I received Jack Hennessy’s Quick Duck Confit recipe this week for “Braising the Wild” and sent back an email, “Isn’t quick confit an oxymoron?”
His reply to my attempt at wit was to email back, “Literal translation would be `quick preservation.’ The curing and preservation are what take so long with confit.”
As he notes, even with his “quick” recipe, it takes hours.
With that, here is this week’s recipe:
QUICK DUCK CONFIT
Quick may seem counterintuitive, as so many of us have extra time on our hands, but while traditional duck confit can take days—with the whole curing process—I’d put this recipe up against those any day of the week.
Though I’ll admit: I’m not a duck confit connoisseur. The last time I had it was in Las Vegas for SHOT Show 2020 at Bouchon (in the Venetian). I was underwhelmed, mainly because I could taste the refrigeration in the duck. Duck confit is meant to be refrigerated after cooking (after curing prior to that) in order to age the meat. But if not completely submerged in fat, the meat will absorb the air within your fridge. After working with walk-in-cooler food for years, I became sensitive to that flavor. Needless to say, I am not a fan. This recipe eliminates that risk completely.
As well, this recipe doesn’t require you to have jars of duck fat sitting on your shelf. You could even substitute pork back fat here. The premise is simple: A very low and slow duck leg roast in a thin layer of fat, rotating hourly, then finally crisping up at end, prior to serving.
You can of course “French” the legs, which is the technique in which you use your knife to remove skin, cartilage and tendon from the leg bone. It makes for a “pretty” presentation.
This recipe also works for Canada goose but would require more time in the oven. With geese, you can include the wings in backing tray. If you had a LARGE mallard, it might also be worth including those wings.
Please note: While this is far quicker than traditional duck confit, it’ll still require 14 hours between brining and cooking.
Ingredients (two servings):
Two duck legs, preferably from large mallard
Duck wings, if from a large mallard
1 cup duck fat
Brine:
1 gallon cold water
1/2 non-iodized salt
1/2 cup whole black pepper corns
1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 bulb fresh garlic, smashed
6 ounces fresh ginger, smashed
Mix brine ingredients thoroughly until salt and sugar dissolve. Add duck to brine and let soak for 8-10 hours.
Upon removal, thoroughly rinse off brine and pat dry, let sit in fridge for 2 hours prior to cooking to completely dry.
Lightly prick skin of duck with sharp needle. Do not completely puncture through skin, but make small dents all over skin, which will help fat secrete.
Pre-heat oven to 300 degrees. In a 10-inch-by-10-inch baking tray (or a comparable size), add approximately 1 cup duck fat to bottom and spread, enough so duck is sitting in 1/8-inch of fat. If you don’t have duck fat, you can substitute pork fat. Make sure to surround the duck in fat chunks, if doing so.
Turn duck every hour so all sides spend adequate time submerged in fat.
After approximately 3 hours, when meat is tender, make sure skin is facing up and turn oven to 400 degrees. Once skin is golden brown, after approximately 15 minutes, remove and allow to cool 10 minutes before serving.
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