Confits, Poultry and Meat Preserved in Duck or Goose Fat

As you drive through the countryside of Haut-Languedoc, you will often see green meadows, sheltered by trees, scattered with flocks of white and grey geese and ducks. They are enjoying their freedom but they are shortly destined to be fattened up by force-feeding, in order to provide marvellous things to eat – foie gras, duck breasts (fresh, cured and smoked), goose and duck fat for cooking and legs and wings for confit. Every butcher in Languedoc sells confit de canard or confit d’oie, often displayed in large trays, with plenty of creamy fat adhering to it.