Confit
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Confit (French) is a generic term for several kinds of preserve.
Confit is one of the oldest ways to preserve food, and is a speciality 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 syrup or honey. Later, it came to describe various kinds of food that have been immersed in a substance for both flavor and preservation. Sealed and stored in a cool place, confit can last for several months, and can be reheated to extend its useful life.
[edit] Meat confits
The first kind of confit was preserves of meat in fat. (Excessive fat is discarded before consumption.) The process involves cooking a piece of meat in its own fat and storing it in a pot, covered in the same fat for preservation.
Perhaps the most common examples of confit are confit d'oie (goose) and confit de canard (duck), in which poultry is macerated in herbs and salt, cooked in savory broth or fat, and then preserved in rendered fat. Such confits are a specialty of the southwest of France (Toulouse, Dordogne etc.) and are used in refined versions of dishes such as cassoulet. Although confit of goose or duck are now considered somewhat luxurious products, these dishes were used by peasants as a means to store meats for periods of time without refrigeration.
[edit] Fruits confits
Fruits confits are fruits (or pieces thereof) preserved in sugar. The fruit must be fully infused with sugar up to its core; larger fruits take considerably longer than smaller ones to prepare. Thus, while small fruits such as cherries are confites whole, it is quite rare to see whole large fruits, such as melons, confits, and when they are available, large fruits confits are quite expensive.
Small fruits confits, such as cherries, are traditionally used as decorations on elaborate cakes. In French, the expression la cerise sur le gâteau ("the cherry on the cake") is used figuratively to mean some kind of desirable, but not indispensable, additional feature or finishing touch. An equivalent saying in English would be "the icing on the cake", or "the cherry on top".
