Confit, a French method for cooking and preserving meat in fat

Confit is a French term that describes the slow cooking of food in fat and its preservation in that fat. It is pronounced koo-fee, and today it is also used to refer to meat cooked in this way.

The method originated as a way to preserve meat without refrigeration. The bird was salted, covered in fat, and left to mature for months, as the fat formed an airtight layer that prevented bacteria from entering. Over time, the deliciousness of meat prepared this way was discovered, and the method persisted long after it was no longer necessary for survival.

Today the process is shorter. The meat is patted dry with paper towels, massaged with seasoned salt, wrapped, and aged in the refrigerator for a few days. The salt draws out moisture from the meat, making it very tender. It is then slowly cooked at around 150°C for two to three hours in the chosen fat: duck, goose, or chicken, although home cooks also use olive oil. If a recipe takes less than an hour to prepare, it's not authentic confit.

This should not be confused with sous vide, which cooks vacuum-sealed food in hot water. Even if the bag contains a little oil or butter, the meat is not cooked in its own fat.

Duck confit, or confit de canard, is the most popular dish of its kind in the world, and it's prepared with duck legs cooked in their own fat. Authentic duck confit can last five to six months. Thomas Keller explains this in his cookbook, Bouchon: "You can keep confit for months instead of weeks if you remove all the juice from the fat." To do this, the fat is allowed to solidify, carefully removed without disturbing the gel underneath, reheated, and the duck is then submerged in it again.

Confit also has a sweet version. Candied fruit dates back to almost every ancient civilization, and Apt, in southeastern France, may be the leading producer today. At home, you can prepare a candied pear with mulled wine spices, cloves, and cinnamon, served with crème fraîche.