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julesjones, this is how I make confit of duck:
First, obtain duck legs, in whatever quantity you anticipate a need for (or however many will fill your confit-pot). NB, there are people out there who confit the breasts also, but not me. Sometimes I serve confit of leg with pan-fried breast; I love the contrast in taste & texture, the bloody pink breast and the melting leg.
Day 1: mix together coarse sea salt, crushed juniper berries, fresh thyme, crushed peppercorns and bay leaves. You can pulverise the herbs & berries together in a mortar, but I tend just to tear the herbs and leave the berries coarse. Put the duck legs into this mixture, rub it all over, cover and leave 24 hours.
Day 2: rinse and dry the duck legs. Melt a vast amount of duck or goose fat in a pan, and add the legs; there needs to be enough fat to cover them. Irritatingly, they will try to float, but don't worry about that. Bring the fat to a simmer, and cook them as gently as your stove will permit, until extremely tender - at least one hour, and longer I think is always better. Till they're almost-but-not-quite falling apart is best for me, though that may be personal taste rather than the prime moment of the dish.
Extract the legs - carefully, if you've gone for the stew-to-rags option - and lay them in your confit-pot (some kind of casserole dish, generally; it needs to be ovenproof, and not something you need to use on a daily basis). Pack them as tightly as may be, and then ladle - do not pour! - the molten fat over them, until they are covered. If you need more fat, melt it in another pan; you will find that in the bottom of the pan you cooked the legs in, there is a lovesome layer of gorgeous duck-juice beneath the last of the fat. You don't want to put this in with the confit, either accidentally or otherwise; you want to make something fabulous with it. Treat it as a gravy, and move on from there.
Set the legs aside to cool.
Day 3: melt more duck or goose fat, and pour onto the set fat in which the legs are embedded. You want at least half an inch solid fat, between meat and air; an inch is better.
Refrigerate (or, of course, not: this is after all a process of preservation that predates refrigerators. I've kept it a month unrefrigerated. I've also kept it Too Long, a pot I forgot; I am still trying to get the smell out of the pot). When you want to eat, set in a low oven to melt the fat, extract the legs - if you don't take them all, remember to make sure that those remaining are once again covered with a thick layer of fat, as soon as possible; they keep a long time, but once exposed to air they will go bad very quickly - and crisp them either in a hot oven or a pan on top of the stove.
Me, I like to serve them with Puy lentils, though fried potatoes are traditional.
You can of course follow the same process with other meats and fats; pork and lard is a classic poor-man's version. I have also confit'd quail, and I have my eye on other game birds.
julesjones, this is how I make confit of duck:First, obtain duck legs, in whatever quantity you anticipate a need for (or however many will fill your confit-pot). NB, there are people out there who confit the breasts also, but not me. Sometimes I serve confit of leg with pan-fried breast; I love the contrast in taste & texture, the bloody pink breast and the melting leg.
Day 1: mix together coarse sea salt, crushed juniper berries, fresh thyme, crushed peppercorns and bay leaves. You can pulverise the herbs & berries together in a mortar, but I tend just to tear the herbs and leave the berries coarse. Put the duck legs into this mixture, rub it all over, cover and leave 24 hours.
Day 2: rinse and dry the duck legs. Melt a vast amount of duck or goose fat in a pan, and add the legs; there needs to be enough fat to cover them. Irritatingly, they will try to float, but don't worry about that. Bring the fat to a simmer, and cook them as gently as your stove will permit, until extremely tender - at least one hour, and longer I think is always better. Till they're almost-but-not-quite falling apart is best for me, though that may be personal taste rather than the prime moment of the dish.
Extract the legs - carefully, if you've gone for the stew-to-rags option - and lay them in your confit-pot (some kind of casserole dish, generally; it needs to be ovenproof, and not something you need to use on a daily basis). Pack them as tightly as may be, and then ladle - do not pour! - the molten fat over them, until they are covered. If you need more fat, melt it in another pan; you will find that in the bottom of the pan you cooked the legs in, there is a lovesome layer of gorgeous duck-juice beneath the last of the fat. You don't want to put this in with the confit, either accidentally or otherwise; you want to make something fabulous with it. Treat it as a gravy, and move on from there.
Set the legs aside to cool.
Day 3: melt more duck or goose fat, and pour onto the set fat in which the legs are embedded. You want at least half an inch solid fat, between meat and air; an inch is better.
Refrigerate (or, of course, not: this is after all a process of preservation that predates refrigerators. I've kept it a month unrefrigerated. I've also kept it Too Long, a pot I forgot; I am still trying to get the smell out of the pot). When you want to eat, set in a low oven to melt the fat, extract the legs - if you don't take them all, remember to make sure that those remaining are once again covered with a thick layer of fat, as soon as possible; they keep a long time, but once exposed to air they will go bad very quickly - and crisp them either in a hot oven or a pan on top of the stove.
Me, I like to serve them with Puy lentils, though fried potatoes are traditional.
You can of course follow the same process with other meats and fats; pork and lard is a classic poor-man's version. I have also confit'd quail, and I have my eye on other game birds.
(no subject)
Date: 2006-10-31 04:59 pm (UTC)I need to get another of those square Pyrex casseroles, they're exactly the right size for storing four duck legs.