(photo by wm. christman)
Subscribing, but not adhering, to the belief that you can find anything if you look hard enough allows me to be lazy. When it comes to food, I'm an adherent to that belief most of the time. I have gone to three or four grocery stores to fill a prep list just because my favorite stores often have exactly what I want. However, when it comes to making duck confit, I balk.
Many of the grocery stores in the South Bay Area (I mean, there aren't really any independent butchers around here anymore...California is weird that way) don't carry fresh duck, either whole or in parts. Sure, you could order in advance but being relatively impulsive makes even that a chore. And for as much as people say that using frozen duck yields the same results, there are some things that I simply won't use if they've been frozen. Duck legs are one of those items.
Baron's and their fresh duck legs. (photo by wm. christman)
Enter Baron's Meat and Poultry inside the Alameda Marketplace. Walking by their shop, my eyes immediately went to a pile of pale yellow fresh duck legs nestled in a white tray sitting on a pile of crushed ice. There was no hesitation in buying four of them - they were as beautiful looking as their price, which is about half of what you can get them for in the South Bay. For a decently pleasant drive, I can now keep duck confit in my fridge on a regular basis, inexpensively.
As long as you've got some basics, duck confit is pretty easy to make. You'll need about 2 1/2 cups of duck fat (about 500 grams), some fresh rosemary and thyme, a clove or two of garlic and some sea salt and black pepper. That's it. Because you're depending on the duck fat to both cook and preserve, everything needs to be scrupulously clean, from start-to-finish. Done this way, duck confit will keep for a few months but chances are you'll eat it long before then.
Starting a day ahead, you salt the duck legs liberally and put them in a clean covered ceramic dish and refrigerate overnight. The next day, start melting the duck fat over medium heat in a clean saucepan. Set your oven to 350°. Blot any excess moisture from the duck, grind a small amount of black pepper on them then put them into a high-sided clean ceramic casserole dish (I use a souffle dish).
Aromatics nestled and ready for duck fat. (photo by wm. christman)
Take a sprig of fresh rosemary, cut it in half. Pick out 4-5 sprigs of thyme. Peel one large or two small cloves of garlic. Take all of these and nestle them in between and underneath the duck legs. Push down on the duck legs to pack them into the dish. Then carefully pour the melted duck fat over the duck legs until the fat just covers the legs. Cover the dish with foil and put it into the pre-heated oven.
Covered in fat - before and after cooking. (photo by wm. christman)
You'll want to cook the duck for about an hour. At the hour mark, carefully peel the foil up to look at the knuckle end of one of the duck legs. If the meat has started to pull away from the knuckle, then the duck is done. Re -cover the dish with the foil, then carefully transfer the dish (that duck fat is HOT!) to a trivet or cooling rack and let it cool. I usually put the whole shebang in my garage where it is usually extra cool.
When the dish has gone from blazingly hot to merely warm (about 1-2 hours), put the whole thing in the refrigerator. Take it out the next day to admire your handiwork. The duck fat should be pale yellow and creamy looking and you may see small portions of the duck leg slightly sticking up out of the fat.
To use the duck, you can dig the legs out of the cold fat (messy) or warm the dish until the fat melts slightly. With the latter, you can pluck the legs out easily...just let the excess fat drip back into the dish because you'll want to keep any legs you don't use underneath a chilled layer of fat. At this point, put the extra confit legs back into the fridge.
Duck confit is one of my kitchen staples. I like to have it around because it can be either a quick bite or used in more elaborate dishes. Listed here, from easy to quite involved, are my favorites uses for duck confit:
- Broiling the legs to crisp the skin then putting them on top of individual entree-sized salads with a basic vinaigrette and some peach, or other stone fruit, slices.
- Grinding up the meat and skin and mixing it with cooked and ground mushroom to use for making fresh duck ravioli.
- Using the legs, as is, as part of a cassoulet.
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