Slow-Cooked Duck with Olives

My son, Nick Wolfert, a film industry assistant director, adores duck confit. Though a fine cook in his own right, he never makes confit himself. He prefers to wait until he comes home for the holidays, at which time he expects to find a crock of the stuff waiting to be crisped up by his loving mom.

This year, when I forgot to put up confit, he was so forlorn I offered to enlarge his horizons by teaching him how to slow-cook a duck in the oven that would have the familiar meltingly