Cooking
I recently bought Bouchon, the cookbook from Thomas Keller's bistro of the same name. Flipping through it, I was drawn to the recipe for duck confit. Duck confit, made from meat that has been salted and then cooked and preserved in fat, is one of my favorite foods, and I was curious to see how Thomas Keller's rendition compared to other versions I had tasted and made. If you liked his French Laundry Cookbook, you'll almost certainly enjoy Bouchon. The new book has the same style and the same level of detail, even though the food is ostensibly more rustic and casual. I didn't make Keller's recipe exactly. His recipe, like many, uses duck legs, but I substituted some magret de moulard I had in my freezer. Magret is the breast of a bird that has been force-fed for foie gras, and Moulards are the dominant breed of duck in foie gras production. This particular breast was from the Artisan Foie Gras label of Sonoma Foie Gras. The Artisan ducks get cooked corn instead of raw and they are "cold eviscerated", or slaughtered, then cooled overnight, and then processed. Most birds at Sonoma Foie Gras are processed immediately after slaughter. These differences have a bigger impact on the liver than the breast meat.
Somewhere in that fat are two big duck breasts.
Once the meat is cooked, you let it cool in the fat, and then pack the meat into a container. Strain the leftover fat (it's Thomas Keller, so you always strain) and pour over the meat in its container. You want the fat to completely cover the duck, with a good half-inch or so of fat on top. Put in the refrigerator for up to two weeks. By separating out the juices from the fat, you can keep it even longer, but I didn't bother.
Not my prettiest plating ever
The result of all this was one of the most heavenly duck confits I've ever tasted. Once I heated up the confit, the skin was nice and crisp and the meat was falling apart. The confit was undescribably good, meaty and seasoned just to the edge of being too much. I served it with rice and green beans, and we drank the 2001 Huber Vineyard Pinot Noir from the Santa Rita Hills. The wine had cherry flavors framed by lemon Pledge and Jolly Rancher. It was overpowered by the flavorful duck, so next time I might go for a more rustic wine.
If this dish is any indication of the recipes in Bouchon, I'll be making lots more dishes from it.
- Book Review: Kitchen Sense
Photo by Melissa Schneider. When I flipped through my review copy of Mitchell Davis's Kitchen Sense (which I think came independently of the Cookbook Spotlight coincidentally highlighting it), Melissa noted its similarity to Mark Bittman's...
- Schneider Household Math
Photo by Melissa Schneider. To confit 24 legs from ducks raised for foie gras, you need six pounds of rendered duck fat. Trimmed fat from 24 foie gras duck legs yields three to four pounds of rendered duck fat. Confit fat can be used twice. Therefore,...
- Relearning Duck Confit And My Recipe Philosophy
Duck Confit... I love duck confit, legs (usually) salt-cured and cooked slowly in fat. I order it whenever I see it; I try different recipes at home. But the duck confit at Jojo is my benchmark. I rarely find duck confit as good as Curt's, even when...
- Maybe
I don't like Brussels sprouts. I have repeated this mantra for as long as I can remember. And yet. There is a picture in Thomas Keller's Bouchon that beckons me. The picture shows a piece of duck confit resting on a bed of Brussels sprouts....
- Inspiration!
Inspiration strikes in funny ways. Maybe you see something and it triggers a new thought in a different direction. Or maybe it just comes out of the blue. No matter where it comes from, it's usually worth pursuing. At the very least, it will force...
Cooking
Damn Good Duck Confit
I recently bought Bouchon, the cookbook from Thomas Keller's bistro of the same name. Flipping through it, I was drawn to the recipe for duck confit. Duck confit, made from meat that has been salted and then cooked and preserved in fat, is one of my favorite foods, and I was curious to see how Thomas Keller's rendition compared to other versions I had tasted and made. If you liked his French Laundry Cookbook, you'll almost certainly enjoy Bouchon. The new book has the same style and the same level of detail, even though the food is ostensibly more rustic and casual. I didn't make Keller's recipe exactly. His recipe, like many, uses duck legs, but I substituted some magret de moulard I had in my freezer. Magret is the breast of a bird that has been force-fed for foie gras, and Moulards are the dominant breed of duck in foie gras production. This particular breast was from the Artisan Foie Gras label of Sonoma Foie Gras. The Artisan ducks get cooked corn instead of raw and they are "cold eviscerated", or slaughtered, then cooled overnight, and then processed. Most birds at Sonoma Foie Gras are processed immediately after slaughter. These differences have a bigger impact on the liver than the breast meat.
- Book Review: Kitchen Sense
Photo by Melissa Schneider. When I flipped through my review copy of Mitchell Davis's Kitchen Sense (which I think came independently of the Cookbook Spotlight coincidentally highlighting it), Melissa noted its similarity to Mark Bittman's...
- Schneider Household Math
Photo by Melissa Schneider. To confit 24 legs from ducks raised for foie gras, you need six pounds of rendered duck fat. Trimmed fat from 24 foie gras duck legs yields three to four pounds of rendered duck fat. Confit fat can be used twice. Therefore,...
- Relearning Duck Confit And My Recipe Philosophy
Duck Confit... I love duck confit, legs (usually) salt-cured and cooked slowly in fat. I order it whenever I see it; I try different recipes at home. But the duck confit at Jojo is my benchmark. I rarely find duck confit as good as Curt's, even when...
- Maybe
I don't like Brussels sprouts. I have repeated this mantra for as long as I can remember. And yet. There is a picture in Thomas Keller's Bouchon that beckons me. The picture shows a piece of duck confit resting on a bed of Brussels sprouts....
- Inspiration!
Inspiration strikes in funny ways. Maybe you see something and it triggers a new thought in a different direction. Or maybe it just comes out of the blue. No matter where it comes from, it's usually worth pursuing. At the very least, it will force...