Confit is a way of preserving duck meat in fat, allowing you to store in for weeks. It also creates a rich, melt-in-your-mouth experience that is unlike anything else.
The process itself is simple but allowing for curing time, you'll need to start at least a day in advance of cooking.
Servings: 4
Ready Time: 26 hours
Ingredients
4 duck legs
6 tablespoons kosher salt
1 tablespoon sugar
2 sprigs thyme, leaves only
2 bay leaves
2 chopped garlic cloves
4 cups duck fat
Method
24 hours in advance of cooking:
Mix together salt, sugar, thyme, bay leaves and crushed garlic.
Place half the mixture in the bottom of a dish that will hold all the legs and duck fat.
Add the legs into the dish and sprinkle evenly with the rest of the mixture.
Cover and refrigerate for 24 hours.
When ready to cook:
Preheat oven to 230 F.
Remove duck from the fridge and wipe off the salt mixture completely. (You can rinse the legs and pat dry if desired.)
Put the legs into an ovensafe dish that will allow them to be covered in the duck fat. Keep them skin-side up.
Melt fat on the stove and pour over the duck legs to cover.
Cook for two hours in the oven at a very slow simmer or until the leg is tender . Poke it with a skewer, should slide in and out easily. Be careful, you don’t want the meat to fall off the bone.
Remove from oven and put the legs in a clean deep dish.
Strain the duck fat over the legs. Refrigerate and cover when cool.
To serve:
Bring the legs and duck fat to room temperature to easily remove the meat from the fat. Fry the legs skin side down in a heavy bottom pan. Cook over low heat until skin is browning and crisp.
Sue Riedl