It’s that time of the year, and I was hoping people wouldn’t mind linking or posting their favorite cassoulet recipes. I’ve done the Bourdain thing successfully, but it is obviously a lot of work (yes and worth it). what else is out there?
When I get back to Chicago I will search out a couple I have at home…
If you are going to make a bunch of different ones to figure out what you like, I will gladly be your guinea pig and test the results…
I LOVE LOVE cassoulet… gotta get the right beans though…
Last time I made it I ordered the “kit” from d’Artagnan and made a version based on Julia Child’s recipe. The “kit” is about $100 IIRC but it’s got some really tasty stuff in it. I made 2 pots because we had some birdy-terians who would eat birds but not pork.
Good stuff. Got to do that again, maybe in January.
As I usually do, I’m recommending this recipe from Paula Wolfert’s The Cooking of Southwest France: Cassoulet in the Style of Toulouse (she credits it to Pierrette Lejanou). I’ve made variations of it more than a dozen times and it is always outstanding.
I’ve also used the D’Artagnan kit mentioned by Frank and can recommend it as well if you don’t have the time/inclination to make your own duck confit. It used to come with tasty sausage, confit, ventreche (French pancetta), and tarbais beans, but don’t know if all those ingredients are still included.
Whatever you do, get the tarbais beans, as cassoulet is fundamentally a bean dish and the tarbais are the ones to use.
Shaffer
I have no child this weekend. I’m ready to try out your skillz.
Chris, doubtful it will be completed by this weekend, but you will get the invite for the finished product.
SWEET!
I’m sittin’ next to manlin.
My thighs miss his touch.
![[barf.gif]](/uploads/db3686/original/2X/8/8943c0ebb2703c20afa757f7ca84a099bb9de70d.gif "barf")
I’ve got some pork belly confit I made and it would probably taste good in a Cassoulet?
must source some beans…
Tired of chicken fingers and juice packs? 
I liked the d’Artagnan kit but I always add a little extra something or other, depending on what’s available and fresh (this year it’ll be fresh duck stock I made). I tried making Bourdain’s, but the Tarbais beans I got from Kalustyan’s were old and refused to soften. They completely ruined it, and so I’ll be careful what I buy when I go there from now on.
Hmmm… perhaps a pre-Christmas cassoulet is in order?
My cured duck, duck liver sausage, pork sausage, salted duck gizzards, mirepoix, herbs, garlic, and beans are all teed up for the next cold weekend. Freemott thighs are not an ingredient, however. They would throw off the meat-versus-fat balance.
Tarbais beans can be tough to source but, Flageolet beans are a very good substitute. Hold up well under long cooking times and have a creaminess to them, that they will impart to the dish.
I’ve been meaning to make this version from Keller; not 100% authentic, but it’s a very easy recipe to follow.
I will modify it to my own tastes and add duck confit, French saucisson, etc.
Now where, in Chicago, am I going to get toulouse?
Paulina Meat Market has a fresh pork sausage seasoned with garlic AKA Polish sausage
(as close as it gets to Toulouse here in Chicago)
Not local, but you can order a domestic version online:
http://www.frenchselections.com/database/catlist.mv?-Fresh%20sausages
You have to be born Toulouse. And have a tattoo saying so.
Legend has it that cassoulet was originally made with dried fava beans. See “Spilling the Beans”, Forbes magazine: Spilling the Beans
Today, two varieties are used in the “cassoulet belt,” stretching from Toulouse to Carcassonne. In Toulouse, only the flat, kidney-shaped tarbais beans (from the area around Tarbes, about 100 km SW of Toulouse) will do. In Castelnaudry, where cassoulet was invented during the Hundred Years War, the Grande Confrérie de Cassoulet specifies the smaller and rounder lingot bean. See “Bean Cuisine”, Saveur magazine: http://www.saveur.com/article/Our-Favorite-Foods/Bean-Cuisine#
Lingots are less expensive than tarbais - under $4/lb vs. $12-16/lb.
Lingots
Marky’s, $7.89/kg: http://www.markys.com/caviar/customer/white-kidney-beans-dried-35.2-oz..html
Amazon, $8.24/kg: http://www.amazon.com/White-Kidney-Beans-Haricots-Lingots/dp/B000LR30B8
Tarbais
D’Artagnan, $11.99/lb: http://www.dartagnan.com/51464/565828/Beans-Chestnuts--Crackers/French-Coco-Tarbais-Beans.html
Purcell Mtn. Farms, $15.95/lb: Home - Purcell Mountain Farms
I actually had dinner at the Confrerie des Cassoulet in Castelnaudry (there’s a Confrerie for everything in France, God bless them!), and was underwhelmed. Granted, I was invited in the middle of July, which is not the perfect timing for something like cassoulet… ![[swoon.gif]](/uploads/db3686/original/2X/f/f425e8dac3e7344bee264da02e55428971be23a9.gif "swoon"){kind=small}
I used to make this but I have given up after having the Anthony Bourdain take on the Castelnaudry version from my buddy Matt “Rowdy” Richardson.
This is the best to me.
You need Tarbais beans!
Use something that retains heat well to cook it.
Enameled Cast Iron or Lodge. Clay pots are fabulous here.
No Stainless Steel.