Let it be known that the duck is my favorite meat to eat. People who don’t like duck have never had it cooked the proper way, likely resulting in a dried out, tough, yet uber-fatty, greasy, and grainy mess.
You can go to Chinatown and have Peking duck, which can be outstanding if done properly, but to cook it at home I break it into pieces. First, duck has a solid layer of delicious fat on it that will rival lard or beef suet for flavor. In my opinion it’s better than bacon fat! The breast is lean and will dry quickly, so it needs to be seared and cooked quickly, but the fat! What about that? Ah-ha, season the breast, both sides, with salt and pepper. Score the fat with a sharp knife (checkerboard pattern but don’t cut into the meat!) Place in a cold pan and place over med-low flame. Don’t touch it! As the fat melts pour it off into a container for later. When the fat has been rendered and has left behind a beautiful golden brown thin layer of crisp fat, crank the heat to high, and flip the breast over so the meat side is down. Cook to medium-rare (maybe 4 minutes), then let it rest for five minutes before slicing. Heaven.
The leg and thigh are very tough. Lots of very strong tendons that searing just will not break down. To properly cook this I prefer to prepare it “confit” (cone-fee). Confit is a French term for cooking something in its own fat. In the case of duck fat for making confit, you trim all of the fat from the carcass, trim only the excess off of the leg and thigh (attached to each other), and you keep the renderings from the duck breast. Throw all of the fat into a small but heavy duty pot with a touch of water and simmer for hours until the water has evaporated and the fat in the pot is crystal clear. Storing the finished product in the fat is also a way of preserving meat that goes back for hundreds of years. Heaven.
Duck confit has two steps: curing and cooking. The Curing Process is done equal parts of sugar and kosher salt with herbs. The mixture draws out blood and impurities while replacing it with flavor. I used 1 Cup each salt and sugar, 1 tsp each of garlic powder, caraway seeds, chives, parsley, and a ½ tsp of black pepper. Mix everything and then burry the duck legs and thighs in the mixture for 24 hours. No more! After a day rinse the leg and thighs in cold water (they will feel a little toughened and rubbery) and pat dry with a paper towel. Place in a heavy pot that is just barely large enough for them, then cover them with the rendered duck fat. I cover the pot with a layer of plastic wrap and then a layer of aluminum foil. Then I put it in the oven for about 3 hours at 200 degrees. Heaven.
There are many options to serve the duck confit. You can shred it off the bone and use the meat for upscale tacos, or on a salad, or part of a filling for ravioli. Or, you can remove the leg and thigh from the fat, scraping off as much fat as possible, and searing the meat in a pan until it crisps up. You really can’t go wrong.
