Counterfeit Duck Confit: All Of The Flavor, Without The Labor
This summer, NPR is getting crafty in the kitchen. As part of Weekend Edition's Do Try This At Home series, chefs are sharing their cleverest hacks and tips — taking expensive, exhausting or intimidating recipes and tweaking them to work in any home kitchen.
This week: We learn to make a "counterfeit" version of duck confit, a classic French dish that traditionally can take days to prepare.
The Chef
David Lebovitz says the first time he tasted duck confit, he declared it the best thing in the world. And 25 years later, he still feels that way.
"I love the slow-braised French dishes that fall off the bone. Tender meats with the crispy skin, and that's why I love confit de canard," says Lebovitz.
David Lebovitz and his counterfeit duck confit.
The California-trained chef loves fresh food and cooking, and he doesn't eat anything that comes out of a box. Lebovitz moved to Paris 11 years ago to write books and what has become a hugely successful blog on both sides of the Atlantic.
Lebovitz's latest cookbook-storybook, My Paris Kitchen, has a fantastic recipe for avoiding the time, heartache and cleanup of a traditional confit de canard, or duck confit.
"Most recipes that you see for confit usually begin with, 'Melt 10 liters of duck fat, then slip in four duck legs.' If you live in the south of France [where confit is from], you can find duck fat easily," says Lebovitz. "If you live in France, you can buy it in the supermarket in little jars the same size as peanut butter."
The Hard Way
Confit de canard dates back to antiquity. It was used as a way to preserve meat in an airtight grease pack. Henry the VIII was a huge fan of confit duck legs. But he didn't care how long it took or how the grease could smell up the kitchen.
If you Google "confit de canard," you can find recipes listing as many as 24 steps, with phrasing such as "do this the next day." The hard way of making this dish involves grinding up duck fat, melting it, cooking the duck legs in the melted duck fat and then recooking them several times in a pan on the stove.
The Hack
One of most important elements of this method of faking duck confit, says Lebovitz, is the baking dish. It's got to be small, so that the duck legs are pressed snugly together.
Lebovitz says his recipe for "counterfeit duck confit" avoids all that. "This technique is great, because it takes zero effort. All you do is season the duck legs — about 2 minutes of active work — let them sit for a few hours or overnight, and bake them for 3 hours."
One of most important elements, he says, is the baking dish. It's got to be small, so the legs are pressed snugly together, which keeps them surrounded by duck fat as they bake.
"Since it's not preserved in the grease for a long time, it's not a true confit," says Lebovitz.
But he believes his technique produces a dish that is every bit as tasty. On the day I visited, he cooked up duck legs with beautifully bronzed, crunchy skin and tender meat underneath.
Lebovitz says the nutmeg and allspice he prescribes in his recipe add a barely perceptible, balmy afternote. And that, he says, is the essence of French cooking.
"Seasoning should accent the food, not be the food," says Lebovitz. "Because [the French] like to let the ingredients speak for themselves. They want duck confit to taste like duck. They don't want it to taste like two tablespoons of allspice."
Lebovitz adds in a tiny bit of gin, because the ingredient that makes gin gin is juniper, and juniper goes very well with duck. It's sort of like cooking with a little wine.
Ingredients:
4 duck thighs (thigh and leg attached)
1 tablespoon of sea salt
1 tablespoon gin
1/4 tablespoon ground nutmeg
1/4 tablespoon allspice
2 cloves garlic,peeled and halved lengthwise
2 bay leaves
Instructions:
1. Prick the duck all over with a needle, piercing the skin.
2. Mix the salt, gin, nutmeg and allspice in a baking dish that will fit the duck legs snugly, with no room around them. Rub the spice mixture all over the meat.
3. Put the garlic (cut lengthwise) and bay leaves on the bottom of the baking dish and lay the duck legs, flesh-side down, on top. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 8 hours or overnight.
4. Put the duck in a cold oven. Turn the oven on to 300 degrees Fahrenheit. Bake the duck thighs for 2.5 hours, taking them out during baking once or twice and basting them with any duck fat pooling around.
5. To finish the duck, increase the oven temperature to 375 degrees and bake for 15 to 20 minutes, until the skin is deeply browned and very crispy.
Once your duck is cooked, keep that fat pooling in your baking dish — it's great for frying up potatoes, or even chicken.
The Plate
Don't toss that duck fat pooling around the finished dish — Lebovitz says it's great for frying potatoes. And you can use it fry up duck-fat fries, the traditional accompaniment for duck confit.
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Transcript
RACHEL MARTIN, HOST:
Oh, the French. Do it right or don't do it at all. And if there's one thing they do right, it's cooking. Take confit de canard or duck confit. This classic dish traditionally takes days to prepare and gobs of delicious duck fat. But if you want to try this at home, we have a shortcut. NPR's Eleanor Beardsley reports from Paris.
ELEANOR BEARDSLEY, BYLINE: Confit de canard has always been my favorite French dish, so I was excited to have the chance to prepare counterfeit duck confit with blogger chef David Lebovitz. I make my way to Lebovitz's Paris kitchen, which is tucked into a tiny street on the Right Bank.
Hello.
DAVID LEBOVITZ: Hi there, how are you?
BEARDSLEY: Very well, nice to meet you, David.
LEBOVITZ: Welcome, bienvenue.
BEARDSLEY: Merci.
He welcomes me into his light, spacious cuisine. Lebovitz moved to France 11 years ago and writes a food blog where he loves to share his recipes and tips. This one comes from his book, "My Paris Kitchen."
LEBOVITZ: So basically, this is a technique for making confit de canard, which is - which actually in French means preserved duck, long preservation technique.
BEARDSLEY: The dish dates back to antiquity. People packed their meat in duck grease which kept out all the air. Britain's King Henry VIII was a big fan of confit duck legs, and I'm sure he couldn't care less how long it took or how messy it was to prepare.
LEBOVITZ: Most recipes that you see for confit de canard say, you know, they begin with melt 10 liters of duck fat, then slip in four duck legs. And very few people have 10 liters of duck fat. If you live in France, you can buy it in the supermarket in little jars kind of like the same size as peanut butter.
BEARDSLEY: In fact, if you just Google confit de canard on the Internet, one recipe has 24 steps and lasts days. Lebovitz says there's no need for such complexity or for extra duck fat.
LEBOVITZ: It's all in the duck. It's in the duck skin, and it's going to come out when we bake it. And this technique requires zero effort. All you do is season the duck legs, let them sit overnight, and then you bake them for three hours.
BEARDSLEY: Lebovitz says duck, contrary to popular belief, is actually a very lean meat. Confit de canard is all about exploiting the fat in the skin. Lebovitz starts cooking with a staple of French cuisine, two cloves of fresh garlic.
(SOUNDBITE OF GRINDER)
BEARDSLEY: Next, he grinds some salt and allspice and rasps some nutmeg. The spices add a barely perceptible, balmy after-note to the dish, he says. And that's the essence of French cooking.
LEBOVITZ: Seasoning should accent the food, not be the food 'cause they like to let the ingredients speak for themselves. They want duck confit to taste like duck. They don't want it to taste like two tablespoons of allspice.
BEARDSLEY: Then comes Lebovitz's secret ingredient, alcohol in the form of gin, similar to how you'd cook with wine.
LEBOVITZ: The only thing that makes gin gin is juniper. And juniper goes very well with duck.
BEARDSLEY: Toss the duck in the spices and gin, and then put it all in a baking dish. And Lebovitz says this is key; the duck has to be tightly packed in the dish.
LEBOVITZ: And then I want to fit them together, sort of as a puzzle, with two bay leaves, a garlic clove that's been halved underneath each one. What you want to do also is prick the skin with a needle a few times, and that helps the fat escape when it's cooking.
BEARDSLEY: Lebovitz puts the duck in the oven for two and half hours at 300 degrees. At the very end, with skin side up, he cranks the oven even higher for about 15 minutes to make sure the crust is super crispy. Then he pulls it out.
LEBOVITZ: It's actually marvelously crispy. The skin is completely bronzed. It's dry. It's crunchy. And underneath, I stuck a fork in. And I could tell the meat was really tender and melting. And you can also see around it that there's a lot of fat, duck fat, and that's very valuable. Save that; do not throw that away.
BEARDSLEY: You can fry potatoes and even chicken in it later, says Lebovitz. But for now, there's only one thing to do.
LEBOVITZ: So do you want to try one?
BEARDSLEY: Wow.
No doubt about it, counterfeit duck confit is the real thing. Eleanor Beardsley, NPR News, Paris. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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