    • Feeding The Flock
    • Housing the Flock
    • Ranging the Flock
    • Breeding the Flock
    • Dealing With Predators
    • Butchering Poultry
    • Producing for Small Markets
    • Poultry Miscellaneous
    • Livestock
  • Resources
    • Downloads
    • Harvey’s Book
    • Harvey’s Presentations
    • The Homesteader’s Resources
    • In the Kitchen
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Cutting Up a Duck

Home » Resources » In the Kitchen » Cutting Up a Duck

In The Kitchen:
Cutting Up a Duck

Whole dressed duck, ready for cutting

Consider this page a preliminary sidebar to Ellen’s article “Making Duck Confit”.

The start on the breast filet cut

(1) Begin Breast Filet

Completion of cutting the breast filet

(2) Completing Breast Filet

Cutting off the wing

(3) Cut off Wing

Cutting the thigh joint

(4) Cut Thigh Joint

Cutting the thigh-leg joint

(5) Cut Thigh-Leg Joint

Duck pieces ready for separate uses

(6) Ready for the Chef

Cutting up the bones of the duck carcass

(7) Carcass

After slaughtering our ducks, I rarely leave them whole, since we prefer our geese for roasting. Instead, I filet the breasts in two halves, setting them aside for elegant grilled dishes, the simpler the better, cooked quite rare. The rest of the meaty parts—legs, thighs, and wings—we reserve for hearty and satisfying braised dishes such as duck with red cabbage, apples, and onions—or for Ellen’s incomparable confit. The ribs and backs—and sometimes the wing pinions as well—go into the stockpot.

Here are a few pictures to show you how I cut up a duck. (Remember that, as everywhere on this site, clicking on a thumbnail image will call a larger image and additional text.)

Note that the ducks pictured here were summer ducks, lacking heavy deposits of fat in the lower abdomen and under the skin around neck, thigh, and elsewhere. Fall-slaughtered ducks yield a good deal of such fat, which should always be saved, rendered, and used as high-quality cooking fat rich in flavor and nourishing fat-soluble vitamins.

©Unless otherwise noted, all material on this site, both text and photos, is copyright by Harvey and Ellen Ussery, 2005 to the present. Individuals may copy and circulate it freely under the following conditions: This site www.TheModernHomestead.US must be attributed as the source; any material copied must include this copyright notice; and no charge may be made if you pass copies on to others, other than the actual costs of copying, if any. No material on this site may be published in any print or electronic media, whether or not for profit, without written permission of Harvey or Ellen Ussery.

DISCLAIMER: Information offered on this website is based on decades of research and practical experience. However, we are not trained professionals in any health, environmental, or other field. We therefore do not offer the contents of this website as advice or recommendation for any specific practice; nor will we be responsible for the consequences of the application of any information or ideas presented on this site. ~Harvey and Ellen Ussery

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