A confit duck leg crisped in its own fat and served in all its grand simplicity belies the time and patience that has gone into its preparation.
In the Gascony and Basque region of south-western France, people with good palates and time on their hands gave us something very special. They found a way to preserve the meat of geese, ducks and pigs for as long as six months: The art of confit. But it’s the confit duck beloved by all of France and much of the world that is their most lasting gift.
To imagine what it must have been like to taste the meat of confit duck leg and wing for the first time, make it yourself, real long and slow, and then leave it to cool. Then, before going to bed for the night, sneak into the kitchen and lift the lid. I made confit duck legs and wings this week (don’t leave the wings out, they’re a treat, you’ll see), and that is what I did. Snuck into the kitchen. Pulled away a piece of the wing meat and popped it in my mouth. Oh! My! Gaaahd! I yelled to the rest of the sleeping house in my best impersonation of Chandler’s ex-girlfriend on Friends. It was Just. So. Ridiculously. Yum.
Once upon a time, a Basquaise farmer must have started cooking the dissected quarters of a goose or duck, skin, fat and all, in a pot and forgotten about it. Hours later he would have awakened from his slumber with something unfamiliar but compelling in his nostrils. Wrapping his nightgown around him against the cold, he would have followed his nose to the kitchen range and the pot suspended over the few remaining fading embers. Lifting the lid, he must have swooned, and picked up a ladle, and then put it down again and reached in with his fingers, and pulled away a strip of that tender meat. Mon Dieu! He must have exclaimed. Ma Chérie! Viens ici! Goûte ça! My darling, come here, taste this! And confit duck was born.
In fact, it was more likely to have been goose. Even pork. These were the meats preserved in their own fat over many long hours to create one of the most important ways of keeping meat that is edible long after the animal’s slaughter. But it is confit duck that has truly stood the test of time and ...