A Year in Preserving - Confit of Duck

Confit of duck is probably the most stereotypical French brasserie dish. It is difficult to imagine settling down to lunch in an establishment, in Paris, on a corner, with tables outside and waiters in waistcoats and not seeing it on the menu. This has led to the assumption that it is a very complex and "chefy" dish requiring skills learnt over many years and a massive batterie de cuisine. This could not be further from the truth, it is a simple dish with it origins in the frugality of rural France.

Fat is the  key. Glorious, rich, delicious fat. The people of Gascony in France enjoy some of the lowest levels of heart disease in Europe yet their diet is very high in both goose and duck, two very fatty meats. We in the UK tend to only get excited about the fat of these two birds at Christmas when we are looking for the perfect roast potato. However, in France they have been using duck fat to preserve the duck flesh for centuries. Again the necessity of preservation has led to the invention of gastronomic genius. This dish comes from an era when the closest thing to a fridge was a larder, probably a North facing room with slate shelves to keep food as cool as possible.

A great deal of meats can be confit but by far the most common is the duck leg and this preservation is a really simple two part process: Salting to cure followed by cooking and sealing in fat. The recipe below is for the simplest form of confit, adding spices to the cure is perfectly acceptable but I tend to keep the dish as pure as possible.

2,4 or 6 Duck legs

Salt

Duck fat (I have used pork lard with no drop in quality)

Place the duck legs in a large bowl and sprinkle over salt, just enough to give a light covering. Pop them in the fridge for about six hours. They will loose a bit of water and firm up a bit.

Take the legs out of the fridge and wash off the salt making sure that you then dry the legs thoroughly.

Melt the fat in a large casserole and carefully place the legs into this fat until the are all in the fat and covered.

Duck legs in the melted fat

Pop the lid on the casserole and put it in the oven at about 150 degrees centigrade. Leave them alone in the oven for a little over an hour, when you take the lid off there should be a lovely and light brown and smelling wonderful. 

Take the duck out of the oven and allow it to cool in the "larder" until set, its worth checking that all the duck is under the surface of the liquid before it sets. With the duck cured and cooked and also all the air now excluded, this food has a considerable shelf life.

When you want to finish the duck, you simply pull it out of the fat, wipe as much as you can of the skin and put it in a hot oven on a tray for about 15 minutes to crisp up the skin.

Out of the fat and ready for finishing.

 The only question you have left is what to serve with your confit. For me, the summer calls for a simple frisee salad with some lardons of un-smoked bacon all dressed with a sharp vinaigrette . In the winter a pile of puy lentils mixed with sliced onions and lardons (again).

Allez Les Bleus!

A couple of years ago the beautiful wife and I spent a very pleasant week in Paris. On the last day we stopped for lunch in a little brasserie just north of Place de la Concorde. We ate well, as we had done all week but the thing I remember about the meal was the two young women who sat at a table near us. They were sixteen or seventeen and were clearly on a shopping trip as teenagers the world over do. The memorable thing about these two was the way in which they were perfectly comfortable with the restaurant environment. They were at ease chatting with the waiter and they both ordered Pate du jour and Confit of Duck to follow. There was no affectation or showing off, this was all perfectly perfectly natural to them. How many sixth formers (16,17 and 18yr olds for those who don't speak UK education system) would have this level of food maturity? How many would eat a meal that required an knife and fork? How many would eat a two course meal in a restaurant full of adults?
I'm sure the answer to these questions from a lot of people would be "a few" or "my children are like that" but the truth is "not very many."
There is a grave risk that, in the subtle and quiet food revolution that is taking place in the UK, we might miss out on helping the younger members of society to appreciate the joy of civilised dining - yes, I'm talking about turning off the mobile phone and holding a conversation! If we do not move away from the burgers and nuggets, which are the default position of most of us when out and about then we will have nobody to hand the baton of this amazing food revolution on to.
I look forward to the day when two young women, out on a shopping trip to Oxford Street, stop for a lunch and don't head straight for a shinning edifice of a multinational, fast food outlet and instead find themselves a small restaurant with has individuality, soul and cutlery.
On the subject of Confit of duck, my recipe is below. Everyone thinks this is really complex and "chefy" - its really not!

Confit of Duck
Duck legs (1 per person)
Fat (it should be duck or goose fat but few people are that rich, I use lard) enough, when melted, to cover the duck legs.
Salt

Sprinkle the legs with salt all over and place them all in a bowl leave in the fridge for 6 hours. Pre heat the oven to 150 degrees. Heat the fat in an oven proof casserole on the hob. Brush the salt off the legs and slide them into the fat. Cover the casserole and place in the oven for and hour and a half. Take the casserole out of the oven and allow it to cool at room temperature so that the fat all sets.
At this point it is worth reminding ourselves that this is a method of preserving food and this casserole or earthenware pot would, in the past, have been left in the larder and used weeks later. I'm not sure how long it is safe to keep it at cellar temperature so I tend to put mine in the fridge.
About 45 minutes before you want to use your confit heat the casserole over the hob and lift out the duck legs and wioe them clean of residual fat. Place them on a roasting tray place this in a hot oven for 25 - 35 minutes until the skin is dark brown and crispy and the flesh is moist and falling off the bone. For a Parisienne lunch serve with a crisp salad and matchstick chips. For dinner I tend to serve with crushed garlic potatoes and a red wine reduction sauce and seasonal vegetables.