Infrared Cooked: Muscovy Duck

The Muscovy duck is native to Mexico, Central America and South America and also reaches into the Rio Grande Valley of Texas. 

In cooking, it is often referred to as "Barbary duck." 

The male can weigh 10 to 15 pounds 

and the female 6 to 8 pounds. 

Wild Muscovy ducks are blackish with large white wing patches and featherless black and red, or all red faces, similar to a turkey or a turkey vulture. 

Domestic Muscovy ducks are popular because they have stronger tasting meat than the usual domestic ducks which are descendants of Mallards and the Muscovy is also leaner. It is said that the Muscovy has 50% less fat than the Pekin duck and 50% more breast meat. It has been compared to veal and roast beef. For Mother's Day we were having some family members over so I decided it would be a good day to try the duck. I covered it in Hoisin sauce 

and placed it in the infrared cooker 

and left it there about 1 1/2 hours, while I was at church (I snuck home from Sunday School to put it in the cooker).  It looked really burned, 

but I believe it was just the Hoisin sauce burning on the outside. 

It did not taste burned. It did produce quite a bit more meat than the typical Pekin duck, but it was still quite fatty. 

The meat is a little different from the typical Pekin duck, and some pieces did look similar to roast beef, but I would never confuse this meat for roast beef. 

It still definitely has the duck taste which I love. 

I liked it quite a bit and for the reasons given above, bigger bird and less fat, I would probably pick it over Pekin duck if it were cheaper and more readily available.