Ducks fresh or frozen for confit

[foodie3]

I'd like to make duck confit for the first time, any tips are welcome!

[chezcherie]

99 Ranch, or any other large Asian supermarket will have good duck legs at low prices.

[melkor]

At the Ferry building farmers market there are a couple of stands that sell whole ducks.

[Carolyn Tillie]

I used to buy a lot of ducks at 99 Ranch but began to find their quality wanting -- the ducks were just plain too thin.

Now I buy from Liberty Ducks (Sonoma County Poultry) at 1-800-95-Ducks (800-953-8257) -- sorry, no website. I served one of theirs for New Year's and it was truly an amazing bird.

I have also purchased from Polarica, located here: 415-647-1300; 415-647-6826; at 105 Quint Street, San Francisco, CA 94124

[Gary Soup]

I used to buy a lot of ducks at 99 Ranch but began to find their quality wanting -- the ducks were just plain too thin.

Now I buy from Liberty Ducks (Sonoma County Poultry) at 1-800-95-Ducks (800-953-8257) -- sorry, no website. I served one of theirs for New Year's and it was truly an amazing bird.

I have also purchased from Polarica, located here: 415-647-1300; 415-647-6826; at 105 Quint Street, San Francisco, CA 94124

Virtually all of the ducks sold in the SF Bay Area are from the Reichardt duck farm, which was founded to serve the Asian market (much like Petaluma Poultry) so there shouldn't be much variation in their characteristics. They run around $1.45/lb in Chinatown.

Liberty Ducks are the exception, and are raised by Jim Reichardt, who left the family business to cater to the high-end trade. Since they are pitched as being sustainably raised, with room to boogie around in, I would actually expect them to be leaner, but what do I know? They're probably a bit pricier, but might be what you need for duck confit, whatever the hell that is.

[foodie3]

Thanks for all the replies!

A couple more questions:

- Do I need Peking or Muscovy Duck for confit?

- Where is 99 Ranch located (I assume it is a name of the market)?

- What are some of the other large Asian markets?