Confit

Confit (French, pronounced [kɔ̃fi] or in English "con-fee") comes from the French word confire which means literally "to preserve"; a confit being any type of food that is cooked slowly over a long period of time as a method of preservation.

Confit as a cooking term describes when food is cooked in grease, oil or sugar water (syrup), at a lower temperature — as opposed to deep frying. While deep frying typically takes place at temperatures of 325–450 °F (163–232 °C), confit preparations are done much lower—an oil temperature of around 200 °F (93 °C), sometimes even cooler. The term is usually used in modern cuisine to mean long slow cooking in oil or fat at low temperatures, many having no element of preservation such as dishes like confit potatoes.