Confit refers to a method of cooking something in grease or sugar at low temperatures. Duck Confit is usually made with the legs and is cooked in duck fat as the grease. It’s kind of like frying, except the temperatures are lower and it causes the meat to become very tender instead of crisp.
It feels as if it is a fancy dish and one that should be served with a white linen table cloth. But that’s not true! It’s a simple dish to make, keeps in the fridge for a long time and is delicious. The key is getting a locally grown duck (wink, wink).
What is nice about this recipe is that you can break off little bits of it at a time throughout the week so you never have to spend a whole day in the kitchen. Duck Leg Confit reheats in the oven and does not dry out so you can serve it as your main dish with little effort before the actual meal.
WHAT YOU’LL NEED:
One whole Fisher Hill Farm Duck
Fresh Thyme
Kosher salt
Vegetable oil (or other oil)
A sharp knife
WHAT YOU’LL DO:
The first thing you need to do is break down the whole duck into parts. It sounds difficult if you’ve never done it before, but it’s not. The legs come off very easily and that’s what you need to make this dish. Here’s a video on how to break down a whole duck.
What’s important about breaking this duck down is SAVING THE FAT. You will use that fat in to confit the duck legs. Save it to the side and cook it down. In the video below that part is covered. It can be done in advance and is very easy.
(*Pro tip. After the duck fat is rendered you’re left with crispy pieces of duck fat that make an excellent snack. Soak them in Frank’s Red Hot and bake them in a hot oven.)
Once the duck legs of off coat them liberally with the kosher salt and place them stack on top of each other with some fresh thyme. Put that in the refrigerator for a few days to let it cure. Once you’ve done that, the next step is rinsing them off really good and patting them dry.
Here’s the video that shows the rest of the process.
One of the best parts of Duck Confit is the wings! They are delicious. We also love to eat this dish cold, as a quick lunch out of the fridge.
If you follow this recipe, you’re going to be left with the duck breasts. Those can be cooked up crispy skin style very easily and takes almost no prep work.
In other news, our CSA is currently open. If you would like to learn more about it just go to:
Fisher Hill Farm 