Turkey Confit

I consulted about four recipes for this. New York Times, Salon, Serious Eats, and Mastering the Art (in which I actually looked up Confit de Oie).

The basic ingredients are: Turkey, fat. You can use olive oil or any animal fats you want (traditional is duck fat, but who can afford it?) Then there are some herbs and garlic. The recipe below is what we did, but variation from the recipe is acceptable.

Although traditional is duck fat, you can really substitute any kind of fat or oil. Julia herself recommended lard or vegetable shortening if you can't get duck fat. We used some high quality olive oil to fill out the fat content, with some salt pork for extra flavor.

This recipe is absurdly simple. Really low pressure for Thanksgiving, though it might be tough if you had much more than about 5 lbs of turkey. We might have been able to do it in our dutch oven? I don't know. You quickly run out of space.

Ingredients

• 5.5 lbs turkey (2 thighs and 2 legs)
• 2tsp of salt per pound of turkey
• an onion, chopped finely
• 2tbsp sage, chopped fine
• 2tbsp fresh thyme, chopped fine
• About a quart of oil
• 2 lbs of salt pork
• A clove of garlic, top lopped off
• A couple sprigs of thyme and sage (whole)

A day ahead of time, combine the onion, sage, thyme, and salt. Cover the turkey in the salt mixture, then set in the fridge for at least 8 hours or overnight.

When you're ready, wash off the turkey and pat dry. Pack it tightly in a pot along with salt pork, garlic, and herbs. Then pour in the olive oil (or whatever fat), just enough to cover the turkey.

Preheat the oven to 300 degrees. Set the pot over a burner on medium-high heat until you get some bubbles coming up from the oil - the oil will be at about 200 at the bottom of the pot, though I found that the oil doesn't circulate well. Then throw the pot, covered, in the oven and leave it for 3 hours.

After 3 hours, it's done. If you want (and if the turkey will stay together), you can sear the turkey to crisp the skin before you serve it, but it's not required. Just set the turkey in a bowl to let some of the oil to drain out, then serve on a separate plate.

Thoughts: Super easy. The salt pork was unexpectedly salty (duh, I guess), but the turkey was just really well seasoned. The flavor was great. I would do this again in the future, though I don't know that the animal fat was strictly necessary. Just a nice addition. I would also try this with other birds. Goose? You're next.

Disaster Index: 1/10