Duck Confit Recipe - Healing Gourmet (2024)

FAQs

What oil is best for confit duck? ›

One of the key ingredients in a traditional duck confit recipe is the duck fat, which isn't easy for most home cooks to source pre-made. Rendering your own fat from the duck takes more time than most people have, so this easy recipe includes my substitute alternative for duck fat: extra virgin olive oil.

This is another good time to bust out the Chef's Press weights, using them to press down on the duck legs to keep the skin in even contact with the surface of the skillet. Keep the heat low and steady and, within 10 minutes, you'll be rewarded with golden-brown crispy duck skin and gently warmed confit.

Before cooking, classic confit recipes call for curing duck legs for a day or two with salt, spices, herbs, and often aromatics. The cure deeply seasons the meat, which then imparts flavor to the fat that it is cooked in.

Duck confit is a classic French preparation that produces silky, tender meat that can be preserved (what "confit" means in French) for a long period of time, thanks to the protective, air-blocking seal formed by the rendered fat that the duck is submerged and cooked in.

Mashed potatoes

The buttery taste of mashed potatoes helps balance out the saltiness of the Duck Confit, making for a well-rounded meal. You could also consider adding some herbs or other seasonings to the mashed potatoes to give them a bit more flavour, such as adding some fresh thyme, chives, or garlic.

One effective technique for achieving crispy skin on roast duck is to air-dry the duck in the refrigerator for several hours or overnight before roasting. This helps to remove excess moisture from the skin. Additionally, scoring the skin and seasoning it with salt can help to create a crispy texture.

It sounds like a reliable and mistake-proofed cooking method — that low and slow approach. But it is possible to overcook duck confit.

Duck confit is a good option for anyone monitoring their weight because it is low in calories. High quantities of oleic acid found in duck fat have been demonstrated to decrease cholesterol and lessen the risk of heart disease. Duck fat also has antioxidants that can help shield your cells from harm.

You can render duck fat yourself, or you can substitute lard. Once you make confit, you can keep it in the fridge for months."

What to do with duck fat after confit? ›

You can reuse the fat for subsequent rounds of confit or other duck fat–related recipes. Just strain the fat into a clean container and pop it back in the fridge. Once the fat has chilled and solidified, you can separate it from the jellied duck confit juices that will have settled at the bottom of the container.

Of course, duck confit and white Tarbais beans are a natural pairing, best experienced in cassoulet. But another favorite is duck confit with lentils, as this recipe attests. Get French green lentils, often called lentilles du Puy, if you can find them. Serve over creamed sorrel or spinach.

Confit is a French word that means "preserved." In the confit method, meats are cooked in fat for a long time at low temperatures. This renders tough cuts like duck legs more tender, and when stored in duck fat in a cool place, they last all winter.

While confit is most commonly seen with duck or goose legs—it makes sense, considering it's a technique that stems from southwest France—it's ideal for any number of meats that are suitable for low and slow cooking. That is, any meat with a good deal of connective tissue that begs for tenderizing.

Duck confit is best eaten heated. You can eat it cold. But it's really not that good all.

(Peanut oil is preferred.)

You're probably most familiar with duck confit. Cooking duck confit is about using the duck's own fat, but cooking my garlic confit is about using butter or a high quality extra virgin olive oil. For this reason, I have used Rich Glen Olive Oil.

To confit, food must be cured in salt (when necessary) and slowly cooked in fats like duck fat, chicken fat, olive oil, or sugar syrup (most commonly used to confit fruit or citrus peels) at low temperatures.

Confiting in fat can be done with vegetable oil, like olive oil for example, or in animal fat such as goose fat. Olive oil is the most widely used to confit vegetables because it preserves their flavour best. You can add fresh garlic, herbs (thyme or rosemary, for example), balsamic vinegar or other seasoning.