Confit Duck

[Wolfert]

Do I just render this all down, strain it and then freeze my cleaned fat for future batches?

I strain the fat, boil it for an instant then pack it into small clean containers to store in the refrigerator where it will keep for a few months. You can freeze the fat for longer stroage.

It is great for cooking all kinds of meat, vegetables, eggs and even fish.

I boil up the salty juices and save for flavoring sauces.

[emsny]

And the scraps of meat, along with some of the fat, will get mashed/shredded/pounded into rillettes.

[glennbech]

I'm taking my 14 day old legs out this weekend.. Any Idea on what to serve them with? I've heard a green salad, a potato stew and mustard are unbeatable.

Any other ideas, traditional or non-traditional suggestions welcome :-)

Edited May 10, 2006 by glennbech (log)

[MarkinHouston]

I'm taking my 14 day old legs out this weekend.. Any Idea on what to serve them with? I've heard a green salad, a potato stew and mustard are unbeatable.

Any other ideas, traditional or non-traditional suggestions welcome :-)

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Glenn, if you have access to Paula Wolfert's The Cooking of Southwest France, her recipe for Deuck Confit with Green Peas and Ham is tops on my list at the moment. And if ther are fresh (or frozen & shelled) fava beans in your neighborhood, the Fresh Fava Bean Ragout was mentioned here by Ms. Wolfert as a new favorite with duck confit. Good luck!

[shacke]

Thanks to the wealth of information in this thread, I confidently made my first boatload of duck confit today for a dinner party in a few weeks - plus some extra for a rainy day.

I used a crock pot and it was really easy.

[Kataoka]

Cooked me up some Duck Confit a couple of days ago. The legs were to salty for me to eat. Is this normal?

This is how I prepared my version of "Duck Con Salt Block":

Following along the Confit Duck, Step By Step With Photos thread, I prepared about 500g of domestic duck legs by coating the legs with a mixture of bay leaves, crushed garlic, ground pepper, crushed juniper berries and salt (15g). The above thread seem to suggest a salt to duck ratio of 22g/lbm (~5 wt%). This seemed too much to me so I tried a ~3 wt%.

The coated legs were bundled up into a vacuum sealed bag and allowed to do whatever dry rubbed things like to do for 22 hours in the refrigerator. After marination, the legs were removed from the bag and rinsed thoroughly with cool water and allowed to drain for 30 minutes in a well perforated colander. The drained legs were patted dry with a paper towel and placed into a new vacuum sealable bag with about 5g of the aforementioned dry rub (without the salt) and 80g of freshly, rendered duck fat. The filled bag was vacuum sealed and placed into an 90°C waterbath (aka my crock pot set at "High"). The bag was held underwater with the add of a small glass bowl and the heavy glass crock pot lid.

Within about 15 minutes the water temperature dropped to 76°C. Two hours later the water temperature was 83°C. After five hours, the water temperature rose to 90°C. I switched the temperature control to "Low" and retired for the evening. The next morning, the waterbath temperature appeared to have stabilized at 73°C.

After cooling the bag in a ice bath, the legs were removed and the remaining liquor retained for further processing.

Any ideas or suggestions?

Thank you-

Keith Kataoka

[jfilmm]

I could be wrong, but I wouldn't think the amount of salt used would make a difference. It's all in the curing time. It sounds like you did everything right though. I would try this again, but this time only curing for 16-18 hrs.

[Pielle]

I think your problem is in the use of vaccum bags for the dry rub curring.

In the tipical confit recipie, the salt is applied to the legs and the legs are put in some sort of container in the fridge. The salt at the surface will force the water in the meat out creating a salty-meat juice solution at the surface of the meat. In the typical situation, while some of this solution would be reabsorbed by the meat, most of it would fall at the bottom of the container. When you do the salting part of the confit process, there is alaways a significant amount of juices in the bottom of the container, containing a lot of the salt in the dry rub.

When you do this process in sous-vide bags, the juices cannot flot anywhere and are probably forced back into the meat hence your confit being too salty. So, the possible solutions are :

1) Do the salting in the traditional way

2) Use less salt

3) Let the confit marinate less time ( a lot of recipies call for only 6 hours of rub

The sous vide bag thing is not a bad idea at all, it can help regualte the process. When you do the traditional methode, if proper care is not ensures, you will get great variations of the degree of saltness of your confits.

Finaly, the 73 degrees is a bit low to get real confit texture, you should realy try to keep the temperature higher.

Hope it helps!

[Kataoka]

I think your problem is in the use of vaccum bags for the dry rub curring.

Good point. I'll try using a drip pan and dry rub using a non vacuum container. with a reduced curing time.

Do folks simply rinsing the duck parts or are they soaking them in fresh water?

Finaly, the 73 degrees is a bit low to get real confit texture, you should realy try to keep the temperature higher.

What would be optimum temperature? If I can maintain optimum temperature, what would be the suggested cooking time?

Thank you for your responses.

Keith

[Pielle]

Do folks simply rinsing the duck parts or are they soaking them in fresh water?

I toroughly rince them under running water.

What would be optimum temperature? If I can maintain optimum temperature, what would be the suggested cooking time?

Sous-vide God Nathanm suggest the following

for cooking confit. Basicly anything higher then 77 celcius. Althoug he says that higher then 82 will bring too much evaporation. He sugest keeping that temps for at least 6 hours.

[Shalmanese]

I have some confit aging in the fridge from 2 weeks ago. I want to crack them out to make a cassoulet for thanksgiving (so 5 weeks ageing total) but I'm wondering if they have aged enough as it is or should I let them sit for a while longer and do cassoulet later in the year?

[Della]

I made some duck confit this morning and it is cooling down in the fat as I type. I tried Paula Wolfert's recipe since I got her book for a holiday present this year

I have a question and hope someone can answer for me.......

In the past I have always just stored the confit in a tupperware and covered it with the fat. I want to store it in mason jars this time and the instructions say to cover with the fat and store overnight and then tomorrow cover with butchers lard.

Is this a neccessary step? I don't have any butchers lard but could see if I could find some.

Couldn't I just cover with fat and then put the lids on? Would that work? I don't plan on storing it for more than a few months.

Also - does adding the salt in the bottom of the jar make the confit "extra" salty or no? Thanks!

Della

[little ms foodie]

I don't ever put lard on top but I would if I was going to store it in a basement instead of the fridge. I do however put a small round piece of parchment on top. the salt in the bottom does not make it extra salty.

[Mallet]

undefined I was wondering if anyone uses pork fat to confit their duck legs. I have a friend who worked at Bruneau's in Brussels and he swore by them. I have yet to take the plunge and try it myself 

I've mixed pork fat with duck fat and it is even better.

So, is pork+duck fat better than duck fat alone? What would be the best ratio?

[Joisey]

I haven't gone back through the whole thread, but looking at those great pictures posted a few pages ago made me remember a tip when doing this: Before you cure the legs, take a paring knife and run it around the leg bone just below the knob, cutting through the meat and tendons. This will give you a much cleaner bone when serving later, as the cooking will pull back all the meat from the leg.

[little ms foodie]

I'm making some duck confit salad today and have 2 jars of legs that I put up in Dec. The first jar I grabbed had a quarter size spot of greenish mold up on the top edge. I've never had this happen before! so what to do? should I just scrap this off or toss the whole jar of legs and fat? Luckily for today I have another jar that looks great.

edited to add photo

Edited March 3, 2007 by little ms foodie (log)

[Qwerty]

I would carefully scrape away and discard all mold and surrounding fat...then carefully check the legs to see if they have any mold and/or off smell/taste. If they appear OK, then I would wash and sanitize the jar and re-fill, or use a new container to store them in.

That little bit of mold wouldn't worry me TOO much, unless more than the little bit is moldy. Just be careful, and (say it with me) if in doubt, throw it out.

As good as duck confit is, it's not worth your health to eat it.

[Tjaart]

I finally screwed my courage to the sticking point, more for the method and the spicing than anything else: i started making a "duck" confit using chicken legs, thighs and wings.

And, I can't really afford duck at present prices in South Africa, if one does manage to find it by travelling all over my own and the next door city, Johannesburg. Don't even think about coming across ducks that are "Beijing", or "moulard", or "muscovy"!

I did a dry spicing with juniper berries, allspice , black pepper, coriander and a lot of garlic. The juniper berry and allspice combination I have learnt to love from Jane Grigson's brines.

I did it all quite fast, not much research, but since I have now been dipping into this posting, if the chicken is edible - which I am fairly sure it will be - I will probably have to force myself to start saving up for a duck or two within the next few months, and THEN, oh then, will I progress to the cassoulet, which I have eaten only once in my life, and I want to taste it once more at least before I see Naples.

Edited April 5, 2007 by Tjaart (log)

[takomabaker]

I have a question for those who confit, and I've scanned this topic and haven't found the answer but if I've missed it I apologize for the repeat....

I'm not making duck confit, but I am about to try a recipe from Sunday Suppers at Lucques that requires copious amounts of duck fat and I was wondering if it was a one-use-only deal.

Can you strain and re-use rendered duck fat? If so, for how long? Can you freeze it after you have used it?

Thanks for the help!

[Shalmanese]

I have a question for those who confit, and I've scanned this topic and haven't found the answer but if I've missed it I apologize for the repeat....

I'm not making duck confit, but I am about to try a recipe from Sunday Suppers at Lucques that requires copious amounts of duck fat and I was wondering if it was a one-use-only deal.

Can you strain and re-use rendered duck fat? If so, for how long? Can you freeze it after you have used it?

Thanks for the help!

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I would go so far as to say it's almost mandatory to reuse the duck fat. Yes you can freeze it but it also keeps indefinately in the fridge.

[takomabaker]

Thank you!

[little ms foodie]

jumping in late on this but the duck fat you don't want to reuse is any that has been roasting things or is the result from roasting- once you have duck fat (or any animal fat) at that smoking point it breaks down and isnt good for you. I think this info is in this thread somewhere as I remember Paula herself posting about it.

[Tjaart]

I have tasted the chicken confit at last and it has come out with a deliciously gamy flavour and creamy texture. It doesn't crisp and brown as well as duck would, but I have found it works best in the form of rillettes on toast. Once it has been lightly shredded it also crisps up fairly well to sprinkle sparingly into a green salad.

[funkGASM]

You might like to prepare the lamb shanks in olive oil.  You can strain the 'used' oil and reuse it for cooking meat and vegetables.

Be sure to strain it through cheesecloth and keep the oil in the fridge.

Marinate 4 small lamb shanks (about 14 ounces each) trimmed of excess fat

in a mixture of 1/2 cup orange juice, 1 tb chopped parsley, 1 to 2 teaspoons sea

salt, 1 teaspoon pepper, 1/2 teaspoon grated orange zest, l teaspoon dried thyme, and 2 sliced garlic cloves for about 8 hours.

About 3 1/2 hours before serving time, remove the meat from the refrigerator. Wipe the shanks clean. Prheat the oven to 300 degrees. Put the shanks and 8 large garlic cloves, whole and unpeeled, in a 9- or 10- inch shallow glass or ceramic baking dish. Pour over about  2 cups olive oil and cover the pan with foil. Bake  in the center of the oven, turning the shanks every hour, for about 3 hours, or until very tender..

Brush some slices of french bread with 2 tablespoons of the cooking oil and toast lightly in the oven  while the lamb is still baking. When the lamb shanks are done, remove the cooked garlic from the oil. Squeeze the creamy pulp from the skin and spread on the toasted bread. Remove the lamb shanks from the oil and nestle in some prepared puree of greens such as spinach. Serve with garlic croutons on the side.

page 31, Mediterranean Cooking, revised version. HarperPerennial 1994.

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Thank you for this! I tried it the other night and it came out great!

[little ms foodie]

I just ran across a crock of duck confit in the back of my fridge that I put up last Dec- it looks fine and has always been refrigerated, should I worry it's too old?