My duck is cooked

Shouldn't that be "goose"? Well, no, I bought duck. But goose would be good too.

The duck pieces as they came out of the brining solution

It's so simple. You take the duck out of the brine (even if you just salt it and don't add any water, it's likely to be brine by the time you take it out). I left the duck to marinate for slightly more than 48 hours. See this topic for details about the marinade/brine.

And as they looked after three hours of cooking in duck fat

When you take the duck leg-thigh sections out of the brine, rinse them in cold water to remove any excess salt. And get rid of the marinade and all the aromatics. Then put the duck pieces into a big wide cookpot and pour enough duck fat over them to cover them completely.

You can add some melted lard or chicken fat if you don't have enough duck fat. Here in France, you can buy tubs of duck fat at the supermarket. Put the pot on to cook on low heat for about 3 hours. It should just barely bubble.

Here are the duck pieces packed for storing. The fat hasn't
congealed yet. It turns a nice white color as it cools.

To store the duck pieces, remove them from the pot they cooked in and put them into a clean dish with a cover. Then carefully ladle or pour as much fat over them as it takes to cover them completely. Now they can be kept for months in a cold pantry or in the refrigerator.

In fact, many say the duck improves as it ages and "cures" in its own fat.

Duck gizzards sell for about $3.00/lb. They need long slow cooking
to make them tender. Then serve on salad or with cooked vegatables.
The gizzard is a tough muscle but has a mild flavor and nice texture.

How do you eat confit? You put the dish into a warm oven to melt the fat. You take out as many pieces as you want to serve. Heat them up in a pot of beans or greens. Or sauté them a little in a skillet to give them some color. Or put them on a rack in a baking pan and brown them in the oven. A lot of the fat drips away and the final product is pretty lean.

Here's a jar of duck fat that I have left over.
It spent the night in the fridge and had time to harden.

Another idea is to make a kind of shepherd's pie with the duck — un hachis parmentier au canard confit. Pull the meat off the bones, shredding it. Sauté some chopped onion, add in the duck meat, and put it all in a dish with a layer of mashed pototoes over all. Brown it in the oven.

The remaining pieces of duck just get left in the fat and put away for later. When the fat re-congeals, they are out of contact with the air and will keep for a good while with no change in flavor.

You can buy duck hearts either fresh or brined (saumurés)
for a lot less than gizzards. They also need long slow cooking.

Use the fat to flavor vegetables, or sauté potatoes, or to make your next batch of confit. Strain the fat, pour it hot into jars, put on the lids, and let it cool. It will keep indefinitely in a cold place.

The cooking liquid that sinks to be bottom is duck broth and is a good addition to soups or gravies, or as a flavoring for vegetables. It also will keep indefinitely as long as it is protected from contact with the air by a layer of congealed fat.

And finally, a choice morsel, the aiguillette. That's the tenderloin
that lies under the breast of the duck. It's tender and lean, and
can be grilled on skewers or sauteed and simmered in a cream sauce.

By the way, I wrote about making confit in this topic from December 2005, right after I started this blog. Yes, it's official and I admit it, I am repeating myself. Je radote, as we say in French.