Duck confit storage

[DanM]

I made some duck confit last week using Thomas Keller's recipe. It was awesome. Now I have four legs left that need to be stored properly. I would hate for it to spoil and get sick from it. I was thinking of a Tupperware for each one, but I do not have enough fat to cover them all. I am thinking about vacuum packing each leg with a generous amount of oil. Is this the best route? Should I keep them in the fridge, or in the freezer? For how long?

Thanks!!

[David Ross]

I typically store duck confit in pork lard.  Even if your confit was cured using duck or goose fat, the pork lard won't change the flavor drastically while it's being stored--and a big tub of lard is cheap.  Just slowly melt the lard, pour into a tupperware container, put in your duck confit, seal with a tight lid and refrigerate.  Put each leg in it's own container if you prefer.  Then keep it in the fridge.  You could also vacuum seal the legs, but since it's already been cured as confit, you don't need to add any oil to the bag.  I'd avoid freezing the confit because, even vacuum-sealed, small ice crystals can form in the bag and that can break down the texture of the meat when you thaw it. 

[Chris Hennes]

I store mine vacuum sealed, with no extra fat, in the refrigerator. No chance of it lasting long enough to spoil in my kitchen...

[Shalmanese]

If you made confit, you should have enough duck fat to store confit, no? Vac sealing is a good idea but if you want to be extra safe, I'd put the vacced bags in boiling water for 5 minutes, just to re-pasteurize the outsides. Next time, just make confit in vac bags and you won't have to worry about storage.