Confit de Canard

Confit de Canard

A cornerstone of southwestern French cooking, duck legs are salt-cured overnight then gently poached in their own rendered fat until the meat is silken and the skin can be crisped to a deep gold just before serving.

Prep

25 min

Cook

240 min

Total

265 min

Serves

4

Difficulty

Medium

Recipe ingredients

• •4 whole duck legs (leg and thigh, joined), about 350 g / 12 oz each, skin on
• •40 g (1/4 cup) coarse sea salt or kosher salt
• •5 g (2 tsp) fresh thyme leaves
• •6 cloves garlic, smashed and peeled
• •5 g (2 tsp) black peppercorns, coarsely crushed
• •2 g (1 tsp) bay leaves, torn
• •1.5 to 2 kg (3 1/2 to 4 lb) rendered duck fat, enough to cover the legs; home-rendered from skin and trimmings, or store-bought. Lard is the traditional swap if duck fat is unavailable.
• •fine salt, to taste, for the final crisping

Steps

1. 1 Pat the duck legs dry. In a small bowl, mix the coarse salt, thyme, smashed garlic, crushed peppercorns and torn bay leaves. Rub this cure thoroughly over every leg, packing a little into the cuts and under loose skin.
2. 2 Arrange the legs in a single layer in a non-reactive dish just large enough to hold them snugly, skin-side up. Cover and refrigerate for 24 hours, turning once halfway through. (Up to 36 hours is fine for very thick legs; do not exceed 48 hours or the cure will dominate the flavour.)
3. 3 Rinse each leg under cold running water for about 30 seconds to remove the surface salt, then pat very dry with a clean towel. Let the legs sit uncovered on a rack for 30 minutes to come to room temperature and to dry the skin further.
4. 4 Place the legs in a heavy oven-safe pot or Dutch oven deep enough that the fat will cover them. Melt the duck fat (or lard) in a separate small pan and pour enough over the legs to submerge them by at least 2 cm / 3/4 in. Reserve any leftover fat.
5. 5 Heat the oven to 130 °C / 265 °F (fan 115 °C / 250 °F). Slide the pot, uncovered, into the oven. The fat should tremble at a very gentle simmer, no hotter; if it bubbles, turn the oven down. Cook for 3 1/2 to 4 hours, until a paring knife slides into the thickest part of the thigh with no resistance and the meat is pulling back from the bone.
6. 6 Carefully lift the legs out and strain the fat through a fine sieve into a jar; it keeps for months in the fridge under a thin layer of the fat itself and is the traditional thing to reuse for eggs, potatoes, or the next confit. If not cooking the legs straight away, return them to the strained fat in a clean crock, let cool, then refrigerate submerged, up to 1 month; for longer keeping, poach the covered crock at 80 °C / 175 °F for 30 minutes on three successive days as a traditional preservation step.
7. 7 To serve: heat a heavy ovenproof skillet over medium-low and add a thin layer of the confit fat. Pat the legs dry again and place them skin-side down in the pan. Cook gently for 8 to 10 minutes, pressing briefly so the skin lies flat, until the skin is blistered and a deep nut-brown and crisp. The internal temperature of the thigh should reach 74 °C / 165 °F.
8. 8 Rest the legs for 3 minutes, season the crisp skin with a pinch of fine salt, and serve hot. The classic accompaniments are pommes sarladaises (pan-fried sliced potatoes in duck fat), a simple buttery lentil ragout, or bitter green salad with a shallot vinaigrette to cut the richness.
9. 9 Safety notes: keep the fat at a bare simmer throughout the cook; boiling hard will toughen the meat. The internal temperature of 74 °C / 165 °F at the thigh is the doneness cue for duck. If reusing fat from older batches, melt it and reheat to 80 °C / 175 °F for 10 minutes before re-pouring over fresh meat.