Duck Confit

Confit to be Tried



Sometimes it takes me forever to get around to things — years even. It's because there are so many things I want to do, so many things I have to do, and because sometimes when I have time to do some of the things I want to do there are things I need to do instead that I also haven’t gotten around to. Nevertheless, "God willin' and the crick don’t rise," I do eventually get around to most things.

The particular thing I've finally gotten around to in this case is making duck confit.

Duck confit has long been on my list, I initially planned on making it a few weeks after I made pork confit, somehow I didn't get around to it. Oh sure, I got busy, but the real sticking point was the duck fat. The idea of buying rendered fat from a company such as Hudson Valley Foie Gras (HVFG) offended me. I can get both pork and beef fat free at the grocery. If I need duck fat I should just cook enough ducks to have the fat I need. Paying for fat just seems wrong.

However, I never managed to cook enough ducks in a short enough period of time to accumulate enough fat to immerse even one leg in. The problem is duck fat is so good that it simply doesn't last long in my freezer. (Try making a grilled cheese sandwich using duck fat instead of butter or adding a dollop to grits or polenta.) So when NPR's Kitchen Window accepted my proposal for an article about beans I broke down and placed an order for 2 pounds of duck fat (1.75, actually) and six legs.

Beans persuaded me to make duck confit?Yes. Specifically cassoulet, that marvelous, multi-step bean dish from France. This is to be the primary recipe of the article and although you can skip the goose or duck confit it's just not the same. So I looked up HVFG on the Web and placed an order. Two days later I received a large box containing six vacuum-packed fresh legs, a quart of duck fat, and 2 duck breasts. I didn't order the breasts but I learned that HVFG often tosses a freebie into an order — you've gotta love a company that gives away duck breasts. I'll be smoking those babies.

With duck on the way, I needed a recipe. I began with the recipe from Charcuterie then moved on to the 'Net. I also queried Derrick Schneider at An Obsession with Food who had written a blog post on duck confit that had stuck in my mind. Derrick was a tremendous help and sent me three e-mails with suggestions and advice. I owe Derrick something tasty.

So I combined everything I'd learned and did the following:

Duck Confit

3 duck legs (with thighs)
1 qt duck fat (minimum)
Seasoning:
20 g kosher salt
1/8 tsp cracked black pepper
1/2 tsp Herbes de Provence
3 small bay leaves
2 cloves garlic — sliced

I trimmed all visible fat from the legs and trimmed the skin so it just barely covered the breast (harvesting more fat). The fat went into a small pot with a cup of water over low heat where I rendered the fat until the solid parts were mahogany brown. This garnered about another cup of fat. I drained the solid chunks on a paper towel, sprinkled them with sea salt, and enjoyed a snack.

Meanwhile, I mixed together the salt, pepper, and Herbes de Provence in a pinch bowl. I rubbed this mixture into the legs, then placed them cut-side up in a deep baking dish, rubbed in the garlic on the cut side, and pressed a small bay leaf into the meat. I covered the dish with plastic wrap and refrigerated it for about 36 hours.

At the end of that time I rinsed the seasoning mixture off the legs, dried them, and arranged them in a dutch oven. Then I added the duck fat I'd purchased along with the fat I'd rendered after trimming. As you can see in this photo, a quart plus 1 cup of fat barely covers three legs.

At this point there are three options: cook the confit on the stove-top, cook it in the oven, or do both. I elected to do both.

I brought the fat to a simmer (190F) on the stove-top then placed the pot in a 225F oven. I pulled out one leg at the two-hour mark, the next at three hours and the third at four hours.

Notes:
Ruhlman recommended starting on the stove and then continuing in a 180F oven for as long as 10 hours. Derrick recommended cooking on the stove top (again at 180 - 190F) for around 2 hours, and Madeleine Kamman suggests a 275F oven for 2 - 2 1/2 hours. The real key here is that you're not frying the duck, you're poaching it in fat. It's a gentle process.

I have a bias toward oven cooking — I like the indirect heat coming from all sides for this type of dish. But I didn't want to wait 10 hours. Nevertheless, Kamman's 275F oven seemed harsh, so I chose 225F.

As for the seasoning mix, the recipes were all over the map. I decided on the Herbes de Provence because I like the mixture and thought it would be perfect for the cassoulet. I did mean to add some allspice but forgot. Spices we associate with sweet (as opposed to savory) flavors figure prominantly in a lot of the recipes I found. I've quit making such presumptions about the fitness of one flavor for one kind of dish and the fitness of another flavor for another kind of dish. But I understand my culinary roots and so where I need to begin learning. I plan to try "sweet" spices on the next three legs.

Many of the recipes I perused recommended 3 - 4 cups of fat for as many as six legs. Wrong. As you can see in the photo 5 cups of fat just barely covered three (moulard) legs. I found the same apparent disconnect when I made pork confit — not nearly enough fat called for. Perhaps it's simply that my pots are the wrong size and so require more fat. Or perhaps it's because the writers are afraid to mention how much fat you really need. But whatever the case, it's better to have too much fat than too little. And trust me, you'll find a use for it.

Results:
Each leg was good, but the 4-hour leg clearly shone for tenderness and savor. Next time I'm planning on four hours in the oven at 225F. The seasoning mix was surprisingly mild despite the 36-hour cure. Part of the explanation is that the skin side absorbs relatively little flavoring, but I still plan to increase the herbs used and choose just a few. (note that I expect the spices such as allspice and nutmeg to have more impact). Nevertheless, even the salt had less impact than I expected.

There's still a lot of fat (even after 4 hours) under the skin over the thigh. Depending on your plans for the confit this may or not be good. In the cassoulet I suspect I want that fat to render during cooking, but for rillets perhaps I don't. I'm going to score the skin on one leg next time.

The duck fat can be filtered through cheese cloth and reused. Because I have another three legs to work on, I decided that instead of literally storing the legs in fat that I would filter it, let it cool, then dip each leg in the fat before wrapping in plastic and storing in the freezer. I ended up with six cups of duck fat (meaning another cup rendered out while making the confit), clearly you need to have duck fat to make duck fat.

And in case it's not clear, confit is more than worth the trouble. The poorest leg I made was like a bite of heaven.

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