Confit and magret are both French words associated with fatty, delicious duck. But since my grade 10 French education didn’t cover either of these words, I decided to learn for myself and share this information with you too.
So…what’s the difference between confit and duck magret?
Confit is a slow cooking method generally used for poultry and pork where the meat is simmered at a low temperature (200°F/93°C to 300°F/150°C) in its own fat and/or with supplementary fat such as lard. Magret is the French word for breast; in French cooking, duck magret (magret de canard) specifically refers to the breast of a Moulard duck raised for foie gras. It’s most commonly cooked as duck steak or smoked duck breast.
So, that’s the difference. But if you want to know more about confit and duck magret—like how you prepare them and what to do if you can’t find a Moulard duck—keep reading!
What is confit cooking?
Confit a type of slow cooking poultry and pork in animal fat (generally duck or goose fat and/or lard). Confit meat is tender and juicy and the word confit refers to both the cooking method and the final product.
Confit is a traditional method for preserving meats from the region of Gascony in France; confited meat can be preserved for months or even years when stored in its own fat.
In the D’Artagnan Foods video, Ariane Daguin Explains Duck Magret and Duck Leg Confit, Ariane Daguin says, “In Gascony, we’re very proud of the fact that we invented confit. And confit, basically is a way of preserving the meats and this is when … there was no refrigeration.”
Confit is simple to make and only requires equipment found in any home kitchen: a knife, pot and an oven or stove.
Basic instructions for making confit:
- Marinate your poultry or pork for eight hours to three days with salt and other aromatics.
- Put the meat, additional fat (as necessary) and water, stock or wine in a pot, making sure everything fits snugly.
- Cook low and slow for a couple of hours until the fat is clear and the meat sinks to the bottom of the pot. Smaller pieces of poultry, such as the wings and gizzards, take about half as much time as legs, for example.
- Put the meat in glass jars and cover it entirely with fat to keep the air out.
- Store your confit in the fridge.
[For more information on confit cooking, check out my epic article, Confit: Preserving Yummy Meats the French Way.]
What is duck magret?
Duck magret (called magret de canard in French) is the breast of a Moulard duck raised for foie gras. A Moulard duck is a cross between a male Muscovy duck (a drake) and a female Pekin duck (a hen). Besides being prized for foie gras production, Moulard ducks are also known for a meaty breast. Each breast, with skin and a good layer of fat, weighs about one pound.
What’s the difference between confit and magret?
The differences between confit and magret include what they are, what meaty parts are used to create them, equipment required, temperatures and time.
The differences between duck confit and magret
| Confit | Magret | |
| What it is | A cooking method and the result of that cooking method. | A duck breast from the Moulard duck. |
| Parts used | Poultry: Legs, wings and gizzards. Pig: Belly, shoulder, ribs and any other part of the pig. | The breast. |
| The purpose | To cook meat until tender and preserve it in its own fat. | To enjoy a tender and flavourful cut of fatty duck. |
| Equipment | A pot. The oven. A knife for cutting the meat. | Knife. Plastic bag or bowl for marinating. Frying pan, smoker or oven. |
| Cooking medium | Fat, generally duck, goose or pork fat. | Frying pan, smoker or oven. |
| Cooking temperatures | Low oven temperature: 200°F (93°C) to 300°F (150°C). | Medium heat for duck steak on the stove (internal temperature: 130°F (54°C) for medium rare). Smoker temperature: Between 200°F and 250°F (93°C to 121°C). |
| Preservation method? | Yes. | No. |
| Time required | Two to six hours. | About 12 minutes (on the stove) to four hours (smoking). |
How to cook (and how not to cook) duck magret
There are a couple great options for cooking duck magret: as a duck steak and smoked (duck magret is also known as duck steak).
Basic instructions for cooking a duck steak:
- Score the skin in a crosshatch pattern all over.
- Sear the duck steak skin-side down until it’s nice and browned. Use medium heat and don’t bother to grease the pan.
- Drain the excess fat into a jar so you can use it later. That duck fat is basically a flavour bomb, that goes especially well, I’m told, with roast potatoes.
- Sear it on the other side until medium rare. In D’Artagnan’s Duck Breast 101 infographic, they recommend cooking “until an instant read thermometer registers 130 F in the center of the breast.”
You can also cook a duck steak in the oven.
Equipment needed for cooking a duck steak:
- A knife to score the skin and a frying pan.
Smoking is another great way to cook duck magret (or breasts of any type of duck).
Basic instructions for smoking a duck magret:
- Salt, season and marinate the duck breast for four hours (or whatever your recipe suggests).
- Set up your smoker with wood chips/pellets and the desired temperature. Temperature ranges for smoked duck magret are between 200°F and 250°F (93°C to 121°C).
- Smoke the duck breast in your smoker. Depending on the temperature, smoker and size of your duck breast, this step takes between two and a half and four hours.
Equipment needed for smoking a duck magret:
- A knife to score the skin, a plastic bag or bowl for marinating and a smoker.
If you don’t have a smoker or pellet grill, don’t worry. You can still smoke a duck magret—on your stove top! I’ll let the folks at The Restaurant at Drakes (in Brighton, England) show you how to do this in their four-minute video. (Actually, they show everything from trimming to plating in this quick video.)
How to cure and smoke a duck breast
And now here’s what not to do with a duck magret: confit.
You wouldn’t confit a duck magret for two reasons:
- With confit, breasts can become dry and mealy. This applies to chicken breast, according to Brian Polcyn and Michael Ruhlman in their book, Pâté, Confit, Rillette: Recipes from the Craft of Charcuterie. Even though ducks are fattier than chickens, a duck breast can still dry out under confit, though there’s disagreement on whether you can successfully confit duck magret in the cooking community.
- Other cooking methods such as duck steak and smoked breast produce more satisfying results for the breast meat.
In his article, Duck confit, on the River Cottage website, Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall says, “The breasts can be hot-smoked or dry-cured and the rest of the carcass can be roasted and used to make stock.”
What foods are best for confit?
As you’ll see from the chart below, confit is a specialized cooking method used for a small variety of foods.
Foods that are best suited to confit cooking:
- Duck legs.
- Chicken legs.
- Turkey legs.
- Goose legs.
- Legs of any poultry.
- Wings of any poultry.
- Pork loin.
- Pork belly.
- Pork shoulder.
- Any part of the pig!
- Vegetables such as tomatoes, squash, onion, garlic, etc. (Confit vegetables only last a few weeks in the fridge unlike poultry confit which can last months or years.)
We often think of confit as duck legs but that may be a tragic self-limiting belief. If we stick with this line of thinking, we’ll never explore the wonders of pork confit. And that would be a shame.
In their book, Charcuterie: The Craft of Salting, Smoking & Curing, Michael Ruhlman and Brian Polcyn say, “Pork is excellent for confit … Actually, any part of the pig can be confited with excellent results. Confited belly and shoulder are rare treats in the home kitchen, extraordinary for their succulence and flavor.”
[By the way, if you’re looking for more versatile cooking methods, you might be interested in braising and deep frying. If yes, check out my articles, What’s the Difference Between Confit & Deep Frying? and What’s the Difference Between Confit & Braising? to see how many foods are enhanced by these two cooking methods.]
If I can’t find Moulard duck for duck magret, what can I use instead?
If you live in France, you won’t have any trouble finding Moulard duck to make your duck steak. However, if you live elsewhere, Moulard ducks may be harder to come by. Americans can purchase duck magret (and many other French specialty foods) online at D’Artagnan and The Gourmet Food Store.
If you can’t find Moulard duck locally or from an online store that ships to your region, you can use other duck breasts to make duck steak or smoked duck breast. You’ll probably be able to find Pekin duck at the grocery store (if it’s the kind of grocery store that stocks duck) and Muscovy duck at a butcher shop or local farm.
According to Dr. Jacquie Jacob in her article, Which duck breed is best for small and backyard poultry flocks? on the Ohio 4-H Youth Development site, “Around 90 percent of the duck meat produced in the United States is from the Pekin … The meat breed of choice in many areas is the Muscovy, which thrives under free-range conditions.”
If you’re a homesteading type and thinking of raising your own ducks for duck steak and more, you’re not limited to three breeds of duck. In Kathy McCune’s article, 16 Duck Breeds For Eggs and Meat on her Family Farm Livestock site, she talks about 16 breeds that are good meat and egg producers.
Conclusion
Well, I now know more about duck breasts than I’ve ever known before and I hope you do too. Confit and duck magret are great ways to add fatty and delicious meats to your cooking repertoire at home. May your confit be tender and may your duck magret be sizzling on the outside and perfectly medium rare on the inside!