I’ve made duck confit MANY times the traditional way (long slow simmer in a few kg of duck fat), and decided to try out my sous vide, following the Serious Eats recipe here: https://www.seriouseats.com/sous-vide-duck-confit-recipe. 36 hours at 155 followed by thoroughly drying off and flash searing it on my cast iron skillet before serving. The meat was incredible, but there was a LOT of fat still under the skin, and the skin itself was so thin it tore if you pushed on it. It was just nasty to eat. I’m curious if anyone has gotten a fully-rendered skin that could sear up nice and crispy and mwah delicious like you get the traditional way?
by Sideshow__Ben
10 Comments
I do 165F for 8-12hr followed by 10min under a broiler. Crisps the skin and no worries about sticking to the pain. I do the same thing for chicken thighs (usually 8h) and turkey quarters (12-16h).
Dry it off and put it in a cold pan and then sear it.
The fat gives enough thermal protection to not ruin the meat which will then render and sear properly.
I like to brown my chicken in the air fryer after it comes out of the bath. I’ve never done duck but it may work there, too.
165F for 16 hours. Carefully pat dry and place on rack in fridge skin side up with a little salt sprinkled on it. after it cools, fry in duck fat in a pan skin side down for several minutes on medium heat. Flip for a few minutes, remove to a paper plate or somewhere it can drain the grease. Enjoy.
I found exactly the same thing with the 36 hour cook, the skin is basically rendered down to almost nothing and it’s impossible to crisp it properly.
My go to duck sousvide recipe is the Anova one, only a 12 hour cook and really gives very good results.
Idk what time and temp I do, but I like to add in some duck fat to the bag. After the bath I let it sit in the fridge in the fatty bag for like 24 hours. The fat gets more solid and you can wipe it off more easily so it’s just a little sheen of duck fat and then I broil it.
155f is 10 degrees too cool. Collagen doesn’t start melting in earnest until 160f and I add a little more heat to speed it along.
I make confit several times each year (and every Thanksgiving). I set it for 167f.
When I do duck legs sous vide, I just remove the skin and sear it on a skillet and place it on top of the legs.
I’ve done a traditionally and sous vide
Honestly air fry that sucker at the end! That’s the best way I found to get an even crisp
Yep someone else said it too. Air fry or deep fry that thing.