Confit

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 south-western France. The word comes via the French verb confire, 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 has applied to all kinds of food that has been immersed in a substance that both flavours and preserves it. Sealed and stored in a cool place it can be stored for several months, and can be reheated to extend its useful life.

Meat confits

The first kind are preserves of meat in fat. (Excessive fat is discarded before consumption.) It's basically to cook a piece of meat in its own fat and stored in a pot, covered in the same fat to preserve it.

The best known examples are confit d'oie (goose) and confit de canard (duck), in which poultry is cooked in savory broth, macerated in herbs and salt, then preserved in its own rendered fat. Such confits are a specialty of the southwest of France (Toulouse, Dordogne etc.); they are a somewhat luxury product and are used in refined versions of dishes such as cassoulet.

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 as whole, it is quite rare to see whole large fruits, such as melons, confits, and 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.