Pork Confit -- Foodie Fun

This recipe is from Ruhlman and Polcyn's book, Charcuterie, from which I had previously tried making bacon.  See the first bacon post here.



I had a pork shoulder butt roast that really needed to be prepared in some way, so I perused Charcuterie and chose the Pork Confit recipe.  It is a modern recipe, but preserving meat in fat is an old technique.  There is a fun-to-read website called The Rambling Epicure that has an article on the history of confit in France.

The author points out that confit comes from the Latin word conficiere, which means "to do" or "to make."  She also says,

The French confit we know best is canard confit, or duck confit, which is traditionally cooked in a copper pot over a fire for up to 24 hours so that its fat oozes out and envelopes it.  It is then stored in its own fat and conserved in a jar for up to a year.

but she points out that to preserve food in the confit way might use sugar, honey, salt, vinegar, fat, or oil, depending on the item and if the goal is to be sweet or savory.

 Ruhlman and Polcyn ask this:

Why confit pork?  Because it's fantastic.  To take an inexpensive tough cut of meat such as pork shoulder butt, and through your knowledge and skills as a cook transform it into something exquisite, well, that's what real cooking is.  

So I take the challenge and attempt to confit my pork shoulder butt roast.

Pork Confit

2 tablespoons/30 grams kosher salt
3 bay leaves
4 garlic cloves, crushed
1/2 bunch fresh flat-leaf parsley, coarsely chopped
2 tablespoons/20 black peppercorns
1 bunch fresh sage
2 tablespoons/36 grams chopped shallots
1/2 teaspoon/3 grams pink salt
5 pounds/2.25 kilograms boneless pork shoulder butt, cut into 2-inch/5-centimeter chunks, or
   one 3 pound/1.5-kilogram boneless pork loin
2 to 4 cups/500 to 1000 milliliters rendered duck fat or lard or a combination

I only used one shallot

1. Combine all the ingredients except the pork and the fat in a spice grinder and pulverize to a powder.

2.  Rub the mixture evenly all over the meat.  Place it in a nonreactive container, cover, and refrigerate for 24 hours if you're using pork shoulder pieces, 48 hours if you're using pork loin.

3.  Preheat oven to 180 to 200 degrees F./82 to 93 degrees C.

4.  Rinse the pork under tepid water, wiping off all the seasoning, and dry thoroughly with paper towels.  Submerge the meat in the rendered fat in a stockpot or Dutch oven; the meat must be completely covered in fat.  Bring the fat to a gentle simmer on the stovetop, then place the pot, uncovered, in the oven, and cook until fork-tender for 4 to 6 hours for shoulder, 3 hours for loin.

5.  Cool in the fat, then cover, making sure all the meat is submerged in the fat and refrigerate for at least 24 hours, or for up to 3 weeks.  Or freeze for up to 4 months.

6.  To serve, allow the pork to come to room temperature, remove from the fat, and saute over medium heat or roast at 425 degrees F/220 degrees C. until hot.

My Notes

My roast was 7.5 pounds and had a bone so I just cut off 5 pounds of chunks.

I was really puzzled by the directions to put all the ingredients for the seasoning into my spice grinder.  First, it won't hold that much and second, I didn't think the garlic, shallots, and fresh herbs would actually pulverize "to a powder."

So I started with the dry ingredients:  salt, bay leaves, peppercorns, and pink salt, which fit nicely in my spice grinder and easily turned into a powder.

Then I put in the garlic and shallots, which blended into more of a chunky paste.

Finally, I decided to just chop up the parsley and sage with a knife, and not worry about using the spice grinder at all.  Note that I forgot to use just 1/2 bunch of parsley and I put in the whole thing.  Fingers crossed it still goes right.

I mixed them well in a bowl and then added the chunks of meat, tossing them to coat them thoroughly.

Then into the refrigerator until the next day.

My lard was a white solid in a container, so I scooped it into the Dutch oven and placed it over a low heat to melt it.  I rinsed each piece of meat under running water, then put it in a colander to drain while the others were being rinsed.  While I was rinsing the pieces, I occasionally cut off pieces of connective tissue that were on the surface of the pieces.  To dry them, I took two or three layers of paper towels and surrounded the meat with them, gently squeezing.  Some pieces had crevices that I dried, too.

Drip drying

 It took 2 1/2 pounds of lard to get the meat "completely submerged", which to me meant at least 1/4 inch of liquid over the highest piece. Yes, I used a spoon to push it all down to get it under the surface.

Then I turned the heat up to medium until small bubbles were rising up between the pieces.

Tiny bubbles!

My oven was heated to 180 degrees F, so into it the Dutch oven went, with the timer set for 4 hours.

After four hours, the meat was not fork-tender and a few pieces had bits that were above the fat level, so I pushed them back down and set the timer for another 2 hours.

Four hours but not yet ready

After six hours, the meat was fork-tender.  It then sat on the stovetop until it had cooled enough to put into the refrigerator.  I decided that some would stay out for taste-testing while the rest would be frozen for future appreciation.

Definitely ready.

Here's what it looked like after 24 hours in the refrigerator:

Some of those dark spots were meat chunks that were too near the surface to make me happy.

I didn't want to wait for the whole thing to come to room temperature in order to try it, so I used a spoon to scoop out a big chunk, then put it into the microwave to gently warm it.  Then I tried to cover the remaining bits with the solid fat, but that didn't really work well.  It was interesting to see that the fat sat on top of the meat, and the meat was surrounded by the gelatinous juices.

Looks a lot like mashed potatoes.

So I chose to put the whole Dutch oven back on the stove to heat it.  I wanted the fat to melt so it could completely cover the meat again.

While that was happening, I cut the chunk in half and sauteed it in its own juice, along with a little of the fat that melted off of it.  It cooked until it was lightly browned on most sides.

Lightly browned.  Beware of drying it out.

The Verdict

My guest taster and I tried the pork just as it was, out of the pan.

It was ... wonderful.  Super tender, a lovely flavor -- you could taste the seasonings and there was not too much parsley (whew) -- moist and not greasy, delicate in texture.  A lovely piece of meat, which didn't surprise me, but not tasting fatty at all did surprise me.  I thought all that lard would come through in the flavor, but I'll have to say that I think the pork cooked more in its juices than it did in the fat.  The fat was a convenient "lid" on all the juices.

We both thought it was excellent, and my guest wondered if I had cooked more, because he was willing to taste-test the rest to make sure of its quality!

I think just served as it is, with side dishes fit for pork, would make a lovely meal.  If you decided to put it into a mixed-ingredient dish, like a pork and chile stew, you would want to make sure the lovely seasonings on the meat weren't overpowered by the stew ingredients.  Even if they were, though, the amazing tenderness would add a depth to the dish.  Use big chunks.

My only criticism of my own decisions:  The fat should have been deeper -- one piece of meat in particular kept sticking part of itself up into the air, with those bits turning dark red in the process.  But maybe that would have happened anyway.  I don't think it was a problem at all while cooking, and the issue went away when it was chilling.

Right now my Dutch oven is filled with pork and fat, ready to go into the refrigerator again.  I need to figure out what container I want to use to freeze the meat, because I know I don't want to put my Dutch oven into the freezer.  At least you know now that you should plan ahead for that.

Please do try this as you will love the results.   Success in the extreme!