So how can a cassoulet made partly with canned beans and commercial sausages be better??
Over the last couple of years I have gotten very used to making Keller toast. A few years ago, I did what Julia Child said for the top “crust” just sprinkling on bread crumbs etc. But I did not get a really rich crust for whatever reason. The “Best Soups and Stews” spells out a foolproof method. You take some good white bread, cut it into lots of tiny cubes, toss in a pan with melted butter (I also sprayed with olive oil), and bake on a cookie sheet in a 425 oven until lightly browned. This way you get delicious light crispy crumbs. And when I decided I didn’t have enough, I crunched up some Keller toast, which is made the same way but with whole slices. I always have Keller toast on hand. As a result the crumbs were “thirsty” for the top juices and soaked up the greasy stuff, and when put into a hot oven for a few minutes, they browned beautifully. So a better crust makes a better cassoulet.
The big pot on the left is the porky version, small pot is the birdy version.
Thanks, Frank, for starting this discussion. It has given me some new ideas. I have done the d’Artagnan kit several times and thought the cost over the top for what you get. I have also done at least a half dozen other recipes for cassoulet, including Paula Wolffert’s (In fact I got the special cassoulet crock that she recommends). Some observations: I still like the Tarbais beans. They seem less likely to fall apart with sustained cooking. I was able to purchase 12 lbs. of them for about $8/lb. from a local French Restaurant (I do not know their source), considerably more economical than d’Artagnan’s price. Shorter cooking times seem not to meld the flavors as well as longer cooking times do. I have confited chicken thighs, using traditional duck leg preparation techniques and seasoning, in my sous vide water bath. Definitely better than the crock pot I used to use for duck legs with much better temp. control. I really can not tell the difference between confited chicken thighs and duck confit when the meat is broken up on the cassoulet. I prefer to use my confit of duck over Le Puy lentils or black barley which do not overwhelm its flavors. French Garlic sausage is virtually impossible to get in the SD area. There is a German butcher shop nearby and I found that Jagdwurst is a close approximation to French garlic sausage without some the off flavors that Kielbasa seems to impart.
Occasionally when I don’t have anything better to do, I’ll buy three or four frozen ducklings (they are actually cheaper at local Asian markets, although smaller and come with heads and feet). I then confit the legs and thighs. The breast meat I make into duck sausage, stuffing skins with it. I then roast the carcasses catching the duck fat for use in the confiting and subsequently in the cassoulet. I then boil down the roasted carcasses to make duck stock for the cassoulet, or whatever use. Doesn’t waste much of the duck.
I have not tried lingots, although I have some in the pantry as a backup should I be unable to get Tarbais. I shall do an experiment this weekend, cooking both under the same conditions and shall post the results next week. A local restaurant touts the wonders of cooking beans sous vide and I shall try that.
The new Cook’s Illustrated speaks of a method to brine soak dried beans.
Anybody try this yet?
The recipe I developed for a NYC restaurant I cooked at was more traditional in some ways and less in others. We confited duck legs, used saucisson purchased from D’Artagnan, and I braised lamb riblets (the trimmed waste from french cut racks purchased from the butcher) which were added to the casserole after they were cleaned up. Dried northern beans were my legume. IIRC for the assemblage we sauteed garlic and mirepoix, the beans and stock, cooked the beans and as they were close to tender, added the meats and slow cooked it.
Something odd has happened with my cassoulet leftovers and I wasn’t sure if I had to mention it, but Mark’s comment about brining the beans makes me think I should.
When I was eating the freshly made cassoulet, it did not taste particularly salty to me. Somewhat salty, yes, and that applied to both the porky and birdy versions. But we combined the leftovers and after a few days the saltiness is really a little extreme. I have no idea why it would change like that, and I don’t know if it is just something about my perception but it seems real.
When we finish the leftovers tonight I think we’ll have the dish with some under-salted rice to kind of even things out, and “stretch” what is left.
I -did- brine the chicken, and of course bacon and sausages are already pretty salty.
I made a cheap and easy “Kassoulet” this weekend. It came out very well.
Ingredients;
1 lb flagoulet
1 lb canneloni
2 quarts homemade chicken stock
1 lb Bowman Landes smoked turkey sausage
1 lb boar bacon
2 lbs Bowman Landes smoked turkey thigh
4 whole duck legs
8 whole cloves garlic
Black pepper and red pepper flakes
Homemade bread crumbs
Romano (ground)
A day in advance I soaked the beans and confitted the duck legs (used crock pot to confit the four duck legs in olive oil for ten hours).
Day of prep (yesterday) I ladled a ladle of the oil from the duck confit process into an 8 quart AllClad pot and rendered down the sliced boar bacon. Once I had lardons I added all the meat product (sausage was sliced thick and diagonally, duck fell apart, turkey thigh was cut up) and the garlic. Lots of ground pepper and some red pepper flake was added Once the meat/garlic was nicely infused with the fat and slightly browned
(45 minutes or so with occasional stirring) I scooped it all out onto a plate with paper towels to soak up the excess fat. I drained the pot of fat and deglazed with beer (the games were on and I had a bottle open). I then added 80% of my stock, and a third of the beans and then half the meat/garlic. Then another third of the beans and the rest of the meat/garlic. Then topped off with the rest of the beans. Popped it into the oven at 325. Cooked for 3.5 hours and stirred a bit each hour. With half an hour to go my stock had all evaporated/absorbed so I added a bit more and then topped the Kassoulet with the bread crumbs and yes, Romano (it was what I had on hand). I used the broiler at the end to crust up the top.
My seventeen year old turned up his nose at the process til he smelled it cooking with an hour to go. Then he wanted some. He ate a second plate too. He normally is not a fan of duck. The combination of smoked boar bacon and smoked Bowman and Landes product made it a bit smokey. It aint Cassoulet for sure. But it’s easy and good. Total cost of ingredients was around $10-15.
I’m making Cassoulet for a party on Saturday and today while sous vide (ing) the duck leg confit my vacuum-seal bags had seal failure right as I was moving the bags around. The seals gaps were both on the bottom of the bags and some of the DF leaked out but no water got in and I had to transfer the duck legs to a stew pot and put it in the oven. Of course I was using only minimal duck fat as the bags were providing the proper environment and once in the stewpot I added some veg. oil to cover. Kind of bummed to lose out on the pure duck fat for later.
I agree–just because cassoulet is a legit $25+ entree at a fine restaurant doesn’t convince me the cassoulet kit ought to be really expensive. Now, I’m willing to pay a pretty penny at a restaurant because it takes some real skill to take very modest ingredients like beans and sausage and make them noble, especially with the ambiance and service of fine dining. Put the onus on me to get it right–I’ll just start with piecing the base ingredients together myself, thanks.
I suppose that’s the beauty of French cuisine–taking modest things like land snails and diseased duck livers then elevating them to grandeur with layered flavors and textures via skilled preparation.
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