As someone who claims to be really into cooking, it’s embarrassing to admit I’ve never done a proper batch of duck legs confit. Once I basically did it with the two legs on a whole duck I purchased, but I wasn’t able to render enough fat to fully cover the duck, so I had to use lard. Also, I didn’t cure the legs overnight.
With an 8lb tub of duck fat in my possession (seen dominating my fridge above), I was ready to rock for real. I ordered the duck legs from Star Provisions. Eight legs cost about $20 ($5 a lb). Next time I’ll double the order. The legs were seasoned with salt, thyme, brown sugar, and slivers of garlic and they sat overnight. The legs were rinsed, dried, covered by five cups of melted duck fat, then roasted in my oven overnight at 190F for about 11 hours. They were fork tender, but not completely falling apart.
I poured some of the fat back over the duck legs, but left the last few cups and refrigerated that separately so the juices/bits would separate from the duck fat. Below I’ve skimmed the duck fat off and added it back to the container with the legs. What’s left is duck gelee, which I’ve frozen for use in a sauce or soup down the road.
Below is the seven legs, completely covered. As I’ve removed all the duck meat juices, this will now stay preserved for months. Though, I doubt it will last that long.
That morning I took a still warm duck leg, seared it fat side down for 5 minutes, then served it with a sunny side up egg and a crab cake with remoulade that was leftover from dinner the night before. Breakfast surf and turf.
I got the remoulade recipe from my mom, it’s the best I’ve had. The ingredients in descending order are: Mayo, celery, scallions, parsley, capers, mustard, ketchup, lemon juice, white wine vinegar, Worcestershire, Tabasco, minced garlic, dry mustard, paprika, anchovy.