Salt and pepper, wrap in bacon, med rare, like a filet mignon. Mallard aged 4 days in fridge (breast up guts in), then soaked in plan tap water 2 days. Pics makes it look more cooked than it is was, med rare it was... Delish...

One mallard duck breast...



Extra strip of bacon on top helps keep moist...









Dang good.

Looks very good . . . but . . . tap water? Seasoned brine, one would think.

Fracking tap waters works best.

I have experimented with brine a lot and never seen much difference. But I have never done season brine, I would like to try that. I read something about brine, that it first draws water out, then over time (maybe 24 hrs) it draws water back in, so that right there kinda put me off brine. But plan tap water works fine I tell you that.

That looks cooked perfectly. A seasoned brine and you'd def be able to do this with a ringer!

What's your secret ringer brine GG?

No secret really, anything you want it to taste like- first step is to get your salt mixture right, so you get the reverse osmosis like effect like you already described. I drop an uncooked, whole, uncracked, egg in water and add kosher salt until it floats. Then I'll add some rosemary, or other aromatics, some garlic salt, brown sugar, black pepper, etc.

The key is the time- it takes a good 8hrs for it to work right like you described. The process will draw out the off flavors from the meat and the reabsorb flavors from the seasonings you've added.

I usually save all my ringers/blue bills for the sausage pile. They're no mallard or can, but if you do em right, they're nothing to scoff at!

I'll say again, don't try with a ringer.

Looks good.

Tried the brine and thought it altered the flavor too much. Prefer water.

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So, the point of plain tap water is to deliberately dilute (water-down) the flavour of the meat?

What is the goal with plain tap water?

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No, it's to draw out blood from the meat

Blood is water soluble. Salt, because of osmosis, will pull water soluble proteins and blood out of the duck breast.

That removes your gamey taste which is nothing more than congealed blood. It's next to impossible to bleed out a duck and the breast is very vascular. I think it's impossible for blood to be reabsorbed back into the breast after it has been pulled out.

And don't worry about salt "drying" out the meat. Over-cooked duck meat becomes dry because it does not have fat. That's why bacon is good for cooking duck.

My salt water soaked Ringers taste the same as a Mallard.

Yeah that is true, but I have not seen a lot of difference here either, run clear water over the meat and no soaking is fine based on my experience...

Props for those elements.

An acquaintance suggests stuffing with figs and cream cheese and baking to only rare . . . (and I'd add hot chile, too).

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What kinda whisky you drink?

I'm more of a beer guy.

But if I am forced, I do like Crown.

I soak my duck breast in water for a couple days to help draw out the blood.

Looks GOOD

This is how I cook ringers.
Slice breast in half
Place breast in either milk or butter milk.
Combine ingredients below.
2 cups flour
1 Tablespoons paprika
1 Teaspoon mace
1 Tablespoon black pepper
1 Tablespoon salt
1 Teaspoon allspice
Coat in flour mixture and cook in a deep fryer (don't pan fry) 2-3 minutes.
I haven't found one person that can tell its a ringer when cooked the way.

I like to fry duck as well, I never tried it with Ringer tho. Below is a fired gaddy I cooked for my son, he loves it fried. I use Tony's, I'm pro simplicity, looks close to your recipe, but I may try yours.

Each duck breast I hammer out. Normally I do nuggets, dip in a ketchup/horseradish mix, man that is good! But this is the first time I did whole breast for my son and he loved it. When I hammer it out, I lay a plastic bag over it, and hammer with a mallet...





Season both sides...



Eggwash...



More season mixed in the flour...

"Dad that is too much corn!!"



He sure ate it all tho...



I may play a trick on my son and cook him a ringer like this, not tell him and see if he notices.

Last time I cooked ringer, I did duck jerky and it was good. I cooked it side-by-side with puddle duck so I could test on others...

Duck Jerky