French the leg bone (optional)

Using a pairing knife, cut around the circumference of the leg bone right below the joint (about 1/2 inch from the end of the leg bone).  Make sure you cut through all the tendons and ligaments.  This step makes for a better presentation.  It’s for appearances only and you can totally skip this if you want to.

Season the meat

In a small mixing bowl, combine all the seasonings.

Place the duck legs in a bin large enough to fit them all with some room for moving them around.  Combine the legs with the seasonings and using your hands, rub the seasoning over all the duck legs.  It will seem like there is hardly enough seasoning for the legs.  That’s ok.

Refrigerate the legs for 3 days.  Sometime on day 2, rearrange the legs so that the ones on the bottom of the bin are now on the top of the bin.  There will be some brine that has accumulated in the bottom of the bin.  Using your hands, rub this brine over the legs. Cover and refrigerate until the end of the third day.

Prepare to cook the duck legs.

Preheat your oven to 180 F.

Place the duck fat in a pot and heat it on the stove until the duck fat is completely liquid and hot but not hot enough to fry something, around 180-220 F if you want to temp it.  If you don’t have a thermometer to temp the oil, you can use your senses; when the oil is hot it will have some motion to it, it will dance around in the pot, it will occasionally release large bubbles and you will start to smell it.

Rinse and dry the duck legs. I would do this by setting the tub with the duck legs in the sink and filling it with water and then swishing the duck legs around the water to remove the whole spices.  Then remove the duck legs and lay them out on a sheet pan lined with paper towels.  Dab paper towels on the top of the legs so that both sides are dry.

Pack the duck legs very tightly in a single layer into a 4-inch full size hotel pan or 2 standard home casserole dishes (total of 16 qt oven-safe dish).  Or pack the legs into a double layer in a 6 inch deep half hotel pan (12 qt oven safe dish).  Do not pack the legs in more than 2 layers.  The tighter the legs are packed, the less duck fat you will need. 

Pour the hot duck fat over the duck legs.  The legs should be completely submerged.

Cook the duck

Place the duck in the oven uncovered.  Cook for 10-12 hours or so until the duck is fork-tender but not falling apart.  I do this overnight.  In the morning or at the end of 12 hours if the duck is not fork-tender, turn the heat up to 225 F and continue to cook for another 1-2 more hours.  It’s done around the time it fills your home with the smell of duck confit.

If you are paranoid about running the stove overnight, you can cook it at a higher temp for less time, 200 F for about 6-8 hours.

Cool and Store the Duck

Remove the duck from the oven and set on a rack to facilitate cooling.  If possible, place it in a cool garage with a fan pointed at it until it has cooled to room temperature, the fat is still liquid but has turned cloudy or opaque.

Packaging Options

There are 4 ways to package the duck for long-term storage.  At this point, all containers and utensils that you use for the following steps should be sterile.

1) Vat of Confit

Tip the duck-filled baking dish up a little by putting a coaster or hot pad under one side and using a turkey baster suck up the aspic from the lower end of the baking dish.  Aspic is the non-fat callogen-rich liquid that rests at the bottom of a dish of confit.  When cooled the natural gelatin in this flavorful broth will make this liquid a solid gel.  Aspic is good stuff – worth saving for soups, sauces or rillettes.  Place the entire dish of duck in the fridge and grab duck legs out as needed over a period of 3 months (if using the curing salt or 1 month if you omitted the curing salt).  This method of packaging is really only good if you have lots of fridge space and plan on using all the ducks in a fairly short amount of time.

2)Vacuum Seal

Place 1-4 duck legs in vacuum seal bags, ladle in some fat (make sure not to get any of the aspic that is sitting on the bottom of the dish), and vacuum seal.  With curing salt, a tightly sealed vacuum bag will last 4+ months in the fridge and 6+ months in the freezer (though with such a long shelf life there really is no need to freeze it).  Without the curing salt, vacuum-sealed duck legs will last 1-2 month in the fridge and 6+ months in the freezer.  Aspic left in the bag will decrease shelf life.

3) Ziplock bags

Place duck legs in freezer-proof ziplock bags, ladle in fat (make sure not to get any of the aspic that is sitting on the bottom of the dish), and use a straw to suck out as much air as possible when sealing the bags.  With cure, these duck legs with last about 1 month in the fridge and 6 months in the freezer.  Without cure, these duck legs will last about 2 weeks in the fridge and 6+ months in the freezer.

4) Make Rillettes

Using gloved hands and a mixing bowl, remove duck meat from the bones.  There is a really sharp small bone that you need to watch out for and make sure you don’t mix in with the meat.  Gradually ladle in a mixture of fat and aspic.  Mix in with your hand.  Continue ladling and mixing until the duck confit mixture is fully shredded and fairly wet.  If you squeeze it your hand, some fat and aspic will drip out.  Taste and season if desired.  It should be very flavorful, on the verge of tasting too salty.

Pack this mixture into sterilized 1/2 cup or 1 cup jars.  Refrigerate until chilled.  Then, melt down some extra remaining duck fat and pour it over the top of the rillettes to completely cover.  Place a lid on the jars and refrigerate for up to 1 month (with cure) or 2 weeks (without cure) or freeze for up to 6 months.

To serve rillettes, allow to come up to room temperature and serve with crusty bread, cornichons, and your favorite mustard.