15 Recipes That’ll Make You Say “Oui” to Confit (2024)

FAQs

What foods can you confit? ›

Beyond Duck and Goose Confit

That is, any meat with a good deal of connective tissue that begs for tenderizing. Pork belly is wonderful cooked confit, particularly if you finish it with a deep fry to crisp the exterior (like finishing your slow-cooked ribs over the grill to give it a crust).

Just about anything can be "confied." For fruit, you would preserve it in sugar syrup. Confiture is the French word for jam preserves. For garlic, you use olive oil. The most well-known confit dishes in France are duck legs which are cured in salt before cooked in duck fat.

To confit, food must be cured in salt (when necessary) and slowly cooked in fats like duck fat, chicken fat, olive oil, or sugar syrup (most commonly used to confit fruit or citrus peels) at low temperatures.

Confit refers to the process of slow cooking and storing food in fat. Confit is a French word that means "preserved." In the confit method, meats are cooked in fat for a long time at low temperatures. This renders tough cuts like duck legs more tender, and when stored in duck fat in a cool place, they last all winter.

A confit egg yolk is a fancy, yet straightforward, addition to any home cooked meal, elevating it to restaurant-style status. Put simply, to confit means to slow-cook an ingredient in fat. Though very delicate to transport, confit egg yolks will top any dish off with a little something extra and a lot of ooze.

Duck confit is a good option for anyone monitoring their weight because it is low in calories. High quantities of oleic acid found in duck fat have been demonstrated to decrease cholesterol and lessen the risk of heart disease. Duck fat also has antioxidants that can help shield your cells from harm.

Remove from oven and cool duck to room temperature in its cooking vessel, removing lid but keeping it submerged in fat. Once cool, cover container tightly and transfer to refrigerator, where confit can be stored for up to 1 month.

Confit is a French cooking technique. It's all about cooking in lots of fat at a low heat and for a very long time. You're probably most familiar with duck confit. Cooking duck confit is about using the duck's own fat, but cooking my garlic confit is about using butter or a high quality extra virgin olive oil.

You can poach any food that will hold its shape during a longer cook time submerged at lower temperatures. This includes foods like: Asparagus, chicken, eggs, leeks, meat, peaches, pears, plums, potatoes, quinces, salmon, scallops and white fish. Poaching can even reconstitute and plump up dried fruit for a compote!

Can you overcook confit? ›

Your goals are to gently cook the meat so it is close to falling off the bone and to render out as much fat as you can. You can overcook confit, however.

Confit cooking may sound like a phrase plucked from fancy restaurants and exotic cuisines, but this technique is so simple you can do it from the comfort of your home. Confit cooking is an innovative technique you can use to prepare meats at relatively low temperatures to get a delicious and healthy meal.

Unlike duck confit, fruit confit does not require the use of salt or fat. If you want to fully preserve your fruit using the confit method, it is necessary to remove all of the moisture from the fruit, which can be achieved through several days of soaking in increasingly concentrated sugar solutions.

The main difference between confit vs. sous vide lies in how the food is heated on the cooktop. With confit, food is immersed and cooked at low temperatures in fat, oil or syrup. With the sous vide method, ingredients are sealed in a vacuum-sealed bag and cooked in hot water.