Comments on: Duck Confit: It’s What’s For Lunch

By: Don

Don — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 06:00:00 +0000

My local store has duck legs with attached thighs. Do I remove the thighs or am I supposed to cook the whole thing as a confit?

By: Veron

Veron — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 06:00:00 +0000

My reason for starting to blog. That’s how duck confit changed my life.

By: aminosauren

aminosauren — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 06:00:00 +0000

I think The temperature range precision isn’t that important for confit, so a crock pot, or a pot of water in a low oven works as well as a circulator.

By: Ana

Ana — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 06:00:00 +0000

Not everyone is frightened to death of fat, Luis, and people who eat tasty animal fats in MODERATION as part of a balanced diet aren’t sentencing themselves to quick or slow death by heart failure. If fat scares you…don’t eat duck confit. It’s that simple.

I would love to try this, except I may have to use the olive oil method as I can’t afford quarts of duck fat…Is it possible to confit other parts of the bird too?

By: Conway Yen

Conway Yen — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 06:00:00 +0000

Thank you Claudia. I like it when people agree with me

Also, if anyone here hasn’t tried the Jim Drohman’s Pork Belly confit recipe yet, you really really should. I’ve made 15 lbs of it in the past two weeks and can feel myself dying a slow and delicious death. There are few better ways to die, I think.

By: Claudia

Claudia — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 06:00:00 +0000

This is great. I’d agree with Conway – eat more duck! I love it. I roasted one recently, enjoyed it, made soup, even better (according to my husband we should cook duck just for the stock alone – wait til he tries confit), saved the fat, and now have enough for a confit of the duck presently waiting in my frig. Thanks to Michael I can always top it off with olive oil or lard if there’s not enough to cover the parts.

By: Nokia 5800

Nokia 5800 — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 06:00:00 +0000

Looks delicious. I will cook this someday for my daughter’s graduation.

By: Jeremy Hilton

Jeremy Hilton — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 06:00:00 +0000

Although a long process, it really is quite simple to make.

I must disagree with you @luis! The effort vs reward ratio of duck confit makes it a MUST try recipe at home.

By: Matt Rissling

Matt Rissling — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 06:00:00 +0000

A couple of days ago I published a post on my blog about making confit with chicken instead of duck. This is something that is worth trying as well, but do yourself a favour and buy the best quality meat you can find. Check out the story with photos. http://thanksforasking.ca/

By: Vivian

Vivian — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 06:00:00 +0000

I was able to find duck legs at my local Asian market this weekend for really cheap ($1.29 lb). We bought everything they had in the case! It totaled almost 17lbs altogether and we prepared 1/2 of that and froze the rest. It made for such a wonderful dinner last night with enough left for me to make shumai today. It was so delicious! The confit was so good in the dumplings that I don’t think my family will let me prepare it any other way now. Thanks for this post because I probably wouldn’t have thought of it otherwise!

By: michele

michele — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 06:00:00 +0000

What about using turkey fat for confit?

By: Fred

Fred — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 06:00:00 +0000

I make confit often, both at home and at work, and usually find I can render enough fat from a single duck to confit the 2 legs. When I don’t have enough duck fat I will use lard, mostly because its cheap, but also because its solid at room temperature, which makes me feel better about not storing it in the refrigerator. If I had to choose another lipid, I think I might go with canola oil over olive oil, again based on price, but also because the strong flavour of the olive oil might overwhelm the flavour of the duck fat.

By: rockandroller

rockandroller — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 06:00:00 +0000

@mikev, you can get duck parts at Kaufmann’s poultry at the west side market. Getting the fat is tougher. I’ve only made duck confit once because it was impossible to find the fat – I finally found a local chef who was able to give me a big container of it, but he has moved on to other regions.

By: Phil W.

Phil W. — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 06:00:00 +0000

Michael – What other meats do you recommend? Is it basically the same process? (I.e. chicken? lamb? beef?)

By: darlene

darlene — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 06:00:00 +0000

Just wanted to say, I very much enjoyed your confit recipe in Charcuterie. I’ve done it using all duck fat, all lard, and a mix of both and it’s wonderful each time. Next time I will try it in olive oil, just to see how it tastes. Does the oil solidify like the animal fat does?

By: Ross

Ross — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 06:00:00 +0000

Man, what a delicious-looking post — and what lively discussion!

Conway — thanks for the comment about LDLs. Fats and oils have a pretty bad rep, and its not wholly deserved. I also feel like many folk miss a basic principle: if you feel like eating a nice big pile of confit, why not hit the gym for a bit? All things in balance.

Michael: two questions, the first of which has already been mentioned.

1) The confit you’re eating was laid down in November, but your recipe advises no more than a month. How long have you safely kept confit before?

2. How many other meats can this be applied to? I’ve had excellent pork confit, though I don’t know which cuts were used. Suggestions of a few other meats to play with?

Thanks for the excellent post!

By: Mike Pardus

Mike Pardus — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 06:00:00 +0000

I’ve always been a big fan of Paula Wolfert’s confit recipe in “The Cooking of South West France”, where she stresses the importance of very low temperature – 190 in an oven or a crock pot for many hours. Follow her instructions and you can’t go wrong.

For butchering a duck and getting the most out of it – especially lots of great fat – check out my series of Videos on Youtube

Total Utilization of Duck #1:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B_Rcf-nlK_8

Part 2:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pnRVhxoBb_M

Part 3:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=um_oFNZGf_M

And if you want something more home grown than Armagnac to wash down the fat, see my post at delGrosso’s site about Local Hudson Valley Whiskeys, had a great “tasting” the other night – paired a bunch of different Bourbon’s and Rye’s with a Vietnamese style BBQ pig belly – yum!

By: Mike Pardus

Mike Pardus — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 06:00:00 +0000

I've always been a big fan of Paula Wolfert's recipe from "The Cooking of South West France". I think it's the definitive recipe for duck confit. It's really important to keep the temp between 190 and 200F to keep the meat from getting stringy - be seriously anal about this or you won't understand what all the fuss is about! If you're buying whole ducks I have a series of Duck butchering demos on youtube so you can maximize your utility. Check 'em out at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B_Rcf-nlK_8 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pnRVhxoBb_M http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=um_oFNZGf_M Also, shameless plug to delGrosso's site - check out the Artisanal distilled spirits being made in the Hudson Valley - maybe not Armagnac, but they would be a good American prelude to a classic SW French dish. Find it at: http://ahungerartist.bobdelgrosso.com/

By: mary

mary — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 06:00:00 +0000

are those green olives from castelvetrano sicily or are they another variety?

off topic, any good resources for custom cabinets or kitchen remodeling? i only ask because i know you live in cleveland heights, and updating a home that is 50+ years old is different from a home in the 80’s. and from what i’ve been able to see your kitchen looks very functional.

never saw better looking duck confit and those greens. it’s working for you.

By: allen

allen — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 06:00:00 +0000

I have never liked duck. I tried it in a nice French restaurant; ala orange with grand marnier sauce and Chinese restaurant; Peking style. Every time I have it, the meat is bland and the only thing that clearly stands out is the fat layer and blandness of the meat. I would like to make the duck prosciutto from the Charcuterie book though.