Smoked and Sous Vide Duck Confit

 

For well over a year now, I've been trying to figure out how to make smoked duck confit.  Standard confit technique requires one to cook the duck in duck fat that has been seasoned with herbs and spices.  Once the duck is cooked, it is allowed to cool in the fat and can be stored for months.  It is an ancient preservation method that yields incredibly tasty meat.  Combining confit and smoke is an entirely different matter.  I've tried several times, and it never worked out the way I wanted.  It was only after I purchased my Sous Vide Supreme that I realized that I might be able to fix some of the problems I had run into previously.  What were those problems?  Well, the first question is do you smoke or confit first?  If you smoke first, the smokiness tends to disperse once you sink the duck into fat and confit.  The end product just is unsatisfying.  Working in reverse by first using confit and then smoke, the end product tends to be bitter.  But one recent day, it occurred to me that sous vide might be the answer.  If you can smoke the duck to satisfaction and then seal it in a bag to cook with duck fat, herbs, and spices, then you might avoid the bitterness issue while retaining all the flavor.  So, I set forth on a grand experiment to blend sous vide and smoke and see if I had found the secret.  Continue reading Smoked and Sous Vide Duck Confit here...

Comments

[Robert]

Those duck legs look fantastic. Like you, I always have a hard time finding anything but duck breasts (and those are hard enough to find on their own!)

When you say "smelly stuff"--is it from the smoke or the duck itself?

[Mike Fincham]

Hi Robert,

Thanks for the comment. When I say smelly, I'm referring to the combination of the smoke, duck fat, and aromatics. I love the smell, but my wife who does not like duck didn't particularly enjoy the aroma.

Mike

[Helen]

Next time that you are looking for duck legs, try the Super H Mart. I saw them frozen last week. They had them for sale separate from the breasts. I think they were about $3.99/lb or so.