Unfortunately sold out, hopefully more soon. This is my new go to place for the best quality tarbais bean. http://www.ranchogordo.com/collections/heirloom-beans/products/cassoulet-tarbais-bean
Andrew, thank you for posting this recipe.
I made Cassoulet based on this yesterday. I really loved how the beans turned out, maybe the best beans I’ve made for cassoulet.
I used dried Cannellini beans, about 1 and 1/4 lb, soaked over night with 3 TBS salt in the soaking water. Cooked with the aromatics (celery, carrot, bay leaf, thyme, parsley, 5 cloves and a whole head of garlic), and the stock with the dissolved gelatin like mentioned here. I cooked them about 30 minutes on low simmer, then turned the heat off and let them sit in the warm broth with all the aromatics for a couple of hours as we headed out to do some errands. I removed all the aromatics except the whole garlic head before assembling the meat with the beans.
When I got home I assembled the beans and meat. I used 8 oz of bacon in place of salt pork as my butcher makes their own bacon, its not too smokey and of very good quality. I got a single piece of the bacon “ends” and cut it into 3/4" chunks. After rendering the fat from the chopped bacon, the bacon was removed from the pan. Next I used about 1.5 lbs of pork shoulder, trimmed and cubed and browned on medium high heat, next in the bacon fat. After this browned, the pork shoulder cubes were removed and I turned the heat down to medium/low and slowly browned 4 bone in chicken thighs.
After the chicken was browned, this was removed and I browned 3 garlic sausage links (again home made from our local butcher, made with garlic and pepper and pretty close to kielbasa except not smoked). This was done pretty quickly over high heat.
In the past I’ve made the dish making my own confit of duck but that involves pre ordering the duck and advance prep time, so I went with this recipe and used chicken thighs. I think it worked well. The chicken is lighter then the duck and the flavor and texture were great.
The beans and meat were cooked uncovered in the oven in an Emile Henry casserole at 300 degrees for about 4 1/2 hours. At two hours a crust had started to form, and I broke it and pushed it into the broth as per the recipe. At about 3 3/4 hours I needed to add a little more liquid to the cassoulet as it started to dry out a bit, so I used some left over stock, pouring it down the sides slowly as per the recipe.
I used store bought chicken stock and added unflavored knox gelatin as per the instructions, and did get a beautiful dark brown crust on the surface without any breadcrumbs.
It turned out fantastic, one of the best cassoulets I’ve made, and the texture of the beans came out perfect, creamy but still with some body, not too mushy.
We drank Cyril Fhal’s Rouge Gorge 2013 VdP des Côtes Catalanes Jeunes Vignes, which is 30 year old grenache vines from SW France, 2005 Domaine du Tunnel Stephane Robert Cornas, and 2006 Charvin CNdP with the meal. All the wines were fantastic. I preferred the Cornas the best, but others liked the Charvin more. The Cyril Fhal wine was a revelation. It was very aromatic, light bodied, and extremely fresh for a Grenache grown so far in the warm South. I don’t know if it is partly done with carbonic maceration, which I suspect as it had such freshness of fruit without much tannic structure.
Killing me. I’m at a bistro in Paris, wishing I was eating dinner at your place.
It was a last minute decision to make it. I invited Warren, who posts here, over for dinner.
He emails me back that he would love to come, but the commute would be a bit long, an includes a picture of himself in Venice!
I don’t feel too sorry for either of you. 
Made the above cassoulet yesterday. Used smoked andouie sausage and hot Italian sausage. I used 8 chicken thighs in a la creuset that was deep but didn’t have enough surface area/. The thighs took up so much of the surface area that I never got a skin to form. Also, failed to add liquid so pretty much all of it was absorbed. The upside is that it was still delicious. will try again in the future.
paired beautifully with 2007 Quinta do Vallado Touriga Nacional Douro. Last one of those, but I still have a couple of its big brother the reserva.
Last night at L’Assiette, with 2012 Graillot Crozes. The beans were impossibly creamy.
My wife and I have a date with one of these in October.
Dinner at Auberge Pyrenees Cevennes. I walked five miles for their cassoulet, so apologies if I’m overly excited. Holy beans in duck fat. I’m ready to pass out on the floor. To be clear, there is no sense of the caramelization and browning of the above pics, but this is pure beans in duck fat. Just ridiculous.
Beans look good but that duck skin looks a bit on the “rare” side for my tastes.
Agreed re:skin; that one particular piece was grayish, flaccid and off-putting. Was strange, given everything else was crispy. Outrageously good, way too rich, and worth the hike.
Cassoulet challenge, round 2: L’Assiette.
Thank you for the recommendation! Was a good excuse to continue to learn the Metro and go out to an area I haven’t been to yet.
After a shrimp tartare dish (mixed with shallots, pine nuts and pickled radish), the main course arrived. As you can see from the photo, the skin was an orange-brown color, much like a mac and cheese that has sat under a salamander just long enough to caramelize, but not burn. The beans were boiling when they got to the table and I could smell the dish as the waiter was walking out. The beans were thick, creamy goodness - more tender than the ones at L’Auberge from a couple of nights back. Fantastic meal, although I was disappointed that they had moved to a 2014 Gaillot… and sold out of that.
Contrasting the two dishes is fairly easy; L’Auberge had a scoop or two of duck fat in it (see the piece of skin above) that made it incredibly rich and, when combined with the salt pork, saltier than the L’Assiette version. Strangest thing - the cassoulet at L’Assiette had a full-on sparerib in the mix. This is as close to a draw as I can call - I LOVED the ridiculously over-the-top richness of duck fat in L’Auberge’s cassoulet, but L’Assiette’s was prepared better, imho. Wine list is also much better at L’Assiette.
Will try and get one more sample in end-of-week (Fontaine du Mars?) before I head back to the US for the final pack/move. Thanks again for the recs and keep them coming!
Benoit cassoulet>Fontaine du Mars cassoulet. However, if you really want to eat cassoulet, go down to the Sud Ouest. I’d start in Toulouse.
If it’s like the cassoulet I had in the Midi many years ago, you needed that walk after the meal.
In my case the dish was preceded by asparagus in olive oil and noodles in creme fresh and some tart to ice the cake (to compound metaphors). That, in turn, was followed by a 24+ hour case of heartburn like none I’ve had before or since. I guess the gateaux basque the afternoon before the meal probably didn’t help either…
It’s just too much food 
In the never-ending search for the best cassoulet in Paris, I wrapped up this tour with a dinner at Le Violon d’Ingres, which has always been a favorite restaurant.
Cassoulet here was very different than the other two, with a light bread crumb topping and very little, if any, flavor from duck fat. The dish itself was very complex from a seasoning perspective, so I’m assuming they go light on the fat intentionally. Beans were cooked well, but from a price perspective, just can’t get behind 40 euros for this, regardless of size.
40 euros!? Even at Euro1=$1.08 that’s pretty appalling.
So much for beans being a cheap substitute for meat…
Michelin starred, so everything costs more 
I am making this Cassoulet tomorrow. Couldn’t find a raw garlic sausage, so I am using a pre-cooked sausage. I figure it doesn’t make a huge difference as far as drying out because of the long cooking time.
This.
Costs Euro 30 at L’assiette in the 14th, non-starred, but good traditional cassoulet imo.
I am probably going to buy the D’Artagnan kit to make cassoulet next month. Is it worth spending the extra $80 to get the dish they offer? Like many others, I don’t have a 8 Q pot and am considering ordering the dish instead of splitting the recipe.