France and the Alps · Volume 14, The Duck and the Border
Confit de Canard
Gascony
Illustration
- Time
- Hands on 2 hours · Waiting 15 hours
- Researched
- 20 sources cited
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.
As tradition built it
Salt 12 to 15 hours; about 2 hours in the fat.
Ingredients
- 4 duck legs
- 1 kg coarse Guérande salt
- 1 kg duck fat
Method
- Spread part of the salt in a rimmed dish, lay the legs on it and cover them with the rest.
- Cover with film and refrigerate 12 to 15 hours at most.
- Rinse the legs under water and dry them in a cloth.
- Melt the duck fat in a pot and add the legs. Bring to the boil, then cook about 2 hours on a very low heat with the fat at 80°C, or the same time in a 160°C oven.
- Drain the legs and crisp the skin in a frying pan to serve, or keep them cold in their fat.
- To keep them longer, put them in jars with a little fat, set the jars in a steriliser, cover with cold water, and boil 1 hour 30.
Notes
The recipe is chef Christophe Girardot's, of Restaurant Paradoxe, for the IGP Canard à foie gras du Sud-Ouest. No second in-tradition recipe was sought.
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.