Confit of red peppers

#1
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6/20/07 at 2:10am
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Hello food lovers

Do we use this term in English, or is there a better way of saying it? 'Preserved peppers' sounds austere. The peppers are in a tapenade, on a menu I'm translating from French.

Thanks for your help.
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#2
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6/20/07 at 3:21am
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confit is used in English English, if that helps!
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#3
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6/20/07 at 3:33am
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Thanks Ishbel,
In your opinion, would most anglophone restaurant patrons understand sufficiently?

Thanks again

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#4
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6/20/07 at 7:19am
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Yes - I've never heard a confit referred to as anything else in any restaurant I've eaten in. And I eat out a LOT... not just in Scotland but in London, too!

I cannot answer for other countries around the world, though !
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#5
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6/20/07 at 7:40am
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Thank you very much, that's perfect

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#6
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6/20/07 at 10:46am
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Am I missing something here?

I thought confit meant to poach in its own fat. Thus, duck confit is duck that is poached in duck fat.

How does the word apply to peppers at all?

From the hint you've given, I would guess you have a tappanade of roasted red peppers?

“I could do with some kippers for breakfast.”  Nick Charles

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#7
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6/20/07 at 11:06am
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Confit is a cooking term for a variety of foods, most often meats, preserved by being salted and cooked slowly in their own fat, the most common and best known being confit d'oie (goose) and confit de canard (duck). Confit is also a condiment of fruit or vegetables cooked to the consistency of jam. Other foods, such as garlic or lemons cooked and preserved in oil or lard can also be a considered confit.

I suppose if the peppers are cooked to the proper consistency, they could be considered a confit, but I'd most likely think of the dish as something other than confit.

Shel
Shel
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#8
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6/20/07 at 11:47am
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Bonjour Avignoaddict,
My wife is a translator (English to French) so I know that meaning and locality is important. Here are some details you may need to consider.

Confit works better in Britain then in the Americas. <Confit> and <confiture> (jam) has similar cooking roots.

In America, <red pepper jelly> is a possible term for this condiment or also <red pepper preserve>.

<Pepper> can be confusing in wording because it can be confounded for ground pepper or cayenne in the case of a red product.

A very descriptive title would be <Red bell pepper preserve> but I don't know if that would be too long for a restaurant menu.

Luc

I eat science everyday, do you?

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#9
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6/20/07 at 3:43pm
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I think that here in Florida, using the term 'confit' to describe red bell peppers used in a tapenade would be considered an affectation, and chuckled at.
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#10
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6/20/07 at 10:09pm
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Try "marinated red pepper."
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#11
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6/21/07 at 12:16am
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Well, who said restaurants weren't a little pretentious? :) Many of the posher ones make it a basic principle to write pretentious menus. It's up to the customers to ask what a dish IS if they don't understand it.
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#12
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6/21/07 at 7:45am
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Just to prove that Europeans DO call things other than duck a 'confit'... wrongly or not!

Spicy Red-Pepper and Eggplant Confit Recipe at Epicurious.com
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#13
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6/21/07 at 8:57am
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I would probably go with melted red peppers or red pepper jam, depending
on the dish.
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#14
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6/21/07 at 4:57pm
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I think if you used the term confit in most restaurants here in Oz people would scratch their heads. Same with red pepper jelly - a jelly here is usually a sweet wobbly thing you give kids for desert in most people's minds :)
I'd go with KYH with the tappenade of roasted red peppers

 Don't handicap your children by making their lives easy.
Robert A. Heinlein
 

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#15
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6/24/07 at 9:54am
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Confit has sort of become one of those loose terms as I understand it. You slow cook the peppers in a neutral type of oil, and the peppers release their natural oil as opposed to fat, you then cool the peppers & keep them submerged in the oil, same with onion or garlic confit No? Then use it in it's plain form or however.
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