Most families only focus on this type of meat during the holidays, or ask for it off the menu in restaurants. But it's not an unaffordable luxury and its complex nutritional content makes it a popular choice. It's not much of a problem for a freshly baked meal, but it's a premium treat to eat: let's roast duck legs!
A duck leg is no longer an expensive commodity at today's food prices, especially in terms of value for money. Duck legs are much cheaper than breasts, costing on average 25-35% less. Not least because it is easy to prepare!
It's time-consuming, though, because you can bake it for an hour and a half or even three hours, but you won't have much trouble. You just need to allow it to bake on a low heat for a longer time to get the crumbly-soft consistency.
Is it recommended to eat duck legs?
The biggest question about meat is what types of fats we consume with it. Duck meat, including duck legs, contains a combination of so-called saturated and unsaturated fatty acids. A saturated fatty acids large amounts of LDL cholesterol, known as „bad cholesterol”, are recommended to be avoided, as they increase the level of LDL cholesterol (HDL cholesterol is the cholesterol that is well utilized by the body.)
When you cook the duck legs, you also render the fat, which will collect in the bottom of the baking dish. The real duck fans, of course, will baste the meat with the cooked meat while it's cooking.
By way of comparison, duck fat has a lower saturated fat content than butter. Therefore, if cholesterol is a concern, it is much healthier to cook vegetables in duck fat instead of butter, for example.
The fat-free - or more accurately, fat-reduced - diet that many people want to lose weight also needs to be treated with caution because fat is a prerequisite for the absorption of fat-soluble vitamins such as vitamins A, D, E and K. If you are frying asparagus, sweet potatoes or pumpkin, which are high in vitamin A, brush them with a little duck fat to help them absorb the vitamins.
How to buy duck legs!
After chicken, duck meat is clearly the most popular poultry meat. When buying duck legs (or breasts), we know that the darker the colour of the meat, the older the duck.
If you buy duck from a butcher's counter, check that the skin is clean, free of feathers, odourless and whitish. If you buy frozen duck, the meat must be in a tight, airtight package.
The airtight packaging for Matusz-Vad products also applies to fresh goods, which is not true for most grocery stores. Matusz-Vad only sells premium quality, first class duck.
Preparing and cooking the duck legs
The secret to tasty, crumbly thighs is to take the time to pre-marinate and cook for several hours, including confit. You don't want to cook them quickly over high heat! This will result in dried out, shrivelled, chewy duck legs.
Garlic, red onion, black and coloured pepper, rosemary and thyme also go well with duck legs. The duck legs are usually marinated in a mixture of salt, sugar and minced herbs for 12 hours before cooking, then washed and confit. This prepares the meat, which and gentle frying make it really crumbly.
The best and truly authentic, traditional way of preparing roast duck legs is confit, which has not gone out of fashion with the advent of modern cooking technologies.
In the confit process, the duck legs are exposed to heat in a low heat (100-120°C) for one and a half to three hours in a rich fat with fruit, fresh herbs and even dried spices left whole.
The addition of water is necessary so that the meat does not lose its moisture during cooking, but rather evaporates from the surrounding medium. This makes the meat tender and prevents it from drying out.
From alcohol is a great companion for the duck during pre-marinating and roasting. For example, in the case of duck breast or thighs with cognac, the meat is left in a wet cognac marinade for 12 hours or added to the confit juice. The alcohol works on the fibre of the meat and really does soften it - but it's the flavour that really takes over. When cooked with alcohol, the alcohol content of the drink evaporates with the heat. Another trick that works well is to put whole apples in the pan, as they add flavour to the duck leg meat.
