How To Make Duck Confit

Confit is a favorite cooking technique in my culinary arsenal. The term confit translated from French literally means “to preserve.” It was a technique developed by French farmers before refrigeration was available to preserve meat for the leaner months. The fact that refrigerators are a common house hold item and yet the confit process is still alive and well is a strong testament to just how delicious this technique is.

Although this technique talks about specifically confiting duck legs, this exact same method can be used for any number of proteins, including beef, chicken, pork and fish. Although it is preferred that the confit is cooked and stored in the same type of fat from the animal which your protein originally came from, Olive Oil or Canola Oil can be substituted in a pinch.

The Process

• Start by laying your duck leg and thigh portions on a sheet pan covered with a layer of kosher salt at least 1/8 of an inch thick.
• Season the top of the legs with ground bay leafs, ground pepper (traditionally white) and a little sprinkling of sugar (not traditional but I like it). Cloves are also a classic spice used in the confit process, and I’ll sometimes lay a sprig of thyme or rosemary over each leg.
• Completely cover the top of the legs with more kosher salt until the legs are no longer visible.
• Place another sheet pan on top and weight down with some heavy cans or bricks. Place in your refrigerator for about 24 hours. Leaving them in the fridge to long will cause them to become over salty, and leaving them in for to short a period of time will not allow them to soak up enough salt for them to cure out properly.

• After the legs have been allowed to cure in the kosher salt for 24 hours, remove them from the salt and rinse vigorously under cold, running water.
• Rinsing your legs is an important step because if not done thoroughly, your end product will be way to salty to be palatable.
• Lay out on a wire rack and allow to dry out in your refrigerator for at least 4 hours and no longer than 24 hours. This is an optional step but I find it provides a better end product by removing any excess moisture before placing the legs in the duck fat.

• Once your rinsed legs have had a chance to dry off in your refrigerator, place them in an oven safe braising pan or dutch oven.
• Cover them with warm duck fat and bring to a low simmer on your stove top.
• Once the duck legs begin to simmer, place them in a 200 degree Fahrenheit oven for 6-8 hours or until the fat is clear and the legs have settled to the bottom of the pan.
• Once legs are done cooking, remove them from the oven and allow to cool in the fat. Once cool enough to handle, transfer the legs to a storage container and cover with fat.
• Place in your fridge for at least 1 week and up to 2 months to allow confit to “ripen.” Although you can eat the duck confit as soon as you remove it from the oven, allowing it to “ripen” for at least a few days will give it that true confit flavor.

Serving Suggestions

When you’re ready to serve your confit, remove it from the fridge and let it sit out on you counter top for about an hour or until the fat softens. Fish out your duck legs and place them in a 400 degree F oven for about 10-15 minutes or until crispy golden brown and heated all the way through.

A classical accompaniment is duck fat roasted potatoes. Just think breakfast style “country potatoes” but instead they’re sauteed in duck fat.

Another great thing to serve them with is a salad of bitter greens such as arugula and frisee. The slight bitter bite of these greens helps to cut the fat on your palate and offers an excellent contrast to the rich confit.

For more information on the confit process, listen to The Free Culinary School Podcast Episode 7.

Tagged as: Charcuterie, Cooking Techniques, How To Cook, Recipes