Le Gastronomie

Confit comes from converging lines of French food traditions - dishes made with duck and quality tinned food.
During the first years of the Napoleonic wars, the French military offered a cash prize of 12,000 francs for a new method to preserve food.  Nicolas Appert proposed canning and the process was first proven in 1806 by the French navy and the prize was awarded in 1809.

Duck is a French staple - regularly on the menu at home and in gourmet restaurants, and filling French grocery stores with choices of rustic cassoulet,and duck fat as well as haute cuisine foie gras and confit.  Widely available and relatively simple to hunt, duck has long been prominent in French countryside cooking, most notably in the South West of France, where duck fat is the main cooking fat, ahead of olive oil (South East France) and butter (Northern France).  The South West is also famous for foie gras and cheaper alternatives from both farmed goose and duck.

Confit de Canard stands above Magret (grilled duck breast) and Canard à l'Orange (roasted duck with orange sauce) as being the dish closer to traditional simple French cuisine and also as the superior alternative in this simplicity.  The fact that it comes in a tin is in no way scorned in France and does not diminish from its prestige as a dinner party or special occasion meal.  Pragmatically, the preservation of the meat in duck fat adds considerably to its desirability, and this occurs in a tin!