Lékker: canned meat
Confit de canard, or duck legs confited in duck fat, ranks high on my list of favorite comfort foods. Making it yourself is easy. But if you want a short cut, go for confit in a can.
The French (and, incidentally, Spanish) supermarket shelves are an oasis filled with canned goodies. From gésiers de canard (duck gizzards) to cassoulet de Castelnaudary (a southern French bean dish). On holiday, we practically injure ourselves hauling all these delicacies home. And especially cans of confited duck legs—delicious!
Canned confit
But if you would rather not break your back carrying it all, you can now turn to Chef Confit, a friendly Dutch food start-up that has recently started making confited products in cans, just like the ones you see in delicatessens in France. Okay, canned meat is associated with cheap retro products such as corned beef, Spam or Smac (you know, those unidentifiable cubes in your macaroni when you were younger). But cans have advantages: meat can be stored in them for a very long time, because cans provide excellent protection against light and oxygen, preventing oxidation. It is not for nothing that products such as caviar, olive oil and beer are also packaged in cans.
Pork collar
Chef Confit does not have duck in its range yet, but it does have other excellent meat and poultry. Such as wonderfully tender marinated Dutch pork collar, cooked in its own fat. And chicken thighs, also cooked in their own fat, with lemon and rosemary. As well as Dutch pork cheeks cooked in beer, simmered in beer from the de Leckere brewery.
This premium confited canned meat is completely natural: no E-numbers, artificial flavor enhancers, added sugars or preservatives. And you can have it on your plate within minutes. You can also easily pull the cooked meat apart, like pulled pork, and use it as the basis for rillettes.
In short: an excellent range to keep as a standard part of your pantry. Available via the webshop. Prices from €5.45 to €6.95 (one can serves two people).
Want to make it yourself?
Cook the legs in duck fat at a low temperature, around ninety degrees, for several hours—at least three hours. Add flavorings to the warm melted fat, such as a few garlic cloves and pepper. Once cooked, preserve the legs in a jar or dish, covered with the solidified fat. You can keep the divine duck legs for months. When using them, simply warm them in a frying pan in their own fat.
For a crispy result, briefly fry them hard at the end, skin-side down, over high heat. Super tender and juicy, and so delicious. And duck fat is, of course, a fantastic flavor enhancer for your floury fried potatoes. My local butcher, Johan van Uden of Chateaubriand, is a master at it—he uses Moulard duck, exclusively the males—and shows in this video on Foodtube how to make a classic confit de canard at home.
