Lamb or Goat Neck Confit

Grass fed lamb or goat neck confit recipe

Chef Alan Bergo
Chef Alan Bergo

About 

Confit, or highly seasoned meat cooked slowly in it’s own fat, is a classic French method of meat preservation dating back to times before we had refrigerators and freezers to preserve meat for the winter.

The fat, and gentle cooking gives some of the most tender, succulent meat possible, which is why it’s still relevant and useful today, even though preserving meat outside of refrigeration, or in a cold root cellar, isn’t a necessity. If you’re at all familiar with confit, you’ll definitely want to try Lamb or goat neck confit.

Certain cuts of meat are preferable for making confit. In a perfect world, you want to use cuts best for slow cooking, things with  lots of connective tissue and intramuscular fat-the hard working muscles. With lamb, goat, and other ruminants like venison, shoulder is one of the most commonly used cuts for confit, but neck is just as good. It’s an overlooked cut of meat.

After cooking in fat, confit was typically cooked again with beans or in stews, or made into rillettes, a sort of spreadable, shredded meat pate. Now days, chefs (and home cooks) serve confit in all kinds of ways, but some of the classic ways are still the best.

Grass fed lamb or goat neck confit recipe
The meat needs to be covered with lard or other fat for it’s long, low cooking.

If you look online, making confit can be intimidating as it calls for a lot of rendered tallow. Rendered tallow will give confit with the deepest flavor, but originally the meat was cooked in tallow or lard since it would solidify after cooking, and form an air tight seal. If you’re making confit at home, and don’t have access to animal fats, it’s perfectly fine to substitute some cooking oil along with some animal fat, or in a pinch, even just oil, just don’t brag about it to a chef from France.

Grass fed lamb or goat neck confit recipe
After chilling, the lard will form an air-tight seal, which is how it was stored in pre-refrigeration days.

Salt

Another thing to consider with confit is exactly how much salt to use. Saying something like “season the meat liberally” can mean different things to different people, but using a scale to weigh the salt removes any sort of guesswork, and possible over-salting.

Chef Bergo has made confit for years, out of many different animals. He recommends from 1.5% salt by weight. To find out how much to season our lamb neck, we take the weight in ounces, and convert it to grams. Our neck was 2.5 lbs, or 1120 grams. 1120 grams x .015 is 17 grams, or 1 heaping tablespoon of kosher salt.

After the confit is cooked, Chef Bergo recommends letting it sit under the lard for at least a few days, but it can be eaten right away. It’s excellent on top of cooked white beans and wilted greens, or save it to make lamb rillettes!

Lamb or goat rillettes recipe
Lamb Rillettes

This recipe is by chef Alan Bergo. A chef from Minnesota, Alan is a veteran of the culinary industry, former executive chef of acclaimed Lucia’s Restaurant, and the Salt Cellar. Founder of the website Forager Chef, he’s best known as a respected authority on Midwestern foraging. Learn more about Alan and his hunt for mushrooms, wild and obscure foods at Forager Chef.

Looking to buy lamb or goat online? Shepherd Song Farm: Grass to table. We raise lambs & goats traditionally, humanely and sustainably. 100% Grass Fed, Pasture Raised, Never Confined, no Hormones, Grains or Animal Byproducts. Born, raised and processed in the U.S.A. Good for you and good for the environment.

Get Cooking

 

More Ideas

Need more delicious ideas for cooking with lamb and goat neck? See How to Cook Lamb or Goat Neck, with Recipes.

Lamb or Goat Neck Confit

Lamb neck seasoned with herbs and cooked slowly in it's fat until fork tender.
Prep Time10 minutes
Cook Time3 hours
Course: Appetizer, Snack
Cuisine: French
Keyword: Confit, Goat, Lamb, Neck
Servings: 4

Equipment

  • A baking dish or pan the neck can fit in snugly, such as an 8 inch diameter saucepan

Ingredients

  • 1 lamb neck or goat neck about 2.5 lbs
  • Rendered lamb tallow or whatever animal fat is available
  • A few sprigs of fresh thyme
  • Small sprig of fresh rosemary
  • 17 grams of kosher salt or 1 heaping tablespoon
  • 2 teaspoons black peppercorns
  • 2 dried bay leaves

Instructions

  • Season the neck all over with the salt, then allow to rest overnight.
  • The next day, rinse the neck quickly under water to remove excess salt, then place in a pot with the remaining ingredients, completely covering the neck with lard.
  • Cover and bake the lamb neck at 250 for 3 hours, or until the meat moves freely from the bone. Remove the pot from the oven and cool. Discard the herbs and spices.
  • From here, if you used lard or tallow, you can transfer the lamb neck to a container and refrigerate it for months as long as the meat is completely covered by fat. If you used oil, you'll want to use the confit within a week.

Notes

Many other cuts can be prepared like this. Shoulder is especially good.

Lamb or goat rillettes recipe
Rillettes are a sort of spreadable pate.

Lamb or Goat Rillettes

Rillettes are one of Chef Bergo's favorite things to make with finished confit, it's a sort of rustic pate or spread that goes well with anything. You can make the rillettes with any type of confit, from any cut on the animal. It's a very traditional recipe to make with confit, typically lamb shoulder is used.
Prep Time10 minutes
Cook Time3 hours
Course: Appetizer, Snack
Cuisine: French
Keyword: Confit, Lamb Neck, Rillettes

Ingredients

  • 1 confit lamb or goat neck per recipe above
  • 1/4 cup finely diced shallots
  • 1/4 cup apple cider vinegar
  • 2 teaspoons chopped fresh thyme
  • 1/4 cup melted butter

Instructions

  • First clean the lamb neck. Pull the meat from the bone, then discard the bones and any connective tissue. From a 2.5 lb neck, you should end up with about 2 cups of packed meat, or 1 lb.
  • Meanwhile, cook the shallots in the vinegar until the pan is dry.
  • Transfer the meat to the bowl of a stand mixer, add the thyme and shallots, then slowly work the meat, slowly drizzling in the fat until it's completely absorbed.
  • Taste the mixture, it should be well seasoned, but if you think it could use a little more of something, add it.
  • The rillettes should be smooth and spreadable, but they will firm up when chilled. They'll last in the fridge for 3-4 days in the fridge, but can be stored for months if they're packed into a container and covered with a layer of lard to act as a seal, such as in a mason jar. Serve with crusty bread, mustard and pickles, or as part of a charcuterie plate.

Notes

For the best results, make sure the rillettes are at room temperature so the fat is spreadable.

SHARE THIS RECIPE