Even Emperors know those moments when a good hot meal is required very urgently. The unexpected guests one just cannot let down, the sudden need for a celebration or the need for comfort after a trying day in the office or in the field.
There may be no restaurant handy, or they may have inexplicably refused your custom. Estate Bottled Foods, run by that great figure in food, David Kerr, is now roaring along, introducing or re-introducing Britain to taste sensations and ideas on food conservation and convenience that have been popular in France - essential, really - for hundreds of years. In Britain country ‘conserves’ or ‘preserves’ nowadays mean little more than jams; fruit that has been cooked and preserved in a jar. That technique was long ago applied to a whole range of foods... meat, fish and vegetables... and still is if you know where to go. “Confiture” might be French for jam. But ‘Confit’ is a meat dish. Most meats can be cooked and conserved for future use... in roughly the same way as fresh strawberries become jam. And in the same way that the taste of fresh strawberry mutates into something different but (if well done) just as delightful... in the old days a fresh roasted duck was popped into a jar or pot as ‘confit’. And still is, across southwestern France. The meat acquires much extra flavour, softens and matures.
Taste Sensations
Here’s the really great thing; if done right with the best ingredients, it GAINS flavour over time, rather than loses it (as is the case with freezing). Confit and other traditionally conserved meat loses the springiness of fresh cooked meat, but becomes so soft it just falls off the bone with a sort of buttery consistency that really does melt in the mouth. Nowadays there are big factories that make these dishes, canning them for supermarkets. Dave visited several of these when researching his business but always found he got the most delicious dishes from the small farmer-producers, charcutiers and chefs working in small kitchens on a small scale. They produce wonderful, truly home-cooked dishes, lovely in their jars, even better when served. Frozen dishes never look attractive in their plastic; and anyway you can’t see them as they are in the freezer.
Dave’s jars look wildly attractive sitting on the kitchen shelves. You won’t want to hide them and when it comes to sheer speed there’s no need for defrosting... open, pour and warm... so much more class and nutrition than a pizza, too. 10min max jar to table... and as conserved dishes are widely used and served in the best French restaurants... at the first taste you’ll find yourself back in Sarlat, Toulouse or Bergerac.
I did.
