French Duck Confit with Red Wine Sauce (Confit de Canard)

This classic duck preparation from France makes the perfect centrepiece for an elegant meal, with a variety of fruity pairing options.

Perfected in Southwest France, duck confit is one of the classic French preparations that was originally designed as preservation method for meat. Ducks have been cultivated in this region of France for centuries, primarily for one of their most valuable products: fat. Duck fat had a variety of uses in French cuisine and culture, and it was valued as an excellent preserve for meats, particularly the meat the produced it! Duck confit isn’t a quick preparation - the French would buy this in jars or cans in the supermarket - but it can be scaled up and made as a batch and stored for months ahead for a fast French bistro dinner. There are a number of key steps to confit. The first is curing. The duck portions are salted and marinated in aromatics for 24 hours to remove moisture from the meat. The meat is then washed clean for the second step: confit. The duck is cooked low and slow in duck fat for a few hours. The resulting meat is tender and soft, all it needs then is to kiss a searing hot pan or oven to brown it before serving. Confit duck has a variety of seasonal accompaniments, and goes great in salads too. Use any berries that are in season, such as cherries or blackberries, for which I’ll show you how to make a quick red wine pan sauce. If you fancy a much faster process, check out my recipe for ‘Canard à la Bigarade’ [GET THE RECIPE], which is the true duck à l’orange, and uses pan-fried duck breasts instead of the confit process. I implore you to treat yourself to true confit at least one, it most likely will not be your last! Let’s go!