Confit

Too much goose and goose fat lying around after the holidays? Me too! Everybody should have these sorts of problems. I can't believe it has been over a year since our first goose butchering escapade at farmer Kate's- but goose D-day has come and gone. We have cooked our Christmas goose (a bona-fide young goose this time- thank god!), and had an extra goose and plenty of goose fat left over so we made confit!

A while back, at a party, I was given an excellent recipe for confit by a young aspiring chef named Anthony. He is a very patient man. Because he is a chef, and we are completely obsessed with food, every time we see him, we gather around him and bombard him with culinary questions. I am sure he would rather be drinking his beer in peace, but he is always nice enough to indulge us with all sorts of useful tidbits of knowledge. I am not sure what poor Tony gets out of it, perhaps semi-entertaining stories about us elbow deep in goose guts? Who knows.

Anyhow, here's his recipe for Conft. Because we now have an annual arrangement with our farmer friend for fresh geese, we use goose for this recipe, although, traditionally, it's made with duck. You are probably thinking that you would never try this, but believe me, it's worth it. And I know that if you are still reading Hops and Chops your are not a fat-a-phobe. The fat used here, is mostly just to preserve the meat while it's aging. The meat comes out super silky, with an intensely rich flavor that gets better the longer you let it hangout in the frige. It's great straight up, in cassoulets, or even on a sandwich! Feel free to fry up some slices of potato in with all your extra goose fat when re-heating the confit. Add some salad and you've got an easy (and oh-so-fancy) dinner

Basic Confit:

Break down your poultry eight-ways ( leg, thigh, wing, breast )
Put the breasts aside for another use, weigh and toss the rest of the cuts in the following:

1/4 oz (or 1/2 Tblspn) kosher salt PER POUND

1 clove garlic, smashed PER POUND

2 springs fresh thyme PER POUND

...toss together, place in oven-proof pan, cover, and refrigerate overnight.The next day remove the pieces and rinse all the salt off and place back into pan with aromatics. Just cover the meat with rendered duck (or goose fat) , cover with foil, and place in 325F over for 2 - 3 hours until overtly fork tender. Allow to cool a bit, place meat in a seal-able container, strain the fat, and cover the meat with the now strained fat. This can be placed in the fridge and kept for months! Just pull it out and heat it in a little of the fat when ready to eat.

We have tried this recipe twice. Once, successfully, the other not. The problem that occurred was an error on our part. When packing confit you absolutely must leave a nice thick layer of fat on top of your last layer of meat or else it will get moldy, and not age gracefully as directed. !