French cuisine is renowned for its variety and refinement, a good example of this is the duck confit (in French confit de canard). It’s a delicacy made with legs from this bird. Although it is prepared throughout France, it is considered a specialty of Gascony.
But, what is a confit?
Confit is a generic term that describes foods that have been submerged in a substance providing mild heat to preserve it for a long time and extra flavor.
This technique is centuries old, and consists of salting a piece of meat (usually duck, goose or pork) and poaching it in its own fat, and sometimes adding spices, and leaving it for a whole day. Then it is dried and dipped in fat to cook over very low heat for hours. Once the meat is tender and juicy, the fat was drained and put in the container intended for preservation.
Apparently, the first time the term confit was applied was in the middle age, when fruits were cooked and preserved in syrup or honey. Veggies can also be confit, in olive oil.
For hundreds of years it has been known that to preserve meat it is very useful to cover it with grease, avoiding any contact with air. Already in the eighteenth century in Bayonne was made duck or goose confit, although they say that very possibly the French confit began with the slaughter of pigs, which, in order to preserve the meat, was covered in it`s own fat.
These confits are used in France to make their traditional stews and cassoulets.
In your next visit to the Vergel Bistro don`t forget to taste our duck confit.