Week 23: Confit - Duck Confit [Cooking]

Intro from Cooking Challenge: Stemming from the French verb confire, Confit means "to prepare". The term was originally used in the middle ages to refer to fruits preserved in sugar, but the term grew to incorporate meats preserved in a similar fashion in fat rather than syrup. Most people are familiar with Duck Confit, the French classic of duck leg slowly cooked in it's own fat, but the same technique can be applied to a range of other meats, including beef, chicken and even fish! If you're more in the mood for sweets, cooking fruit slowly in a neutral flavored syrup can yield some incredible results. Sweet or savory, just remember: Slow and low, that is the tempo.

I wish I had a better shot of the duck so you could see how amazingly juicy and tender it was inside, but I was too busy inhaling it after I took this picture! Alongside the duck is some steamed broccoli and potatoes I roasted in some of the remaining duck fat. My trusty tub of duck fat from Hudson Valley Duck Farm (by way of the Union Square Greenmarket) is quickly becoming one of my favorite kitchen staples.

For the confit, I relied on this recipe, using two duck legs from Hudson Valley. I cured the duck legs in the salt/thyme/shallot/garlic for two days prior to cooking, and then cooked them in the fat for about three and a half hours at 225 degrees F.