In article >,
> wrote:

> Well, I may have solved part of puzzle anyway. In a cookbook I found about
> cooking wild game (from Vermont), the author said that wild duck, if it eats
> certain foods all its life, often smells, when cooking, "like an open sewer."

Puddle ducks taste better than diving ducks to me. People rave about
canvasback (a diver), but I like mallards, pintail, gadwalls, teal,
spoonies and widgeon better (all puddle ducks). Divers go deeper
underwater and include fish in their diet. Puddlers mainly eat pond
weed and occasional bugs.
Puddle ducks are easier to pick too. I've shot one sea duck way back
when and don't remember what it tasted like. I'll almost guarantee it
tasted less good than a puddler.
Here's a old recipe that I have always used. Stuff a picked and gutted
duck with chunks of apple and celery, salt and pepper, wrap in foil,
and are you ready for this? Roast at 300F for three hours. To people
unused to the smell of wild duck cooking, whether they like it varies.
I'm used to it.
Wild duck ain't like tame duck. Temp, time and method would be a crime
with farm raised duck.

leo