Just ducky

You're probably familiar with Van Gogh's famous sunflower paintings, arguably his signature works, immediately recognizable as typical of his style, or as his friend Paul Gauguin put it, "completely Vincent." He did several large canvases of the big yellow blooms, some say under the influence of too much absinthe, a number of them in Paris while staying with his brother and the others while in Arles in the south of France.

The sunflowers in the Paris paintings are simply placed on a floor or a table, while the ones done in Arles depict the blossoms arranged in what is commonly said to be a vase. But a closer look at the latter reveals that the flowers have not been placed in a vase, but rather in a French confit pot. This revelation has done more to enhance my interest in these great Dutch works of art than just about any other aspect of them.

Like Van Gogh's sunflower paintings, a confit pot is a beautiful thing. Distinguished from most other pots by its yellow top and clay bottom, it is a device used to cook and store food in fat. (The French word confit means preserved.) The technique is centuries old, going all the way back to prehistoric times. Meats — goose, pork, turkey and especially duck — are cooked in their own fat for days at a time at a low temperature and then sealed in a crock and covered with rendered fat. They can last all winter this way.

Now you may not have the time or the equipment to make your own confit, but you can certainly use fat itself as a cooking medium, and if you choose duck fat, you will be amply rewarded. That's because, as chef and cookbook author Samin Nosrat, anointed the next Julia Child by NPR, explains, "Food can only ever be as delicious as the fat with which it is cooked." Another way of saying this is the familiar culinary adage, "fat carries flavor." And when food is cooked with duck fat, flavor is carried to a higher level.

The French have known this for years. While in this country, we typically rely on oil or butter for cooking. Duck fat has always been a prized ingredient there, especially in the southwest corner of the county, where it is considered gastronomic liquid gold. But recently, thanks to the efforts of New York celebrity chef David Chang of Momofuku fame, duck fat is having its day here. Thus, while many restaurants have been habitually and with little fanfare using duck fat to prepare French fries, now they brag about it on their menus. A cafe in Portland, Maine, has even named itself Duckfat for its noteworthy Belgian fries.

Duck fat can elevate the taste of almost any food, even baked goods like these duck fat cookiesSubmitted by Tom Harte

But as good as potatoes cooked with duck fat are — and there's no better way to cook them, if you ask me — almost any food can be enhanced with the duck fat treatment. For example, consider the Olive and Sinclair candy company in Nashville. Believe it or not, they're doing a brisk business selling duck fat caramels. So if you want to up your game when it comes to cooking, maybe it's time to make way for duck fat.

Duck Fat Fries

This recipe, adapted from Allrecipes, a recipe sharing website (allrecipes.com), may represent the ultimate way to make French Fries, and it actually doesn't call for real frying. Rather, potatoes are roasted at high heat in an oven, a much more convenient process than true frying. But the application of duck fat, as opposed to mere olive oil, brings them to a whole new level.

• 2 large russet potatoes
• 1 tablespoon chopped thyme
• 1 pinch cayenne pepper
• salt and pepper
• 2 tablespoons melted duck fat

Cut each potato into eight thick wedges and place in a bowl. Sprinkle with thyme, cayenne, salt and pepper. Drizzle melted duck fat over potatoes, tossing to coat. Transfer to a foil-lined baking, skin side down, and season with more salt to taste. Bake at 325 degrees for 40 minutes. Increase oven temperature to 450 degrees. Turn potatoes on one side and bake for 10 minutes. Turn potatoes on other side and bake 10 minutes more or until golden brown.