Meats Baked in Fat

Definition of a True Confit Confirm in French means to preserve; as one preserves fruit by cooking it in sugar, one preserves meat first by curing it, to extract its perishable juices, then cooking it in a bath of fat. The technique is extremely ancient and seems to be so universal that it might date back to the Stone Age when meats were cooked in water in a large animal skin stretched like a pouch over an open fire. This technique was still in use among the Indians of the Plains when Europeans arrived in North America. When one cooks meat this way and lets it simmer a long time, the water eventually evaporates, leaving the meat to finish cooking in its own fat (see the recipe for rillettes). The meat is succulent but cannot be kept a long time and remains perishable. If one salts the meat to cure it before cooking it in fat, it can keep a longer time.