Confit

Confit (/kɒnfi/, French pronunciation: ​[kɔ̃fi]) comes from the French word which means literally "to preserve," a confit being any type of food that is cooked slowly over a long period of time as a method of preservation.

Confit as a cooking term describes when food is cooked in grease, oil or sugar water (syrup), at a lower temperature, as opposed to deep frying. While deep frying typically takes place at temperatures of 325–450 °F (163–232 °C), confit preparations are done at a much lower temperature, such as an oil temperature of around 200 °F (93 °C), sometimes even cooler. The term is usually used in modern cuisine to mean long slow cooking in oil or fat at low temperatures, many having no element of preservation such as dishes like confit potatoes.

In meat cooking, this requires the meat to be salted as part of the preservation process. After salting and cooking in the fat, sealed and stored in a cool, dark place, confit can last for several months or years. Confit is one of the oldest ways to preserve food, and is a specialty of southwestern France.

The word comes from the French verb confire (to preserve), which in turn comes from the Latin word (conficere), meaning "to do, to produce, to make, to prepare". The French verb was first applied in medieval times to fruits cooked and preserved in sugar.

Fruit confit are candied fruit (whole fruit, or pieces thereof) preserved in sugar. The fruit must be fully infused with sugar, to its core; larger fruit take considerably longer than smaller ones to candy. Thus, while small fruit such as cherries are confits whole, it is quite rare to see whole large fruit, such as melon confits, the time and energy involved making large fruit confits quite expensive.

Confit of goose (confit d'oie) and duck (confit de canard) are usually prepared from the legs of the bird. The meat is salted and seasoned with herbs, and slowly cooked submerged in its own rendered fat (never to exceed 85 °C (185 °F)), in which it is then preserved by allowing it to cool and storing it in the fat. Turkey and pork may be treated in the same manner. Meat confit is a specialty of the southwest of France (Toulouse, Dordogne, etc.) and is used in dishes such as cassoulet. Confit preparations originated as a means of preserving meat without refrigeration.

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