Marks merganser recipe

[ribo451]

Most people I talk to laugh when I tell them that I eat mergansers but as far as I am concerned it is some of the best meat I have eaten. I don't know if the lake I shoot mergansers out of is special but I have never had anyone eat a merganser that I have cooked and not like it. Or know what it was before I told them for that matter. This recipe is for the breast meat off one merganser. Usually one bird is enough for my wife and I but if they are females or small I may cook two. A merganser is a big bird. I put the rest of the meat into my bag of mixed meats that I make sausage out of and it goes well in there too.

1 merganser breast
1-2 tablespoons soy sauce
1-2 tablespoons worcestershire sauce
salt and pepper to taste
garlic salt
Johnny's seasoning salt
Krusty's fry coating mix

The first thing I do is completely remove all the fat and skin off the breast meat. I leave it on other ducks but not mergansers. Next I cut the meat into bite sized pieces roughly 3/8" thick so they cook thoroughly. I always serve it well done when cooking fishducks. Next I toss the meat in a bowl with all ingredient except fry coating. I use about 2 parts garlic salt to 1 part other dry ingredients but you can use it any way you prefer. Then I toss with enough fry mix to coat but not enough to cover the meat heavily. Then cook over medium high heat in olive oil till thoroughly cooked. I actually prefer it to be overdone and starting to get crispy on the outside.

I also use this recipe or a similar one to cook deer and elk meat if they are really rutted up when I shoot them as this seems to get rid of any "off" flavors.

Hopefully one of you tries this and reports back. I am curious if anyone else eats mergansers because the consensus seems to be that they are inedible, but that's fine with me. If everyone keeps thinking that, there should plenty of them for me to shoot.

[2rocky]

I'm game enough to give it a try.

On Ruddy ducks that taste a little "muddy" I'll soak them in Milk over night.

Seems to do the trick but I'll try this as well....