Cold smoke Mallard Breast and Cheese

[michelle linnane]

  This past Saturday night went over a friends house for fresh mallard, Teal, Wooduck cooked out on the grill. Duck season opened in NY and the boys did well. I am not sure what Craig used as marinade but he cooked on the grill and it was excellent. I had Teal (my Favorite) and Mallard. I would compare the teal with prime rib. I like my duck rare. Some good bourbon completed the night very good dinner. We talked about how would this taste smoked  and that lead to what I am doing this morning on Sunday morning at 8:00am. Should of kept my mouth shut!! :-\

I have a hunt this morning so I will need to do this stuff in between. I run a pheasant preserve and boarding kennel in my spare time and still work a normal job. As I left last night I was given a 5LB bag of Mallard breasts shot that day to prepare for Sunday night dinner.

The brine consisted of what I had in the house I was not going shopping this morning. Took some tropicana orange juice and water placed in pan and turned on heat.
Put in about what I have here I never measure anything
                A little less than a cup of kosher salt
                some tyme maybe teaspoon
                cut up a lemmon and lime in slices
                Black pepper about teaspoon
                2/3 cup of brown sugar
                A couple of squirts of maple syurp
Boil on stove to disolve sugar and salt. Took off stove and threw the 5lbs of mallard breasts in to soak for a brine.

I will Cold smoke it today and then take back over to Craig to cook on grill tonight. While I am at I will cold smoke some cheese as I have the smoker on it might as well be full. I used my Bradley smoker I have the cold smoke adapter for cheese and fish. I will smoke it with hickory I like a strong smoke flavor.

I decided to cold smoke it as I did not want to over cook the duck breasts (duck and goose do not taste good if they are over cooked, they must be cooked rare to be good). Most people over cook it. I made the brine at 8:00am this morning as I needed soaking time. I will cook some wild rice and baked beans and take over with the duck tonight for supper. The breast are in the brine now! Well I need to get going here set up smoker and catch the pheasants for the hunt this morning. At least I do not have to guide just set the pheasants out so I will be free the rest of day. I hope they do well this morning Duck hunting more MEAT!!!!

I know you guys like pictures when I go out to the kennel and setup smoker I will take some.   

[NorthShoreMN]

What part of NY. Anywhere near Pheasant Ridge?

[KyNola]

Michelle, how many hours between cold smoking your poultry and taking it to your friend Craig for grilling?

[iceman]

Looking forward to pics of the smoke Michelle.

[michelle linnane]

I was trying to post some pictures and every time I do it never asks me where to get the image. I have checked my profile and do not see any settings on that. I used IE and firefox with the same results 

[Habanero Smoker]

Do you have a photo hosting site? If not you need to set one up. Many of us use Photobucket.

The below link is a pictorial on how to post pictures.

How To Post Pictures

[michelle linnane]

http://s1278.photobucket.com/user/michellelinnane/media/smoker004_zps6811c4a3.jpg.html

http://s1278.photobucket.com/user/michellelinnane/media/smoker003_zps849f1b5a.jpg.html

http://s1278.photobucket.com/user/michellelinnane/media/smoker001_zps9671be5c.jpg.html?sort=3&o=4

[Habanero Smoker]

Michelle;

I reposted your links. It seems that Photobucket is again tweaking their site.

[michelle linnane]

Hey there thank you,,