Salt-cured pantry preserve
Confit d'oie en pot de graisse
PreservingReconstruction🧂 🍄moyen3 h 30 (+ salting the day before)
Goose pieces salted then cooked very slowly in fat, and kept submerged in that same fat, airtight. A melting, savory meat ready to last the cold months.
Salt-cured pantry preserve
Goose pieces salted then cooked very slowly in fat, and kept submerged in that same fat, airtight. A melting, savory meat ready to last the cold months.
Nothing is wasted in a good Périgord household, and the goose least of all. After salting it a whole day, you cook it very gently in its own fat until the flesh yields under the fork. Then you store it in an earthenware pot, well covered with solidified fat where air cannot reach it. Thus kept, it feeds us all winter long, and is never better than reheated on a frosty evening.
Ingredients
- •Goose (legs and pieces) — the fine pieces (meat to confit)
- •Salt — a good handful (salting and preservation)
- •Goose fat — enough to submerge (cooking and sealing)
- •Garlic and thyme — a few heads and sprigs (aromatics)
- •Pepper, bay leaf — to taste (spices)
How it was made : Confiting in fat is an ancient preservation method from southwestern France, born of the need to keep meat before refrigeration. The solidified fat forms an airtight seal that protects the flesh for months. Geese were raised for their fat and meat, at the heart of the Périgord peasant economy.