Okay, so I finally decided to tackle making duck confit myself. Seen it around, always sounded fancy, but thought I’d give it a shot in my own kitchen.
Getting Started
First thing was getting the duck legs. Found some decent ones at the butcher, not cheap, but looked meaty. Grabbed about four of them. Then, the curing stuff. Didn’t get complicated. Just needed a good amount of coarse salt. I also chopped up some fresh thyme from the garden and cracked a load of black pepper. Mixed that all up.
The Curing Part
Right, took the duck legs and rubbed that salt mix all over them. Really got into all the nooks and crannies. Laid them flat in a dish, covered it up with plastic wrap, and stuck it in the fridge. Left them in there for a full day, maybe a little longer. Heard you need at least 24 hours for the salt to do its thing.
Rinsing and Drying
This part is really important, apparently. After the fridge time, I took the legs out and rinsed them under cold water. Had to make sure all that surface salt was gone, otherwise, it would be way too salty later. Spent a good few minutes on each leg. Then patted them super dry with paper towels. Like, bone dry. Any water left is bad news for the cooking part, I guess.
Slow Cooking Time
Now for the main event. Needed duck fat. Lots of it. Managed to buy a couple of tubs, which cost a bit. Melted it down slowly in a big, heavy pot – the kind you can put in the oven. Gently placed the dried duck legs into the warm fat. Made sure they were completely submerged. If they weren’t, I would’ve needed more fat, but luckily, I had just enough.
Put the whole pot, uncovered, into a pretty low oven. Think it was around 150 degrees Celsius, maybe a bit less? The idea is to cook it super slow. Left it in there for hours. Seriously, like 2, maybe 2.5 hours. The kitchen started smelling pretty amazing after a while. Just had to be patient and let it do its thing.
Checking and Storing
After a couple of hours, I checked one of the legs. Gently poked it with a fork. The meat was super tender, almost falling off the bone. That’s what you want. Carefully lifted the legs out of the fat and let them drain a bit.
The last step was storing them. Got some clean glass jars. Placed a duck leg in each. Then strained some of that cooking fat through a fine sieve to get rid of any meaty bits. Poured the clean fat over the duck legs in the jars, making sure they were completely covered again. Sealed them up and put them in the fridge. They say it gets better with time.
So yeah, that was my adventure into duck confit. Took a while, mostly waiting around, but wasn’t actually that hard. Just needed patience and a lot of duck fat. Pretty pleased with how it turned out, felt like proper old-school cooking.
