Roast crown of duck & confit legs

okedoke

I want to make confit de canard.

Plan is to buy a whole duck, remove the legs and cure over night in the fridge, roast the crown for dinner one day then do the confit the following day using the duck fat from the roast.

Couple of questions-

is the crown likely to dry out during roasting since some of the flesh will be skinless after I cut off the legs?

could you use a mix of olive (or some other) oil and duck fat for the confit?

My girlfriend just got a slow cooker - anyone tried doing confit in one of these?

Minder

okedoke wrote: »

I want to make confit de canard.

Plan is to buy a whole duck, remove the legs and cure over night in the fridge, roast the crown for dinner one day then do the confit the following day using the duck fat from the roast.

Couple of questions-

is the crown likely to dry out during roasting since some of the flesh will be skinless after I cut off the legs?

could you use a mix of olive (or some other) oil and duck fat for the confit?

My girlfriend just got a slow cooker - anyone tried doing confit in one of these?

Will the crown dry as it cooks? Depends on how long you cook it. If you like your duck breast cooked rare, then there will be no problem. Cooking it to well done may dry it but there is a lot of fat under the skin that will baste it as it cooks. I'd go for cooking the crown in the oven to cook the meat and finish on the hob to colour and crisp the skin. If you go for the crisp skin in the oven the meat will overcook.

For the confit, you won't get enough fat from the crown to cook the duck legs as they need to be immersed in the fat. Confit traditionally is used to store the cooked duck leg in the fat where it will keep for weeks. If you just want to cook and eat the legs, then the addition of a light oil will be fine.

I used to cook the confit duck legs in the fat in the oven to keep the temperature below 90c and prevent the meat from frying. I found the hob was too hot on all rings even with a diffuser.

okedoke

Thanks

good idea with crisping skin on the pan, I'll try that.

confit is for immediate consumption - I'll try a mix of duck fat & oil

I'll check the slow cooker temperature - I think the low setting is around 90 deg