Confit, rillettes, terrines and country pate — the preservation-in-fat side of home charcuterie.
Country pâté — pâté de campagne — is a coarse forcemeat of ground pork, pork fat and usually liver, seasoned, bound with egg, packed into a lined terrine mould and baked in a water bath to an internal temperature of 65–70 °C (150–160 °F). A measured dose of cure #1 at 2.5 g per kilo of forcemeat gives […]
Chicken confit is chicken legs or thighs salt-cured overnight, then poached fully submerged in fat at around 85–90 °C (185–195 °F) for about 1.5 to 2 hours until tender, then cooled and stored under the fat. It is the economical, weeknight-friendly cousin of duck confit: the technique is identical, the bird is a quarter of the price, […]
Pork rillettes are pork shoulder and belly cooked low and slow in fat for three to four hours until the meat falls apart, then shredded into soft strands, seasoned, bound with the cooking fat, and packed into jars under a sealing layer of fat. Under an intact fat cap in the fridge they keep two […]
Duck confit is duck legs salt-cured overnight, then poached completely submerged in fat at around 85–90 °C (185–195 °F) for two to three hours until the meat is spoon-tender, then cooled and stored under that fat. Fully submerged in a sealed container, it keeps several weeks to about two months in the fridge. It is the single […]
Confit, rillettes and terrines are the cooked side of charcuterie: meat made to keep by cooking it gently, then sealing it away from air under its own fat. Done right, a fat-capped pot of rillettes holds in the fridge for two to three weeks, and confit submerged in fat keeps for a month or more […]