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The last time I checked USDA specks for waterfowl they required the hot wax method to remove pinfeathers and fuzz.
The timing of when to butcher waterfowl is MUCH more important than chickens because ducks molt much more often which means the windows when they aren't producing pinfeathers are much smaller and more often than chickens which may go a year and a half without molting. the birds are MUCH easier to pluck if you manage to catch one of these windows. That is one of the reasons that "long Island Ducklings" are always harvested at a certain age even though they haven't reached their full weight yet by that age. The producers know if they miss that window the plucking costs will cost them more than the extra meat is worth. Usually domestic ducks are busy producing their mating set of feathers and extra down to get them through the winter in the fall when many people want to process them.
I would check with your duck plucker to see if you can't get a better price to do a bunch at one time. A lot of his time is spent getting set up to process ducks. $12 sounds fair to me for one duck but $6-7 might be more like it for a 50 duck order. One trick that is used is to remove the wing whole, feathers and all because there are a lot of feathers for very little meat in the wings. Some do the same with the tail. If DIY be sure to remove the oil gland right near the tail on the back of the duck, that oil tastes foul!
IMO that water temperature of 160 is too hot if you are plucking by hand (it may be great for a plucking machine) it will produce skin that is about half cooked so it tends to tear when plucking and the cooked skin does not brown and get crisp like it should. you have to let the bird cool as it is too hot to handle at 160.
Good Luck from this old Duck Plucker!
The last time I checked USDA specks for waterfowl they required the hot wax method to remove pinfeathers and fuzz.
The timing of when to butcher waterfowl is MUCH more important than chickens because ducks molt much more often which means the windows when they aren't producing pinfeathers are much smaller and more often than chickens which may go a year and a half without molting. the birds are MUCH easier to pluck if you manage to catch one of these windows. That is one of the reasons that "long Island Ducklings" are always harvested at a certain age even though they haven't reached their full weight yet by that age. The producers know if they miss that window the plucking costs will cost them more than the extra meat is worth. Usually domestic ducks are busy producing their mating set of feathers and extra down to get them through the winter in the fall when many people want to process them.
I would check with your duck plucker to see if you can't get a better price to do a bunch at one time. A lot of his time is spent getting set up to process ducks. $12 sounds fair to me for one duck but $6-7 might be more like it for a 50 duck order. One trick that is used is to remove the wing whole, feathers and all because there are a lot of feathers for very little meat in the wings. Some do the same with the tail. If DIY be sure to remove the oil gland right near the tail on the back of the duck, that oil tastes foul!
IMO that water temperature of 160 is too hot if you are plucking by hand (it may be great for a plucking machine) it will produce skin that is about half cooked so it tends to tear when plucking and the cooked skin does not brown and get crisp like it should. you have to let the bird cool as it is too hot to handle at 160.
Good Luck from this old Duck Plucker!
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