Duck confit
- Preparation and cooking time
- Total time
- + overnight curing
- A little effort
- Serves 6
Ingredients
- 6 duck legs
- a few sprigs thyme
- 1 head garlic, cloves separated but not peeled
- 1 jar duck or goose fat, approx 300g
cure
- 3 tbsp rock salt
- 1 tbsp demerara sugar
- 1 tsp black peppercorns
- 1 tsp thyme leaves
Method
- STEP 1
Put the duck legs in a dish flesh-side up. Mix all the cure ingredients together.
- STEP 2
Sprinkle the cure evenly over the flesh then cover with cling film and leave in the fridge overnight. The next day, heat the oven to 140C/120C/gas 1. Take the legs from the cure, rinse under cold running water and pat dry with kitchen paper.
- STEP 3
Put skin-side up in a baking dish or tin that they fit quite snugly and tuck the thyme and garlic under and around the legs.
- STEP 4
Gently heat the duck fat until pourable (you can do this in the container on low in a microwave, or sit the container in a small pan of hot water) and pour over the duck.
- STEP 5
Cover the dish tightly with foil then put in the oven and cook for 3 hours.
- STEP 6
Take the duck from the oven and allow the fat to cool a little.
- STEP 7
Lift the duck legs carefully out of the fat. You can finish the duck off in the oven now or store it and cook it later (following step 8, below).
- STEP 8
Strain the cooking liquid through a fine sieve. Leave the fat to settle then pour the fat away from any duck juices. Put the legs into a clean container and pour over the strained fat to cover. The covered duck can be stored in the fridge for up to 3 weeks, or in the freezer for 2 months.
- STEP 9
When you want to eat the duck, heat the oven to 220C/fan 200C/gas 7. Scrape off the excess fat if you’ve been storing the confit, put the duck on a roasting tray skin-side up, and cook for about 30 minutes until golden and crisp (you will need to add 5-10 minutes if cooking from chilled).
