Fowling up.

Of all things avian, I care most for duck.

When possible I like to purchase whole birds, as the rest is so marvelously useful. This is especially true of duck – sub and super of the skin and meat, respectively, is my reasoning for buying whole duck, besides the undeniable monetary benefits.

Born of simple ingredients and little time and motivation, is confit. Confit (from the latin conficere – to prepare), specifically duck confit, is duck meat cooked in rendered duck fat until tender. It had humble beginnings as a preservation method, and is now almost strictly done for flavor, as there is plenty. So why not, I said, I have left over duck legs and an entire carcass full of skin and its partner in crime, fat.




I thought humbly and seasoned with thyme, salt, pepper and crushed garlic. I also chose to let it season for three days, thus the foul, but lets not be hasty. After rendering the duck fat I had just enough to cover two legs in an eight-inch cast iron skillet, and into an oven for three hours.



The results were meltingly tender – I was unable to pick up an individual thigh, as any attempt resulted in me holding a bone with no meat. When it came to eating it, my senses were assaulted (I had to!); it seems like a cure of three days is too much for confit, which is closer to jerky than confit in briny taste. The texture also suffered as a result of too much water loss. As it is much too intense for straight eating, I must now muster my creativity to use my confit; we’ll see how this goes.