How to Process a Duck. Pt3. Evisceration
Evisceration
In my life I have butchered many whole chickens, rabbits, lamb, ducks, venison and hogs. I am very comfortable with butchering all types of animals and fish of all sizes. I have even had the privilege of breaking down a half beef a couple times. I know how to take apart a beef heart and how to break down a whole beef liver into beautiful “steaks”. However, in all my years in the restaurant business and working with food over my lifetime, I have never had to eviscerate anything more than a fish or a couple of wild shot Pheasant. When I started raising Muscovy Ducks I found myself in unfamiliar territory. Now I absolutely have an unfair advantage with butchering, so I wasn’t too concerned about handling a whole bird, but I didn’t know where to start with eviscerating. I knew what the end result should look like, but I didn’t know what the most efficient path to get the result I wanted. I searched the internet for some video tutorials and I found some information that gave me a starting point, but there was nothing really clear cut. This is that, a solid method and clear instructions to eviscerate a Muscovy Duck.
This is exactly what you need to know to get the viscera out of your bird. This applies to Muscovy Ducks, but other birds are no different. If you’re eviscerating a Wild Shot bird or a backyard chicken, this method will work.
I raise my Muscovy Ducks, well the female ducks really do all the work, they are excellent Mothers. I slaughter/dispatch and pluck them and then I eviscerate them. In my first season I did 15 birds. In my second season I did 34. In my third season I did 31. Each season I have gotten more dialed in on the method that works best for each step in the process. In the video, we are jumping in after plucking and focussing only on evisceration. For time efficiency sake butchering will be presented in a separate video/post.
I mention that I have “dialed in my methods” each year. I need to mention plucking because it has an influence on evisceration and butchering. I use the Fowl Plucker. These guys have been in business for over 30 years. Their product works great, if you follow their instructions. Caveat, right? If you purchase anything from The Fowl Plucker website, you will probably get a call from Ed (one of the owners). Before he ships your order he will want to make sure you know what you're doing and that you are getting the correct product you need for your plucking job. Ed has been amazing, helping me to get on the right track and have success with plucking Muscovies. These birds have tough feathers, maybe even denser and tougher than a goose.
Ed is very clear that The Fowl Plucker is to be used on cold dry birds. His main customer is fowl hunters. Most waterfowl hunting seasons are in the colder months, so it is easy to shoot a “limit” of ducks and then let them hang in a cold garage overnight and then pluck them in the morning. This works fine for me when I am harvesting birds in October and November when the overnight temps get into the low 20s or lower. If I harvest birds in September I will have to only do 3 at a time and then put them on ice in a cooler to get them ice cold. Cold skin makes all the difference for The Fowl Plucker. I ignored Ed’s advice and processed a few birds a few hours after slaughter. It was a cold day with a high of 28, but it wasn’t long enough for the skin to really firm up. There is a ton of fat in the skin of Muscovies, Ducks, and Geese. As it gets cold it gets firm and has better durability when using The Fowl Plucker. It is difficult to process a “warm” bird without damaging the skin. The skin is the best part on a Pan-Roasted Duck Breast or Confit Duck Leg. I want as much beautiful skin as possible. The other thing that happens with an ice cold bird is that it firms up the meat, which makes butchering much easier. Most important is how much easier it is to remove the guts when they are ice cold along with all of the visceral fat. Ice cold birds are way easier to deal with in so many ways. Ducks are different from chickens. Chickens are easy. They get scalded and then thrown in a tumbler. The feathers are completely gone in a minute and they are ready to go. Plucking is probably the biggest reason that Ducks are not as common in the market. They are just more labor intensive to get them table-ready. A long tangent, I know, but you will see that when I pull out the viscera that the fat is solidified because it is cold. Now you know why it is cold. A fresh/”warm” duck will be much wetter inside and the fat will be very soft. The visceral fat is precious. I want as much as I can get for rendering. I use all of my rendered fat to make Confit Duck Legs. They are amazing.
Ok, let’s go.
These are the only tools you need for this project:
10.5” Chefs knife https://amzn.to/4kFTVpI or
6” boning knife https://amzn.to/45DeK0r
3.25” serrated paring knife. https://amzn.to/4kAT9dk
Have 4 or 5 paper towels within easy reach. Have containers ready to land the different parts of the bird as you butcher it. Also have a container for breasts, one for legs, and another for Fat, Llvers, Hearts, and Gizzards. And, have a trash can nearby.
I do birds in groups of 3. The ducklings are born in groups of 10-14 birds. They are usually 1-2 weeks apart and I will have 3 separate groups, one for each of the females. Each group reaches maturity at a different time. Working in groups of 3-4 birds makes it take 3 days to do a group, but it is a more manageable task. I am on my own with this project. I’ve got no chance of doing a whole group of 10 birds in a day. That is a big, and tedious job. I want to do the best job possible. I want my butchered ducks to be the caliber that would be on spec for a fine dining restaurant, so I do small batches and I do an excellent job.
Before we open up the bird to remove the viscera/guts, I want to get rid of the feathery portions that the machine cannot remove. I want a clean work surface, so any dirty parts (feet) and anything with feathers are first to be removed. Having a clean work area is important. It’s good sanitation, but also helps you stay organized, and have plenty of space.
Remove the head as far up the neck as you have plucked. The neck is great in the stock pot and the meat on the neck can be picked from the bone after the stock is done. It is excellent meat that can withstand the long cooking process without drying out. It reminds me of slow braised Oxtail meat. Having a long portion of neck will also serve as a “handle” to hold the bird in place when you pull the guts out. I cut through the skin, windpipe, and then give it a quick chop with the heel end of my knife. Discard the head.
Before removing the viscera, I remove the wing tips at the last wing joint. I will also cut away some of the skin on the wing along the edge with the little feathers. Duck wings are not like Chicken wings. They are exceptionally tough. Mine will go in the stock pot. The meat can tolerate the long cooking process and then be picked from the bone and saved for sandwiches, pasta, or other applications. Throw the wing tips away. Remove the wings and save them in a container that you will collect all of your bones in.
Remove the feet. Cut through the “ankle” joint. Your knife should easily slide through the joint. I discard the feet. If you want to keep them and find a Duck Feet recipe, go for it. Comment in the video and let me know what you do with them.
Freeing the Esophagus…the most important step.
Slice open the skin of the neck without cutting into the esophagus along the neck structure. There are two tubes running down the neck. There is the windpipe, it is the plastic-y straw like tube. The esophagus is usually light pink and soft. If your ducks were not fasted prior to slaughter the esophagus may have food in it. If there is food in it, I recommend squeezing the food out to the opening that was created when you chopped off the head. Discard the food. Free the esophagus and the wind pip from the neck . Follow the connective tissue that connects these two tubes to the neck. There will be a thin membrane. As you get to the top of the breast, cut away the thin membrane around the opening that connects the windpipe and esophagus deeper into the body cavity. You want to make each tube separate and free. You can use your knife but also your hands to rip away the thin membrane at the body cavity. This is the most important step to eviscerating the bird. When we get to the other side and try to pull the guts out of the body cavity we want the esophagus to be free to come with the rest of the digestive system. If the esophagus is still connected to the neck and the top of the body cavity; it will cause you to struggle and potentially create a mess of ruptured waste material inside the bird. We want to avoid that. The windpipe will come out much later when we remove the lungs. It will actually happen after the bird is completely butchered at the last step of breaking the carcass into bones for stock.
Opening the body cavity
I am right handed. I like to position the bird with its neck to my right. Make a small slit through the skin of the abdomen an inch or so below the bottom of the breast plate. Use your hands to feel the anatomy of the bird. Where does the breastplate end? Feel it. You want to cut into the skin of the abdomen halfway between the Cloaca (exit hole) and the bottom of the breast plate. Cut a 1”-ish slit through just the skin to expose the light pink colored abdominal muscle tissue. This muscle tissue is very thin. Use your fingers to spread the skin apart. You will be surprised by how big of an opening in the skin that you can create with your fingers from that small slit. Cut through the abdominal muscle tissue without cutting into the viscera that are just below. There should be a small buffer of fat, but be careful. We want to keep everything intact so we don’t end up with waste material everywhere. Use your finger so make this opening larger and get a view of the organs inside. You should be able to pull the opening wide enough to see the inside of the thighs and the entirety of the organs and fat in the abdomen.
Use your knife to cut on each side of the cloaca between the pelvis bone and the cloaca. Stay close to the pelvic bone, so you don’t cut open any organs. Cut toward the tail. You should now have a really good view of all of the fat and organs. Carefully remove as much fat as possible and save it. You can use your knife and your fingers. Work slowly, be gentle. This is another reason to only do a few birds, so you can take your time.
After you have removed whatever fat you can easily get to, it is time to remove the internal organs. The gizzard will be slightly exposed at this point.
With the neck to your right and the legs to your left, insert your left hand into the body of the bird. Brace the body of the bird using your right hand. You can stabilize the bird with your right hand at the shoulders. Stay above the organs. Working your hand back and forth breaking the thin membrane of connective tissue as you get your hand further into the body cavity. Work from side to side to break all of the membrane. This will make it possible to pull out the organs in one unit. Keep going until you get to the neck. When you get your fingers all the way to the neck, push your fingers downward to the back. Grip the neck with your right hand. Shape your left hand into a rake, imagine having a tennis ball in your hand but not squeezing it. Keeping your left hand in this open rake shape and pull the visceral out of the opening in the body. You should feel the heart at the top toward the neck. It will feel ball shaped. Pull all of the guts in one unit without squeezing them. Although you have disconnected lots of membranes, there will still be some tissue connected to the organs. You will have to wrestle the viscera out. As you pull it all out you may need to adjust your grip. Although you are “pulling” the organs out, I think it feels like they get “rolled” out. Pull everything out of the cavity into a pile at the tail of the bird. Take a minute to familiarize yourself with what you see. The heart should be quite obvious unless you missed it. I have had the experience of occasionally leaving the heart inside, but getting everything else. Identify the important parts that you are going to keep. The heart, liver, gizzards, and visceral fat. Move the mass of organs down past the tail without disconnecting them from the cloaca. Now you have room to separate everything.
Remove the heart and set it aside. All you need to do is severe it from the blood supply. The liver is next. It has a small and a large lobe. Remove the small lobe by cutting it away from its attachments. Be careful not to cut into any other organs. Remove the larger lobe just below the green bile duct. You want to avoid cutting the bile duct, so you will need to make a shallow cut into the liver to avoid it. Set the liver and heart aside in a container. Next find the esophagus. It leads to the gizzard. The gizzard is a large ball shaped organ. Food is delivered to the gizzard from the esophagus. It will be full of food and rocks. Cut the esophagus from the gizzard and then detach the gizzard from the rest of the digestive tract. Set it aside to be cleaned. Remove any visceral fat from the organs that you can, without stabbing open any waste. To discard the viscera, pull it further past the tail and keep everything connected. Cut the tail off just above the Cloaca. Discard the tail and the viscera.
The Gizzard..
Trim off any visceral fat from the Gizzard and save it for rendering. Slice the gizzard in half lengthwise. Inside the two halves there will be food and rock. Discard the food and rocks into the trash and then rinse the gizzard in cool water to clean out the remaining debris. Dry the halves with paper towels.
The yellow inner membrane of the gizzard is inedible. Trim it off without losing any of the bright red lean meat. Discard the plasticy membrane. You can cut each half into a half again and now you will have four pieces of gizzard. The silver skin on the outside can stay. Put your gizzard into the container with your heart and liver. Refrigerate for now. Later everything will get cryovaced.
Congratulations! You have eviscerated a Muscovy! Wipe down your cutting board and knives. The next step is to butcher the duck into breasts and legs; and break down the carcass to get bones for stock. Part 4: Butchering is in a separate video/post. I will put a link below when it is live. Subscribe to https://www.youtube.com/@thestrengthkitchen and you will know when it is posted.
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