A cassoulet is one of France most popular dishes! It is a French stew that is a rich, slow cooked casserole containing meat, pork, white beans. It originated in southern France. It was named after the dish it is cooked in called a cassole, typically a clay pot. 

The history of a cassoulet is quite interesting. Like most popular French food, this dish was a dish made for peasants. It was a simple dish, made of ingredients they had on hand. It is typically made with cheaper cuts of meat, beans that were cheap, stewed together for a long time to make them more palatable. Many of the meats used in this dish were cheaper cuts like duck leg, gizzards, pork fat, sausage.

Ingredients vary from town to town based on what is regionally available. In Castelnaudary it is prepared with duck confit, pork shoulder and sausage. In Carcassonne it is prepared with mutton. In Toulouse, it is often prepared with duck confit, sausage and bread crumbs. In Auch, typically only duck or goose is used, crumbs are never added. You could essentially make it with any meats you like!

Julia Child infamously described it as “Cassoulet, that best of bean feasts, is everyday fare for a peasant but ambrosia for a gastronome, though its ideal consumer is a 300-pound blocking back who has been splitting firewood nonstop for the last twelve hours on a subzero day in Manitoba.”

Even though it does take a long time to make, and days of prep, it is absolutely worth making at least once in your life, and is a showstopper!

@kellyscleankitchen

How to make a cassoulet – the BEST French dish #cassoulet #frenchfood #cooking

♬ La Vie En Rose – Louis Armstrong
  • SERVINGS:  6
  • PREP TIME: 30 Mins
  • ACTIVE TIME: 6 Hrs
  • TOTAL TIME: 7 Hrs

Ingredients:

  • 4 cups Flageolet Beans, or Tarbais, lingot, Great Northern or cannellini beans
  • ½ lb pork fat or animal lard such as duck fat
  • Salt
  • ½ lb pork rind, fresh (if able to find)
  • 1 carrot, whole
  • 1 onion, stuck with one clove
  • 1 garlic head, sliced in half
  • 1 bouquet garni
    1. 1 leek
    2. Butcher’s twine
    3. 4 sprigs thyme
    4. 4 sprigs parsley
    5. 3 small celery ribs
    6. Bay leaf
  • 1.75 lb pork belly, cut into 2 inch slices
  • ½ lb sausage of choice
  • 4 duck legs, confited and shredded
  • Salt and pepper to taste
  • 1 onion, medium diced
  • 1 carrot, diced
  • 1 celery rib, diced
  • 3 garlic cloves, crushed
  • 1-2 cups Tomato puree
  • 1 cup breadcrumbs for finish

Preparation:

STEP 1.

Wash your beans, soak in water overnight. Drain and place beans in water with 2 quarts of water, salt, pork fat, carrot, onion, head of garlic and bouquet garni. Cook and place over a simmer until the beans are cooked, around 45-60 minutes. 

Once the beans are tender, remove beans from heat, pluck out the onion, carrot, bouquet garni.

STEP 2.

Preheat the oven to 300*F.

In a saute pan over medium heat, add duck fat and brown the pork belly and sausage on all sides, basting with duck fat. When the pork is golden, set aside on a plate. Brown your shredded duck, set aside. Remove the cooked sausage and slice into rounds.

In the same pan, saute your onions, carrots, and celery until browned, salting as you go. Add garlic and saute until fragrant. Add the tomato puree and ¼ cup of cooking liquid from the beans. Simmer for 5 minutes . Remove from the heat.

STEP 3.

In a cast iron or casserole dish, mix in the beans with the tomato vegetables you just cooked. Top with the meat, stuffing it into the beans. Cover with a few ladles of the bean broth so they are partially submerged in liquid. Season with salt and pepper all over. Cover with foil and transfer to the oven, cook for 2 hours.

*if you like, add breadcrumbs to the top before adding foil, this is the traditional way, however I leave off of mine because of gluten allergies

STEP 4.

Remove the cover for the last 15 minutes, browning the top. The cooking liquid should be greatly reduced, and thickened with the starch of the beans. Finish cooking until the brown crust can be cracked. Serve and enjoy!

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