Duck Leg Confit

[Jambalaya]

Does anyone know where I can purchase this in the Cleveland area? The store where I was going to get it is now out of business. This was the only place I have ever seen it for sale in this area and I'm planning on making a Cassoulet. There are recipes for this on the net, but they require a large amount of duck fat which I really can't easily lay my hands on so making it is out of the question. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Thanks

[lyn]

Kaufmanns at wsm is indeed now selling duck by the piece. I feel this is fairly recent as I am at the market often and only just noticed in the last month or two (before only sold whole duck). The leg/thigh pieces have a ton of fat. While you are at the market go to ohio city pasta and pick up some pumpkin sage gnocchi to go with. mmmm

[tbud]

Euro USA is a distributor and they supply many local restaurants and retailers. I used to be a buyer for a local shop and worked with them. While they claimed they didnt sell to the public, pI had customers who told me they bought directly from them, so I guess it wouldn't hurt to call. At the leats they can tell you where they sell Niman stuff to. Doesn't Omaha Steaks get their pork from Niman Ranch? They have a store at La Place in Beachwood.

Northern Haserot is another local distributor that supplies manily just restaurants, and they own Metropolitan Market.

[justink]

Thanks for the info -- I was thinking about calling them and asking about retail but just haven't gotten around to it yet.

I'll check with Omaha Steaks in Beachwood. Trader Joe's sells Niman Ranch bacon but I've never seen any of their other products there, unfortunately.

[mrnyc]

i think CHIPOTLE burrito chain uses niman ranch too -- at least it did initially as a marketing gimmick. could ask there?

[justink]

Most of the folks that work at the Chipotle I frequent (the one on Coventry) would probably have no clue what I was talking about, considering it's hard enought to get them to make a burrito correctly! But yeah, I think they do use Niman Rach pork (and free range chickens, too!).

[Jambalaya]

Thanks for both the WSM suggestions. I have seen duck there but never noticed just the legs and no one that I saw seemed to have the fat. With these two I can now make my own as well so I will definitely try these next time.

[justink]

You have to ask for the duck fat (not on display), but the legs are usually right there in the front. In fact, I'm not even sure the place I'm thinking of sells whole ducks (just the legs). However, you could render your own fat -- just buy a whole duck and you'll have more than enough to make confit a couple times over.

[rockandroller1]

I've also gotten duck legs and fat from Kaufmann's poultry in WSM. I made my first duck confit from their stuff about a month ago and it was great.

[justink]

At least one of the poultry stands in the West Side Market sells individual duck legs, as well as duck fat. Also, there's a guy at the North Union Farmer's Market that sells duck, and some times has just the legs.

A bit off topic -- I found on the Niman Ranch website that a place called Euro USA in Cleveland sells their meat. Does anyone know anything about this place? As far as I can tell, it's just a distributor, but perhaps there's a retail store.

[Jambalaya]

Thanks for that info. Metropolitan Market was the place where I had seen it before and was very disappointed when I went to their old location. I was so mad I didn't notice if there was any sign indicating they had moved. In any case, I found out through a friend a few days ago of their new location. I called and as you stated they have it but off the bone and skinless.

For the record, I wound up buying it on line from a place in Indianna called Maple Leaf Farms. Theirs is still on the bone with the skin. They make a very good product plus include a generous amount of fat along with it. I compared prices between this place and Met. Market. The latter sells theirs for around $10/lb before taxes, the former for around $11/lb even after you pay for shipping. Maple Leaf Farms sells a very reasonably priced good quality product, the legs have a great herb rub and are very tasty. I highly recommend this place for duck leg confit. It ships in about 2 days in a styrofoam container packed with dry ice as well as a standard ice pack. I wouldn't order in the summer, but this time of year the stuff arrived in great shape. In fact I was so happy with the first effort I ordered more for the holidays and am having it shipped to the Binghamton, NY area where we will have Cassoulet for New Year's Day dinner.

[tbud]

you may already have your answer by now, but if not...I buy it from Metropolitan Market which just moved to Landerwood Plaza in Pepper Pike. They sell it frozen in cryo-vac packs, skinless and boneless, which is fine if you are making cassoulet. If they are out, you can order whole legs from D'Artagnan, but the shipping is rather expensive. Various Heinen's locations as well as West Point Market in Akron carry it at times. A company called More Than Gourmet now makes duck fat in 4 oz as well as 1lb tubs for cooking. Great for fried potatoes!

I made a great dish with it last week-I made some sweet potato gnocchi and needed some sort of sauce for it. So in a skillet I sauteed some shallots, added the shredded duck confit and heated thru. Added some heavy cream, a few twigs of thyme and let it simmer for about a half hour. Just a small amount of the sauce was needed for the gnocchi as both items were fairly rich.

Enjoy

[mrnyc]

you might get more replies if you add cleveland to the header!

maybe ask around in the westside market? or visit the cleveland.com food & wine forum too.

[dinerminer]

You can make your own confit. I don't know what your cooking skills are but, if you buy a single duckling you should be able to render enough fat off it to prepare a confit. If you are little short on duck fat supplement with olive oil.