How to Cook Duck Confit from a Tin (Crisp Skin, Every Time)

Tinned duck confit is already cooked. The slow part — curing the legs in salt and cooking them gently in their own fat — happened in South-West France before the tin was sealed. So “cooking” it at home comes down to two jobs: getting the legs out of the fat in one piece, and crisping the skin while the meat heats through. Warm the tin, lift the legs out, then either brown them skin-side down in a frying pan for about ten minutes or roast them skin-up at 200 °C for about twenty.

Here is exactly how we do it with the Comtesse du Barry duck confit with Guérande salt: two legs in a 775 g tin, cooked in duck fat with nothing added but Guérande salt.

Step 1: get the legs out in one piece

When the tin is cool, the fat inside is set firm, and the meat it protects is tender enough to tear. So warm the tin before you open it: stand it in a bowl of hot tap water for ten to fifteen minutes, until the fat around the edges has softened. Open it over a plate (it will be slippery), slide a spatula or a large spoon under each leg and lift it out whole. Let the fat drip back into the tin; you will want it later.

Step 2: crisp it in a pan (the maker’s way)

This is how Comtesse du Barry say to do it, and it is the one we reach for on a weeknight. Lay the legs skin-side down in a frying pan over medium heat. No oil is needed: they bring their own fat. Let the skin brown, then turn the heat down low, cover the pan and let the legs warm through for 5 to 7 minutes, turning them from time to time. Our one addition: finish with a minute or two skin-side down with the lid off, so the steam doesn’t soften the crackle you have just built.

Or: crisp it in the oven (hands-off, and best with potatoes)

Heat the oven to 200 °C. Sit the legs skin-side up in a roasting tray and roast them for about 20 minutes, until the skin is deep gold and crackling and the meat is hot right through to the bone. If the skin needs a final push, give it a minute or two under the grill and don’t walk away. The oven’s big advantage is room: roast potatoes in the fat from the tin at the same time, which is exactly what our duck confit with crispy garlic potatoes does.

How to tell it’s ready

You are not cooking the duck, you are heating it, so there are only two tests. The skin should be deep golden and crisp when you tap it with a fork. The meat should be hot right to the bone; check the thickest part with the tip of a knife. Stop there. Chasing more colour dries the meat out and costs you the melt-in-the-mouth texture the tin was made for.

Keep the fat: it’s the second meal in the tin

Whatever you do, don’t pour it away. Scrape the fat into a clean jar, cover it and keep it in the fridge. It is the reason South-West potatoes taste the way they do. Use it for:

• Pommes sarladaises: sliced potatoes fried slowly in duck fat and finished with garlic and parsley, the classic partner for confit.
• Next Sunday’s roast potatoes, or parsnips.
• Frying eggs or wilting a pan of greens.

Duck fat: what it is and how to use it

Duck fat is the fat that melts out of duck as it cooks slowly. In South-West France it is the everyday cooking fat, and it is what confit is cooked and kept in. We don’t sell duck fat in a jar on its own: it comes in the tin with our Comtesse du Barry duck confit with Guérande salt ($29.50), whose ingredients are just duck legs, duck fat and Guérande salt. Use it to roast potatoes or parsnips, fry pommes sarladaises or eggs, or wilt greens. Duck fat is also in the Cassoulet Languedocien ($29.50) and the Traditional Duck Rillettes 70g ($9), which list it among their ingredients.

What to serve with duck confit

Confit is rich, savoury and salty, so it wants one thing that’s starchy and one thing that’s sharp. Comtesse du Barry suggest mashed potatoes, pan-fried green beans or cooked lentils, with a crunchy salad for freshness. Our picks:

• Potatoes cooked in the duck fat. For us, not negotiable.
• Lentils with a spoonful of Dijon mustard stirred through.
• Bitter leaves (frisée, radicchio, rocket) with a sharp vinaigrette to cut the richness.
• A glass of South-West red: a Cahors or a Madiran if you can find one, a WA shiraz if you can’t.

Leftovers, and second lives for a tin

• In a baguette the next day with mustard: pull the meat off the bone and warm it in a spoonful of its own fat.
• Shredded through a warm salad of bitter leaves, croutons and a mustardy dressing.
• Duck confit croquettes with truffle aioli.
• Duck confit spring rolls with a honey dipping sauce.
• The heart of a cassoulet: confit is one of its essential meats (here’s what goes into one), or let Comtesse du Barry do all of it with the ready-made cassoulet Languedocien.

Quick answers

Is tinned duck confit already cooked? Yes. It’s cured and slow-cooked before the tin is sealed. You only need to heat it through and crisp the skin.

How many legs are in a tin? The Comtesse du Barry 775 g tin holds two legs, which is dinner for two.

Do I need to add oil or butter? No. The legs come coated in duck fat, and that’s all the pan needs.

How long does it take? About fifteen minutes to warm the tin, then around ten minutes in a pan or twenty in the oven.

Can I cook it straight from a cold tin? You can, but cold, set fat makes the legs likely to tear when you lift them out. Warm the tin first.

Start here

One tin of duck confit with Guérande salt is dinner for two tonight, and a jar of the best roasting fat you will ever own. Browse the rest of our confit and cassoulet range, or make a night of it and start with foie gras on toast.