Farm update - RIP Egon

[luzula]

Today Egon was taken by a goshawk, which ate at his body for a while before we discovered it had happened. I hope he died quickly. We will mourn you, Egon: you will never again cuddle with Eva, nor mate with a flirty female. I have tears in my eyes as I write this.

E and I took what was left of his body and salvaged his heart, liver, kidneys, one half of his breast, and one leg for us to eat. Although afterwards we discovered this page and realized there was more we could have used. I also examined what I realized must be the gizzard, which was quite interesting--I totally see now how they can swallow whole oat and barley grains and have them be crushed by the gravel in that strong hollow piece of muscle. It's strange to look at the other ducks now and know what they look like inside.

I made a three-course meal tonight, containing four things I have never cooked before, marked by numbers:
Starter: Duck heart, liver, and kidneys (1), fried with soy sauce, sesame oil, Sichuan pepper, garlic, rice wine, and a little bean paste. Thank you, Egon, it was delicious.
Main course: Hamburgers with acorn patties (2) and homemade French fries (3), with carrot slaw, homemade mayonnaise, grated homemade cheese, and chili sauce. The acorns had been leached for a long time and made quite a good base for minced "meat".
Dessert: Crème brûlée (4) flavored with rum, seared with E's new gas burner. It is really for killing weeds that have just sprouted, but why not take advantage?

Comments

I hope you took pictures.

[jesse_the_k]

Mmmm, that sounds like quite the send-off/funerary feast!

Did the hamburgers contain acorn or consist of acorns? If the latter, do they have enough fat to hold together or?

French fries are delicious and also a ton of work.

Your own cheese!

Thanks for linking to that intriguing site—James Beard award winning hunter could not be more 21st century, yet also specific and useful info.

Re: I hope you took pictures.

[luzula]

Well, I did take some pictures, but decided that perhaps not everyone on DW wanted to see the details of duck butchering.

The hamburgers did not contain meat. I ran the (wet) acorns through a mixer, added chopped fried onion, some rolled oats, and a few eggs, and spiced it up with garlic, black pepper, soy sauce, herbal salt, and a little nutmeg. They held together surprisingly well! I could make large flat hamburger-style patties with no problem.

[princessofgeeks]

Im so sorry!

[luzula]

Thanks! <3

[mergatrude]

Sorry for you loss. At least he was delicious? That sounds like a very fancy and delicious meal.

[luzula]

Thanks! I've never eaten an animal I knew personally before.

I'd planned the meal out before and was going to make the rest of it anyway, but the starter was a late addition.

[chestnut_pod]

Poor Egon :(

I am glad he was honored so.

[luzula]

Thanks! I've never eaten an animal I knew personally before, but it felt much better to do that than just throw him away or bury him.

[feroxargentea]

Oh no, poor Egon. I'm glad he was tasty though. This is why cj2017 don't keep hens or ducks: while I'm made of stern enough stuff to make use of any casualties in the kitchen, cj2017 is not.

The rolled oats, is that just the usual sort for use for porridge? I hadn't thought to try adding them to burger mixes before. Cj2017 is allergic to a lot of meat substitutes but she can eat oats, so maybe we could add them to quorn (which she can also eat).

Love that you're using a weed burner to make creme brulee :D

[luzula]

I still don't know whether I could kill one of them myself for food! I suppose I'm one step closer to it now, and it would be interesting to try to use as much as possible of the body. OTOH we are happy with the number of ducks we have now (eight females, four males), so there's really no reason. Maybe if we have another round of ducklings this summer.

The rolled oats, is that just the usual sort for use for porridge?
Yup! You can also use breadcrumbs, the kind you buy in a box, or make yourself from old bread.

Love that you're using a weed burner to make creme brulee :D
We had fun! : D

[sanguinity]

Poor Egon! And what a send-off dinner!

We used to keep geese when I was a kid, and sometimes a raccoon would get them, although there was never enough carcass left to eat them. We did eat the pigs we kept, though.

Weed burners! We were out for a walk the other day and one of the neighbors had set his landscaping on fire with one and hadn't realized yet. Whoops!

[luzula]

Did you kill and butcher the pigs yourself, or send them away for it? I find it interesting to try to make use of everything, which of course you don't get to do if you send them away.

[sanguinity]

We did both over the years. When I was younger, dad would shoot the pig and then we'd clean the carcass -- there's a picture of me at four, happily scrubbing down a gutted pig carcass hung from a tree. I'm not sure who butchered it that year.

Later on, he'd have someone come in and shoot and gut the pig on the premises, then take it away to butcher it. A treasured memory from one of those years was getting to root through the wheelbarrow-full of pig guts and identify all the organs.

[nnozomi]

Poor Egon, sorry to hear. I'm glad you were able to give him a delicious send-off, one way or another.

Crème brûlée (4) flavored with rum, seared with E's new gas burner. It is really for killing weeds that have just sprouted, but why not take advantage?
okay, I love this...

[luzula]

He was the Casanova of the duck flock, and while the females will often run from the other males, they would just lie down and go "oooh, Egon!" when he wanted to mate. I'm sure they will miss him too.

Crème brûlée was actually very simple to make! Well, at least if you have access to a burner. It's such a fancy restaurant dessert that I thought it would be harder to make.