I'm about to make duck confit, as part of the the usual winter cassoulet
event. To use all duck fat is pretty cholesterol like, and if I buy duck fat
from my local restaurant outlet it costs $32 for a minimum of 8lb. I am
going to use crisco, with a small amt.of duck fat for flavor from the last
roast duck.
We had a great cassoulet at Bay Wolf Restaurant in Oakland, CA last week.
Michael Wild used a ham hock along with garlic sausage and confit as the
meat component, and he used Great Northern beans instead of the usual Lingot
or Cannolini beans. I think it is better; the beans pick up more flavor than
the larger bean. Alice Waters, of Chez Panise fame also uses Gr.Nor.Beans.
Just my 2 cents.

Has anyone used curing salt, again as a small part of the curing salt
instead of straight salt?

Good Luck; let us know what you did.
Kent

"Felice Friese" > wrote in message
...
> It's a go. Thanks, Haha and Fifo, for your suggestions (what a lovely pair
> of noms de newsgroup). I also had a cuppla emails. So now I'll hunker down
> with a handful of recipes and take one ingredient from Column A, one from
> Column B, etc.
>
> But first I'll go head-to-head with my butcher about the availability of
> duck legs and duck fat to see if I can make my own duck confit. I love the
> idea of doing anything with a quart of duck fat!
>
> Felice
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