Country Fried Mergies

Carl

Well-known member
Staff member
I filleted the redbreasted mergies I got last Saturday and then dry aged them until Wednesday. Then put them in a brine for 24 hours and then back in the fridge dry. Last night I dipped them in egg and flour and fried. I was very pleasantly surprised. Very good, whole family gobbled them up. Mergies will get no pass in my boat anymore
 
I'll continue to pass them up so there will be an ample supply for you to shoot through your season!
 
just proves how any fowls flavor can be enhanced/changed with creative cooking prep. Sure beats the old stuffem and roastem cooking many were brought up on. I haven,t eaten a roasted duck or goose in probably ten years. Just to many good recipes out there that make them all delicious.
 
It might also reflect that ducks taste what they are feeding on, and Gulf Coast mergies may be on different feed than our northern birds.

I notice a HUGE difference in taste between early season black ducks shot on freshwater, and late season "stinky black ducks" on the salt (as Shermie used to call them). Those late season birds are feeding hard on the mud flats at low tide, presumably on an assortment of shell fish. They can be fine with a little marinade and a sauce, but the breasts don't go straight from the bird to the grill or the pan for a quick sear like the early season birds eating corn and acorns do.
 
One year Mike Trudel and I shot three late season Common Mergs. I took the big drake home to see if it was edible. Aged in the carcass for a few days, soaked in salt water, then baking soda water, then in pineapple juice. I know, seems like a lot of bother and after the fact determined that most of it was overkill. Anyway, made the breasts according to the recipe at the end of Ralf Coykendall's book "Duck Decoys and How to Rig them", I think it's called something like Bourbon Duck with Red Current sauce. I was surprised by 1) how big the chunk of meat was and 2) how good it tasted. Haven't tried another since then due to lack of opportunity rather than lack of desire.
 
Here in NY they are listed as toxic (Pcb's) and not to be consumed. I won't even use them as fertilizer . Maybe yours are not that bad. Hopefully you'll get some better eating birds commit to your spread :)
 
Forgot to mention I pounded them with a meat tenderizer before going into the egg wash.
 
The way I see it, it's' enough work just getting to shoot a bird, what with prep, maintenance, costs, direct work involved at the exact time of the hunt and all. I don't want to expend any more time on the birds after harvesting. If I can't basically just cook and enjoy, they get a pass.
Just my humorous, humble $.02 worth...
 
In New York, thanks to GE, per the NYS Department of Health's Fish Consumption Advisory, (FCA): "Eat No Mergansers."
 
I've been making "Merganser Pate" for many years--at least 35! Usually red breasted, but sometimes a hooded,or even a bufflehead or goldeneye might be included. I fry up some diced onion in butter, Take onion out add more butter and fry pieces of merganser breast--I fillet the breasts from 6 birds, then cut each side of the breast into 2 or 3 strips, then cut the strips into 1 inch lengths, cook til med rare, then I grind them with the onions and couple of hard boiled eggs using an electric meat grinder; you need to try to remove all shot as it can damage the grinder, plus remove any bloody areas or feathers while filleting/dicing.. I actually started by using a Mother Homes and Gardens cookbook for a chicken liver pate recipe. I grind it once coarse and twice fine. I then add a few table spoons of lemon juice, a few table spoons of mustard, a teaspoon of black pepper.garlic chips or garlic salt,some Lawrys seasoned salt, and about 4 or 5 tablespoons of Hellmans mayonnaise. Mix thoroughly. Now I taste it , and possibly add more of the last three ingredients if needs adjustment. I enjoy it on triscuits with a Heineken beer! I have quite a few friends who also enjoy it; I even get requests for it and sometimes will make a double or triple batch Even George Williams enjoyed it on a few occasions!! If you don't like liver pate you wont like it! I'd rather bag a mallard or a black duck,but sometimes they aren't cooperating, and my dog is an equal opportunity retriever,
 
YUM, love the insouciance, maybe it's the end-result of a subtle mix of PCB congeners and methyl-mercury...
 
Has there been any studies of mergies in areas outside of known contaminated areas that indicate high levels of mercury or pcbs? Or is this a localized problem with mergies feeding in and around hotspots like the Hudson?
 
Carl said:
Has there been any studies of mergies in areas outside of known contaminated areas that indicate high levels of mercury or pcbs? Or is this a localized problem with mergies feeding in and around hotspots like the Hudson?

Given their trophic position, they are by far the most likely of waterfowl to accumulate toxins. I have not read up on how widespread the issue is. I would be suspicious until I confirmed with a look at the literature.
 
Sandy Allen said:
I've been making "Merganser Pate" for many years--at least 35! Usually red breasted, but sometimes a hooded,or even a bufflehead or goldeneye might be included. I fry up some diced onion in butter, Take onion out add more butter and fry pieces of merganser breast--I fillet the breasts from 6 birds, then cut each side of the breast into 2 or 3 strips, then cut the strips into 1 inch lengths, cook til med rare, then I grind them with the onions and couple of hard boiled eggs using an electric meat grinder; you need to try to remove all shot as it can damage the grinder, plus remove any bloody areas or feathers while filleting/dicing.. I actually started by using a Mother Homes and Gardens cookbook for a chicken liver pate recipe. I grind it once coarse and twice fine. I then add a few table spoons of lemon juice, a few table spoons of mustard, a teaspoon of black pepper.garlic chips or garlic salt,some Lawrys seasoned salt, and about 4 or 5 tablespoons of Hellmans mayonnaise. Mix thoroughly. Now I taste it , and possibly add more of the last three ingredients if needs adjustment. I enjoy it on triscuits with a Heineken beer! I have quite a few friends who also enjoy it; I even get requests for it and sometimes will make a double or triple batch Even George Williams enjoyed it on a few occasions!! If you don't like liver pate you wont like it! I'd rather bag a mallard or a black duck,but sometimes they aren't cooperating, and my dog is an equal opportunity retriever,

I’ve had your pate at the Long Island show years ago. George brought it, it was good.
 
Although I’m not finding it now, I thought I had seen an advisory about eating mergansers from Lake Erie. I know our biologists have done studies on contaminants in bluebills and mergansers harvest on Lake Erie.
 


http://www.nrcresearchpress.com/...ode=cjz#.WlI1x2dy4dU

The geometric mean is the anti-log of the mean calculated for log transformed observation values.



https://www.researchgate.net/..._Harvested_in_Canada


Methyl-mercury, unlike the organochlorine insecticides and PCBs, as well as PCB-congeners, accumulates in muscle tissue, not fatty tissue.

https://pubs.usgs.gov/fs/1995/fs216-95/

http://www.nytimes.com/...pstate-new-york.html


How did that "Dirty Harry" line go? "I know what you're thinking right now, did he fire five shots or six...well, in all the excitement I forgot myself..." So, at the southern end of the flyway in the U.S...just where did that bird come from...?

Like most other Life choices...you pay your money and you take your chances!
 
Last edited:
had to look up insouciance to be sure whether it was a compliment or a criticism. I don't recommend eating pate in large volumes, but I don't feel threatened by a little now and then. I don't think the mergansers I bag come from the Hudson river(I hunt coastal RI). NY State recommends removing the skin and fat from striped bass, and I do the same with my mergansers. In jest, I put them in the freezer,head down. for a few hours. then I cut off the head to get rid of the mercury! I'm pretty careful about eating well and avoiding harmful substances. I don't smoke, never even tried pot or drugs,keep my wt reasonable, drink a little alcohol(which can be good or bad, depending on who you listen to). My hunting and fishing are the riskiest things I do! Have fallen out of a tree 13 feet when a branch broke, run into big seas(unpredicted by weatherman) on return trip from tuna fishing,in a 24 ft boat, and duck hunting in severe weather/ outboard motor problems.( I'm sure a lot of us have good stories about that topic).I've a few more stories I could share over a beer with some pate someday!
 
George Williams - aka DecoyMonsterMachine is very good cook, with a cast iron stomach. Where he draws the line about what is edible may be a mystery...[;)]

I was taught. "If you kill it you eat it." So I admire those that think that is important, no matter how difficult the task.

Mergansers that I have eaten in Canada, before their flight over the great lakes, tasted no worse than other ducks.

Having worked in a sewage treatment plant in my younger days I saw that no ducks shy away from them. What is safe and what is unsafe to eat, is a roll of the dice I believe.

As for a healthy life style. To quote my doctor from PA. "Healthy people die everyday."

We are waterfowl hunters. We enjoy and deal with risk on a regular basis.

So if ya want, fry those Pencilbills up.

"What kinda wine go with duck? Any kinda wine go with duck!" - Justin Wilson
 
Fully aware of the methyl mercury process, we have tannic coastal rivers down here with no local source of mercury that are full of bass that you could wring out & make thermometers. Luckily our redfish, speckled trout, sheepshead and flounder dont have any consumption advisories, plus they taste better than our bass.

Given that we might eat a handful of mergies the entire years at most, I think there are a great many other life risks to worry about.
 
Back
Top