Easy Duck Confit

Ingredients

• Duck legs
• Salt

Directions

1. Blot the duck legs thoroughly with paper towels. Using a needle or a very sharp-tipped knife, make tiny pricks across the duck skin, especially over the fattier areas. Try not to poke into the meat itself; on the drumstick and the center of the thigh, work at an angle so you pierce the skin without going deeper.
2. Those little openings are what allow the fat beneath the skin to render out. Skip them, and crisp skin becomes much harder to coax along. Season the duck legs generously with salt, more generously than may feel natural, and leave them at room temperature for at least 20 minutes and up to an hour.
3. Set the duck legs skin-side up in a small casserole. It should be just large enough to fit them snugly. Coat the bottom with a thin layer of oil or melted duck fat, then nestle in the duck legs close together, without letting them overlap.
4. Place the casserole in the oven, then set the oven to 300 degrees F (150 degrees C); with a digital oven, 285 degrees F (140 degrees C) also works. Do not preheat it. The point is to bring the duck up slowly and cook it as gently as you can.
5. Now leave it alone for a while. The exact timing depends on how much fat your duck legs have, but plan on at least 90 minutes, and 2 hours is even better. At 90 minutes, take a look: the duck should be sitting partly in rendered fat, and the skin should be beginning to crisp.
6. Once the skin has started to crisp, raise the oven temperature to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Check the duck after 15 minutes. You want the skin to be pale golden brown. If a few spots refuse to crisp because they did not get pricked, let them be; a few softer patches are better than burning the rest.
7. Take the casserole out of the oven and let the duck cool for 10-15 minutes before serving. Pour off and save the rendered fat for cooking vegetables or other meats, or for keeping your skin shiny. Straining it through cheesecloth is only necessary if you plan to keep it for several weeks or months; strained and tightly covered, it will keep for 6 months in the fridge. Wrapped well, the duck meat will keep for up to 2 weeks in the fridge.
8. As for the duck legs, eat them as they are, pull off the skin and enjoy it while it is still crisp, or remove the meat from the bones and use it with salad, beans, rice, or pasta.