Duck fat
Oil
Top 10 pairings
Duck fat is the soft, pale-gold fat rendered from the skin and fatty tissue of ducks — slowly melted out, strained clear, and set firm to a creamy, ivory semi-solid. Richly savoury and clean-tasting with a generous smoke point, it is the prized fat for confit, for the crispest roast potatoes, and for sautéing and pastry in the duck-rich cooking of south-western France.
Picking a good onedrag
Pale, firm, clean and butteryYellow-rimmed, crayon-stale, or wet beneath
Roasted and in useEveryday bestDeeper, roastier fat from a hot render or a confit pot. Keep it strained, capped and cold, and use a dry spoon — water is what undoes it.
Colour, and the surface of the set fatDeeper gold or faintly tan, but even all the way down
Smell at the open jarDeeper and roastier, from a hot render or a confit pot
Strained fat, or a working confit potConfit fat, strained and kept cold, a dark jelly set below