France and the Alps · Volume 14, The Duck and the Border
Confit de Canard
Gascony
An illustration of the dish, not a photograph of it cooked.
- Time
- 27 hours
- Researched
- 20 sources cited
- Reviewed
- Not yet reviewed from inside the tradition
- Cooked
- Not yet cooked and reported
The word "confit" itself dates only to the mid-nineteenth century, and the technique is better understood as ordinary summer provisioning, tied to the agricultural labour cycle, than as ancient siege-born necessity, per the strongest academic source behind this chapter.
As tradition built it
Serves 4. About 3 hours, plus 24 hours salting.
Ingredients
- 4 duck legs
- 1 kg coarse sea salt
- 1 kg duck fat, enough to fully submerge
Method
- Salt the duck legs generously with coarse sea salt, 24 hours, refrigerated, then rinse and dry thoroughly.
- Poach slowly, fully submerged in duck fat, 120 to 140°C, 2 to 3 hours minimum.
- Cool and store fully submerged in the same fat.
What a modern chef changes
Precision brought to a technique tradition achieved by feel.
Rung 1
Method
- Hold the fat bath at a steady, controlled 85°C in a sous vide setup rather than a stovetop that drifts, for a more even, repeatable result than the traditional 120 to 140°C range gives, at the cost of slightly longer cooking time.
- Rest the legs, still submerged, in the fridge for at least 48 hours before serving, longer than a rushed version would allow, since the flavour and texture continue to develop slowly in the fat.
- Crisp the skin briefly in a hot dry pan just before serving, a step some traditional preparations skip entirely in favour of serving straight from the fat.