Alaska Fish & Wildlife News
November 2006

Recipe
Coot (Scoter) Sauté

By AWN
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Coot is an east coast nickname for scoter, a sea duck also common in Alaska.

Breasts, legs, and thighs of 2 scoters

Vinegar

Salt and pepper
Onion
Sherry
Flour
Orange rind
Mustard
Currant or beach plum jelly

Soak duck overnight in fridge in strong saltwater solution with ½ cup vinegar and a sliced onion.

Dry meat, rub with salt and pepper and dredge in flour. Place 1/8 lb butter in skillet and heat until smoking. Brown both sides and then reduce heat and cook slowly. When tender, remove meat to serving dish. Add ½ wineglass sherry to pan, then stir in 4 Tb Merrymeeting Sauce. Spoon sauce over meat.

Merrymeeting Sauce

Grate skin of 2 oranges, simmer lightly with 1 wineglass sherry, then stir in 3 tablespoons prepared mustard. When blended, stir in 1 cup currant or beach plum jelly. Refrigerate in glass jar.

This recipe is courtesy of waterfowl hunter Matt Robus, Director of the Division of Wildlife Conservation at the Alaska Department of Fish and Game. It’s a favorite in his family.

“When my son comes home from college, this is what he wants,” Robus said.

Coot is an East Coast nickname for scoter, and does not refer to the marsh bird in the rail family known as the American coot.

Merrymeeting sauce is named for Merrymeeting Bay in Maine, a 9,000 acre confluence of rivers that is actually more an inland marsh and wetlands than a saltwater bay.

Seaduck hunters have long used a variety of marinades to mellow the sometimes fishy or gamy taste of seaducks.


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