Today we are cooking duck confit. That’s duck legs that are first poached in duck fat
and then crisped up. When done right, the meat becomes soft as butter and the skin becomes
perfectly crispy.
If you read (past tense) about this dish in the food section of the New York Times, seriouseats.com
or any other home cooking publication, you would think that the biggest problem facing
you with this dish was fat management. Let me assure you that this is nothing like deep
frying. Dealing with fat is the easy part of this dish and I’ll give you some tips
on that. The hard part is achieving perfectly crispy skin without overcooking the meat.
That’s the part that usually is briefly mentioned in recipes as an afterthought. Oh
yeah, by the way, crisp them up in the skillet or the oven.
If you go the skillet route, only parts of the skin turn crispy because duck legs are,
well, not really flat. If you go the oven route, your house fills with smoke, fire alarms
go off, and the buttery soft meat overcooks in parts and turns a bit … leathery. But
from today on, you no longer need to settle for less than perfect confit because today
I’ll show you that you can have your cake and eat it too. Yes, we are going to get not
the usual 60%, but a 100% of the skin crispy and a 100% of the meat deliciously soft. In
fact, in the end of this video, I am going to eat the entire duck leg just for you to
show you that I was not picking out nice instagramable bites. This leg has nothing to hide.
First we’ll need to choose duck legs. I much prefer the texture of long island duck,
also known as pekin duck, because they are small and tender and have a perfect ratio
of fat to flesh, but if you want to use larger duck, you are welcome to do that.
Let’s salt and pepper the legs on all sides. Be a little stingy with salt. These legs will
cook for a long time, so they’ll lose a lot of moisture and their flavor will get
very concentrated and you don’t want them to be too salty. Rub all the seasonings in,
cover and refrigerate overnight. The next day, preheat the oven to 250F, and dry the
legs off really well on paper towels.
Ok, the scary topic of duck fat. It doesn’t have to be scary if you only cook 4 legs.
This way, you’ll only need 2 cups of duck fat. If you don’t have any, you can buy
some. It’s not very expensive. But since duck fat keeps forever in the freezer, I only
bought duck fat once in my entire life because every time I cooked duck, I ended up with
duck fat that I frozer for future use.
Let’s dump 2 cups of duck fat into a pot that will hold the legs very snugly. The cozier
they are, the less fat you’ll need. Set the pot over medium heat and heat up the fat
to about 200F. Then turn the heat off and put in the legs. I am using a 3 quart saucepan
and at first it looks hopeless. It seems that there is no way that it will hold 4 legs.
But if you weave them together like this, they will fit. It’s totally fine if the
little bones stick out. And it’s even fine if a little bit of meat sticks out because
as the legs cook, they’ll produce enough fat to sink themselves. I also like to add
some shallots and garlic and thyme, but that’s completely optional. It’s really not for
the benefit of the duck as much as for the benefit of the shallots. Shallots cooked in
duck fat are indescribably good and I’ll be able to add them to some lentils or buckwheat
or whatever I’ll end up serving with my duck legs.
Put the pot in the middle of the oven for 2.5 hours, then start to test for doneness.
Thermometer won’t work here. Just like in a braise, the question is not what temperature
we reached inside, but did the meat stay at that internal temperature long enough for
all the collagen to convert to gelatin. My favorite test for doneness is a skewer or
chopstick. If it goes through with no resistance, you are done. I don’t recommend cooking
to the fall of the bone stage. They’ll get there as they are resting, but if you are
getting the fall apart stage, right out of the oven, they’ll taste a little dry when
you serve them. Long island legs usually take 2.5 to 3 hours. If you are using larger duck
legs, you might need a bigger pot, more duck fat, and a longer cooking time.
Now let’s cool the duck legs to almost room temperature. This will take a few hours, so
it’s best to start this dish in the morning.
The next step will outrage all the traditionalists. Are you ready, we are going to take the legs
out of the fat. I know, I know they must be stored in fat for days before they can be
excavated and reheated. But I don’t see any point to that step if you are a proud
owner of a refrigerator. You see, this method was invented as a preservation technique.
Left in fat in a cellar, the legs could be fine for a month, maybe even longer with no
refrigeration. The duck fat seals them and prevents bacteria from growing. But in the
21st century, that’s what a fridge is for. This refrigeration in fat has a pretty serious
downside. It preserves the natural shape of the duck leg, which is rounded, and I don’t
like that. Rounded doesn’t make good contact with the skillet and doesn’t brown well.
So, I am going to flatten my duck legs.
Line a baking sheet with plastic or parchment paper. Remove the duck from fat, drip as much
fat off as possible, and place on the baking sheet. First inspect the skin. If some of
it isn’t covering the meat properly, gently scooch it over. If you find any tendons sticking
out around the drumsticks, gently pinch them off. Now let’s inspect the flesh side. If
the drumstick is covered with a big flabby chunk of fat, I prefer to discard it. By the
time it renders and turns crispy, the flesh will turn to leather. Then gently press on
the leg to flatten it out. I prefer to debone the thigh, but that’s optional. If you want
to debone the thigh, carefully pinch around the bone
….and
… wiggle it out.
If any bits of meat are left on the bone, tuck them back inside the thigh. This is also
a good opportunity to get rid of little blood vessels. I know these duck legs look like
humpty dumpty and you think we’ll never put them back together again. But all that
gelatin is powerful stuff. By the next day, they’ll be glued right back together. Cover
the legs with plastic and refrigerate overnight or up to 1 week.
Now let’s deal with the fat. Ladle it through a fine mesh sieve into a container. Once most
of the fat has been moved, it’s safe to carefully pour the remainder. Save the shallots
and garlic and refrigerate everything overnight. The next day, you’ll be able to separate
the fat from the juice. Scoop the fat out into another clean container and freeze. And
keep the juice in the fridge to add to whatever side dish you serve with your duck legs.
When the time comes to serve your duck, set a non-stick skillet over medium heat. Yes,
it needs to be non-stick or extremely well seasoned cast iron or the duck will stick.
When the pan is hot, add the legs skin side down and cover. Cook just until the top of
the legs feels warm (about 3 minutes). Let’s see how they are doing. Good, the top is warm.
Don’t get your face too close to the skillet because they do splatter. Continue cooking
uncovered until the skin is completely crisp (about 3 more minutes). Are you ready for
the most gorgeous duck skin? Cook the flesh side for 30 seconds. Remove from the pan and
let rest for 5 minutes.
And then you’ll be rewarded with the most glorious, crispy and tender duck. Did that
sound good or what? Normally when I am making videos I am too busy to take more than a couple
of bites, but this was too good not to finish and I did not have a single bite that was
not perfect.
Nothing was a little dry or grizzly or slimy or flabby.
It was just fabulous.
I know I am going to get questions about alternatives to poaching in fat. So I might as well talk
about that. I tried cooking duck at 250F without the fat and the results were a lot dryer.
I know that some food writers say that it works as well as poaching in fat, but I think
that’s wishful thinking. I haven’t tried the sous-vide method, but it has worked really
well for Daniel Gritzer from seriouseats.com I’ll link to his recipe below. You can certainly
use his sous-vide method and then flatten out the duck and finish it the way I do. Here
is why I haven’t tried it yet. You do need a vacuum sealer since the duck cooks at 155F,
which is pretty high for 36 hours, which is pretty long and I don’t know if the zip
lock bags will stand up to that. You also might need a lid for your sous-vide container
unless you want to be getting up in the middle of the night to check the water level. Since
all of this requires over a $100 of equipment on top of your immersion circulator, I didn’t
feel it was practical for most people. But if you have all this equipment to pull that
off, give it a shot and let me know how it goes.
Here are more thought provoking culinary videos for you to check out and if you are ever in
the Boston area, maybe I'll see you in one of my classes.