Duck confit (confit de canard) is the salt-cured, fat-poached leg of the duck (Anas platyrhynchos domesticus) — a foundational preparation of south-west France in which the salted leg is cooked slowly, fully submerged in rendered duck or goose fat, until the meat falls from the bone, then stored under a sealing cap of that fat. The finished leg is deeply savoury and unctuous: the tough dark meat has melted to silky, gelatinous tenderness while a quick crisping in a hot pan turns the skin to shattering, mahogany crackle. Salt, gentle heat and fat together preserve and transform the meat, giving confit its characteristic concentrated, lightly cured, meltingly rich character. The word "confit" simply means "preserved," and the method reaches beyond duck — goose, pork and even fruit are confited — but confit de canard is the emblem.