[Modernist Cuisine at Home] Confit of Leg (duck or chicken)

[Anonymous Modernist 15013]

I made some chicken and dumps this weekend and decided to confit a few chicken legs in duck fat for the chicken portion of the dish. I looked through MCAH and read a bit on the MC blog/recipes. I came across much difference in various spots and was wondering why?

(these references are from memory - sorry do not have the book in front of me)

In MCAH at home it notes on the turkey confit recipe to cook at 140 for 24 hours (which says you can sub duck or chicken)

two pages before that it says to cook chicken legs at 146 for 3 hours (not confit)

on that same page it notes that duck confit should cook at a different temp than either of the above reference (I do not recall the temp)

on the blog/recipes it notes to cook the turkey leg at 144 for 8 hours

in MC i think it notes to cook duck leg at 180 for 8 hours

There is also some differences in fat amounts. Turkey Confit in MCAH has 150g, online recipe is 600g, later in MCAH it notes 12g per duck leg (I assume because duck has much more fat that chicken?).

Why is there so much variation not only on temp but time as well? I ended up cooking at 140 for about 18 hours and then at 160 for another 6 or so (I wanted to make sure it was cooked - even though I know at 140 for 24 it should be fine).

in the end it was insanely delicious and I want to eat it every night for dinner.

Wat does everyone cook their confit at?

[Anonymous Modernist 14]

The biggest reason for the variations in temperature is that chicken, turkey, and duck are very different meats. They have varying degrees of water content, collagen, and bone structure. Sometimes it is easier to substitute one poultry for another than others.

But another reason why there are so many different times and temperatures is that, like eggs, there are several ways to manipulate time and temperature to get to the same result. So for example, I could cook a chicken leg at a high temp for a short amount of time, and there would be an analogous low temperature that would achieve the same result over a longer period of time. It‚’s a sliding scale. There isn‚’t just one temperature and time to end all temperatures.