Waxing Birds - Ducks, Geese, and other birds
'How do I use wax a duck?, How do I use wax to de-feather a goose?, How do I use wax to pluck waterfowl?'
A first-timers critique of using wax to de-feather waterfowl...
At first I thought that waxing birds (waterfowl in particular) would be rather difficult, and discovered that I wasn't totally off-base with that thought.
Waterfowl hunting is a stable in my family. Harvesting, preparing, storing and cooking are common themes so learning how to properly prepare waterfowl for storage or the table is a necessity. One method that I read about was using wax to de-feather / pluck the waterfowl.
Waterfowl hunting is a stable in my family. Harvesting, preparing, storing and cooking are common themes so learning how to properly prepare waterfowl for storage or the table is a necessity. One method that I read about was using wax to de-feather / pluck the waterfowl.
The proper method of waxing birds is to:
1. Pluck all the outer feathers off of the bird, leaving only the down.
2. Boil a pot of water over high heat, remove pot from heat source as soon as the water starts to boil and place paraffin/ wax into it. (wax should begin to melt and float on surface)
****** YOU CAN START A FIRE IF DONE IMPROPERLY*****
**** DO NOT BOIL THE WATER WITH THE WAX IN IT - WAX CAN BURN****
3. Once wax is completely melted (and looks to be about 1-1 1/2 inches deep on the water's surface, place the plucked/ down covered bird into a pot of hot wax. (this coats the down covered bird with hot wax)
(Make sure you lower the bird into the wax slow enough so that the bird is well coated, but fast enough so that extra wax does not accumulate)
4. pull the bird out of the hot wax and place the waxed bird into cold water to chill the wax and make it hard.
(Do not move the bird in and out of the wax, this will create water pockets in the wax and make de-feathering that much harder)
5. Once the wax is hard, crack and pull the wax from the bird - removing wax from the bird will remove all down feathers leaving only the skin of the bird.
1. Pluck all the outer feathers off of the bird, leaving only the down.
2. Boil a pot of water over high heat, remove pot from heat source as soon as the water starts to boil and place paraffin/ wax into it. (wax should begin to melt and float on surface)
****** YOU CAN START A FIRE IF DONE IMPROPERLY*****
**** DO NOT BOIL THE WATER WITH THE WAX IN IT - WAX CAN BURN****
3. Once wax is completely melted (and looks to be about 1-1 1/2 inches deep on the water's surface, place the plucked/ down covered bird into a pot of hot wax. (this coats the down covered bird with hot wax)
(Make sure you lower the bird into the wax slow enough so that the bird is well coated, but fast enough so that extra wax does not accumulate)
4. pull the bird out of the hot wax and place the waxed bird into cold water to chill the wax and make it hard.
(Do not move the bird in and out of the wax, this will create water pockets in the wax and make de-feathering that much harder)
5. Once the wax is hard, crack and pull the wax from the bird - removing wax from the bird will remove all down feathers leaving only the skin of the bird.
Some issues with waxing waterfowl, especially geese...
The method sounds simple enough but there was some snafus that I encountered that you should know about.
1. Get a big enough pot!!! When I first started waxing birds, especially the large geese, I did not have a big enough pot (it was 12 quarts -perfect for ducks, not good for geese). I had to 'dip' the goose -first the wing and then the other wing and then the breast and then the back, etc. until all the different sections of the bird were waxed. This created water pockets, I didn't get all the down off and it was very messy. This could have simply been avoided had I thought ahead.
Having a pot that allows the whole bird to be submerged (wings and all) is going to make life a lot easier. Geese are big - you should have a big pot to accommodate this.
A 30 or 40 quart pot is the perfect size to accommodate waxing a goose.
1. Get a big enough pot!!! When I first started waxing birds, especially the large geese, I did not have a big enough pot (it was 12 quarts -perfect for ducks, not good for geese). I had to 'dip' the goose -first the wing and then the other wing and then the breast and then the back, etc. until all the different sections of the bird were waxed. This created water pockets, I didn't get all the down off and it was very messy. This could have simply been avoided had I thought ahead.
Having a pot that allows the whole bird to be submerged (wings and all) is going to make life a lot easier. Geese are big - you should have a big pot to accommodate this.
A 30 or 40 quart pot is the perfect size to accommodate waxing a goose.
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2. Make sure you use enough wax the first time. I underestimated the amount of wax needed to coat my waterfowl and by not using enough wax there was not a thick enough layer of wax attached to the down to easily remove it. For ducks, you need about a pound of wax, for a large goose you need about 3 lbs. (you can always reclaim any unused wax after the water cools and the wax hardens - I store any reclaimed wax from the pot in the freezer -to avoid any possible bacterial/ fungal growth in the rare chance that the wax picked up anything from the bird as I was dipping it. I DO NOT reclaim any wax that I pull off the bird)
What type of wax to use when de-feathering waterfowl?
I use Gulf Wax for my paraffin wax - generally, if it is safe for canning, then it is safe for down removal. I have not tried it but you can also use Duck Wax, which is said to be specifically for removing feathers.
3. Develop a good technique when dipping the birds. Smaller birds are easier to dip and de-feather/ de-down - start with them. Learning on the smaller birds prevents wax waste and lets you get a feel for how fast/ slow you have to dip the bird in order to get the best wax coverage. This was the number one problem I had when I first started using wax on waterfowl. Using a big enough pot and lots of wax (as previously mentioned) will help get the preferred amount of wax on the birds which will allow you to get a nice clean bird for the table.