what is confit leg

Full Answer

What does it mean when something is confit?

Traditionally, confit simply refers to any sort of preserved food, whether it's meat, fruit, or vegetables. This preservation takes place by slowly cooking food in a liquid that is inhospitable to bacterial growth. With fruits, this is generally a very concentrated sugar syrup*; with meats and vegetables, a pure fat.

What does confit style mean?

It's a traditional French cooking method, and originally referred to anything preserved by slowly cooking it in any liquid; fruits, for example, would be confited in sugar syrup. Nowadays, however, it tends to refer to food that's been slow-cooked in fat and not necessarily aged or stored.

What is confit made out of?

2 days ago0:124:42What does confit you may ask well in its simplest form confit involves taking a meat usually poultryMoreWhat does confit you may ask well in its simplest form confit involves taking a meat usually poultry or vegetables.

What is a confit beef?

Confit is a cooking method where food is slowly cooked in a fat or oil at a low temperature. The resulting meat is delicious, rich and tender.

How healthy is confit?

It depends. Confit is a way to cook meat (usually poultry) in fat (usually animal fat) at low temperatures. The final product is tender and not much fattier than meat cooked by other methods (after you remove excess fat). Whether this is healthy depends on which dietary ideology you follow.

What meats are good for confit?

Traditional meat for confit include both waterfowl such as goose and duck, and pork. Duck gizzards are also commonly cooked in the confit method. Varying forms of this delicacy thrive throughout southern France.

Does confit tenderize meat?

A true meat confit includes a salt cure, which is massaged into the meat, then sealed and aged for at least one hour. Salting draws out the moisture–replacing the water with oil–making the meat ingredients more tender and adding depth to the flavor.

How do you eat confit?

There's no end of ways to eat duck confit. The classic way to enjoy it is to simply warm it, either skin-side down in a pan with duck fat, or put it under the broiler for a few minutes until the meat is heated through and the skin is super crispy.

Is confit food greasy?

At first, the amount of fat used in confit can seem excessive and greasy to the inexperienced. While this is a misunderstanding, it isn't completely unreasonable. Since confit is all about cooking in pure fat, it seems awfully similar to deep-frying, a cooking method famous for its heavy grease.

How long does confit meat last?

Once cool, cover container tightly and transfer to refrigerator, where confit can be stored for up to 1 month.

How do you make confit meat?

To confit, food must be cured in salt (when necessary) and slowly cooked in fats like duck fat, chicken fat, olive oil, or sugar syrup (most commonly used to confit fruit or citrus peels) at low temperatures.

Why is duck confit so good?

The process gives meat the most fabulous texture and flavour. Confit duck legs are particularly worth the wait – cooked long and slow in duck fat flavoured with aromatic herbs until meltingly tender, preserved in that fat, then roasted quickly until crisp and golden. Duck legs are also great value compared to breasts.

How do you confit something?

0:000:50Confit can also be a condiment of vegetables and fruit cooked to the consistency of jam confitMoreConfit can also be a condiment of vegetables and fruit cooked to the consistency of jam confit involves fully curing meat in salt then poaching it slowly and fat and storing it covered with the fat.

Is confit food greasy?

At first, the amount of fat used in confit can seem excessive and greasy to the inexperienced. While this is a misunderstanding, it isn't completely unreasonable. Since confit is all about cooking in pure fat, it seems awfully similar to deep-frying, a cooking method famous for its heavy grease.

What does it mean to confit chicken?

0:019:01I'm allison roman. And i'm gonna be making an olive oil roasted chicken and this is basically like aMoreI'm allison roman. And i'm gonna be making an olive oil roasted chicken and this is basically like a chicken confit meaning we're cooking a chicken in a lot of fat.

How unhealthy is duck confit?

Potential Risks of Duck Fat Though duck fat might not be as high in saturated fats as some animal products, it contains more than options like olive oil. A diet high in saturated fat can lead to significant increases in your total cholesterol, which can increase your risk of heart disease and stroke.

Preserving Meat

We've been preserving food, including meats, since prehistoric times. Before refrigeration we lived in cycle with nature, preserving the bounty of the season. Some techniques that developed: smoking, curing, drying, and slow cooking.

Confit in France

In Gascony, the Southwest region of France, you’ll still find many small jars filled with confit of all kinds stored in the cellars. Duck leg confit is a favorite in that region, and is a vital ingredient in the classic cassoulet. Because it is so tender, duck confit can be shredded and served over salad, in stews or on bread.

Preserving Vegetables

Another secret of Gascon cooking is garlic confit. The slow simmer in duck fat takes the punch out of garlic, rendering mellow and flavorful cloves that are delightful when spread onto bread or whipped into potatoes. They add flavor in any savory dish, and can replace fresh garlic in many recipes.

Etymology

The word comes from the French verb confire (to preserve), which in turn comes from the Latin word ( conficere ), meaning "to do, to produce, to make, to prepare". The French verb was first applied in medieval times to fruits cooked and preserved in sugar.

Fruit confit

Fruit confit are candied fruit (whole fruit, or pieces thereof) preserved in sugar. The fruit must be fully infused with sugar, to its core; larger fruit take considerably longer than smaller ones to candy.

Meat confit

Confit of goose ( confit d'oie) and duck ( confit de canard) are usually prepared from the legs of the bird. The meat is salted and seasoned with herbs, and slowly cooked submerged in its own rendered fat (never to exceed 85 °C [185 °F]), in which it is then preserved by allowing it to cool and storing it in the fat.

Condiment confit

Italian cooking uses a number of "condiment confits," such as onion confit, chili confit, and garlic confit.

Ingredients

Mix together the salt and thyme leaves and rub into the duck legs. Salt-curing the meat acts as a preservative. Cover and leave to cure for 6 hours in the fridge

Serving suggestions

Confit duck is a rich, wintery dish that suits robust accompaniments like lentils, parsnips, red cabbage, kale and celeriac. Try Andy McLeish’s Confit duck cassoulet with Coco beans and Toulouse sausage or Andy Waters' duck confit recipe, which is served with braised red cabbage, caramelised Granny Smith apples and a savoury green peppercorn sauce.

Pork Confit

Traditionally in autumn a pig would be slaughtered on the farm to provide meat for the upcoming winter. The meat was then divided into parts suitable for smoking, curing, and sausage making (including the blood).

Vegetable Confit

Vegetables can also be cooked confit, such as potatoes in goose fat, garlic in olive oil and many others. However only root vegetables, tubers and bulbs are suitable vegetables for confit, fresh beans, leafy greens and fruit vegetables are not, as they either discolor, or simply fall apart during the slow low cooking process.

How to Confit Fish and Seafood

Cooking a fillet of fish such as salmon, lobster, king prawn or octopus confit, means that we slowly poach it in an aromatic oil or clarified butter. Generally this is not done as a preservation method as such, but with the benefit of the slow and gentle poaching at a low temperature, the fish will be moist and full of flavour.

Short Term Preservation

Before we get too deep into the confit processes, let me warn you that confit is a short-term preservation technique. Depending on what you confit, it may last for a few weeks or a couple of months.

Traditional vs. Modern Confit

Traditionally the term confit applied to the preservation of meat. Most commonly this was leg meat from ducks, geese, or rabbits. Those cuts could be chewy and stringy, especially on older animals. So, you wouldn’t want to salt cure them as you might a hind of pork.

Fruit and Vegetable Confit Ideas

Now, as I mentioned, you can confit a whole lot more than meat. People are doing it with fruits and vegetables. The basic process is similar. You will slow cook your chosen fruits and vegetables in a whole lot of fat. But, exactly how you do that varies by what you cook.

Confiture

There is one last class of confit that deserves mention. Sometimes you’ll come across products called Confit de Violette or Confit de Rose. This is another way of saying jam.

Confit at Home

Don’t let fancy French words keep you from making rustic farm foods like confit part of your everyday eating options. As long as you have great ingredients, a little time to cook, and a spirit of adventure, you can make all sorts of gourmet favorites at home.

Step 1

Mince and mash 4 garlic cloves to a paste with a pinch of kosher salt. Stir together paste, kosher salt (1/4 cup), thyme, quatre épices, shallots, and bay leaves in a large bowl. Add duck legs and toss to coat, then marinate, covered and chilled, at least 1 day and up to 2 days.

Step 3

Trim off 1/4 inch from top of garlic head, then stick 2 whole cloves into head. Melt duck fat in a wide large heavy pot over low heat, then cook garlic head and duck legs, uncovered, over low heat until fat registers approximately 190°F, about 1 hour.

Step 4

Transfer duck with a slotted spoon to a large bowl (reserve garlic for another use if desired). Slowly pour duck fat through a fine-mesh sieve into a large crock or deep bowl, leaving any cloudy liquid or meat juices in bottom of pot, then pour strained fat over duck legs to cover by 1 inch.

Step 5

Just before serving, remove duck from fat (reserve fat for another use, such as frying), scraping off most of fat, then cook, skin side down, in a large heavy nonstick skillet over low heat, covered, until skin is crisp and duck is heated through, 15 to 20 minutes

Duck confit is a big fat flavor blast

What is duck confit? Is it a dish by itself, a technique, or one of those fancy French things too snooty for you to even bother with? It's the first two — you definitely want to bother with this and it's decidedly unsnooty. A favorite method of preparing meat in pre-fridge France was to preserve it in its own fat. Read on.

What Is Duck Confit?

Mix all of the seasonings together and coat the duck pieces with the mixture. Place in a container or zip top bag and into the refrigerator for 24 to 72 hours.

What are the Origins of Duck Confit?

Before refrigeration was a concept, the art of confit was born in Gascony, France, as a preservation technique. The meat, stored in a vessel of fat, would keep for months without spoiling.

Aging of Duck Confit

Strangely enough, preserving meat in fat is an excellent storage technique.

Our Favorite Recipe

A traditional duck confit recipe includes ingredients like salt, garlic, thyme, rosemary, and juniper berries. The duck meat marinates in salt and spices and is left overnight in the fridge to soak up the flavors. The meat is rinsed off before dousing in a bath of rendered fat and cooking at a low temperature for at least four hours.

Overview

Meat confit

Etymology

Fruit confit

Condiment confit

See also

Further reading

External links