Cassoulet
Cassoulet is one of my favorites dishes that I've tried in France. I had it for the first time a few months ago when we visited the city of Carcassonne and I basically fell in love with it. It's a traditional white bean and meat stew thats cooked and served in a tapered clay or ceramic vessel known as a casserole.
To me the dish is the definition of comfort food.
It's typically made with duck confites or mutton, depending on the area of France, as well as duck or pork sausage and other meats. Both times that I had it at a restaurant it was made with duck but when I make it at home I always use chicken because it's easier and less expensive. In my opinion chicken works fine for at home.
The following is my easy "at home" version of Cassoulet. If you're familiar with the dish and have some suggestions for me on how to improve it though, please share in the comments. I'm especially speaking to my French friends from the South here.
Ingredients
- Chicken
- Lardons or bacon
- Sausage (pork or duck)
- White beans
- Onions
- Garlic
- Duck fat (optional) or butter
- Carrots (optional)
- Nutmeg spice
- Salt and pepper to taste
- Bay leaf
Directions
I started by cooking the onions until they turned transcent. I used duck fat to give it more flavor and because it's more traditional but you could use butter or oil as well.
While the onions were cooking I began to brown the chicken in a separate pan.
Next I cooked some smoked lardons, which are essentially French bacon that's cut in a different way than the North American style strips. This is mostly just for added flavor.
I don't think carrots are a traditional ingredient of the dish but I like to add extra vegetables to anything I cook and I personally feel like they go well with the beans. I also added 2 large cloves of garlic roughly chopped. I added these with the beans once all of the meat was cooked.
I can't find dried beans at our grocery store so I bought pre-cooked beans in a jar. I ended up buying two different varieties for some reason, I guess to see which I liked better. One of the jars was specifically meant for Cassoulet and had premade duck sausage in it. I found that variety to be much more flavorful but I ended up just throwing both jars into the pot. I've used canned beans before as well but they are much smaller then the jarred variety and the versions I've had at the restaurants use large white beans. If you're going to use dried beans for the dish I believe you have to soak them in salt water over night and then cook them in chicken or meat stock until tender.
I added nutmeg for flavor but I'm not exactly sure if that's traditional spices or not.
I also arranged the meat on top so that it would be exposed directly to the heat of the oven. Once everything is assembled, put it in the oven and cook on a medium to high heat for about an hour.
One of the main characteristic of a good Cassoulet is that it should form a bit of a crust on the surface. This isn't easy to do though since there can be a lot of liquid in the dish from the beans. Some recipes call for gelatin to be added to help this process along and some more traditional recipes call for pork skin or pork hocks to be added because they are both naturally gelatinous. I didn't want to add gelatin though so I basically just cooked it on high heat without a lid on so that the surface could caramelize.
The casserole vessel that Cassoulet is normally cooked in is also supposed to help the caramelization process because of its shape. A casserole dish is shaped like a cone with a wide top and a smaller more shallow bottom. This allows more surface area of the beans to be exposed to the heat of the oven. I'm going to try and find two of these dishes when I'm out and about but for now I just used our Le Creuset pot, which worked quite well.
After an hour in the oven all of the meat should be cooked, the liquid should be reduced and a crust should be begining to form on the surface. Serve and enjoy!
Let me know your thoughts on the dish in the comments and again, please share your tips and tricks so I can improve on my cooking!
Definitely a southwest classic, interesting enough the beans are traditionally haricot tarbais a sub variety of haricot Blanc. Duck has been used historically due to the cooking time, it's also equally vsild with saucisse de Toulouse and or mutton hearts bored in fat. All cc lassic dishes made with preserves
, I.e. confit saucisse,canard ou Coeur du mouton
I have eaten cassoulet from every Mami in the region and it's well worth a try
Interesting. I didn't know that.
Do you happen to know what spices are typically used?
Traditionally Its only Bouquet garni, Garlic, Parsley, Salt and lots of black pepper. There are Lots of additions like Nutmeg or a Clove which can be added to enhance the flavour. Generally most of the flavour comes from the stock. so its a great dish to try in different areas as the base changes.
Okay I see. Thanks for letting me know. I think I used nutmeg and clove the first time I made it but I find clove to be a tough spice to use in cooking in general. A little bit goes a long way and if you put too much in, it overpowers everything and ends up tasting like a Christmas cake or something lol
The whole time, I was like "don't mess this one up bro" haha, and you didn't! I do exactly the same recipe, and always cook in duck fat! Good man!
I gave "Saucisse de Toulouse" to my dogs yesterday, which normally is in the cassoulet, blasphemy! What rubido said about the "haricot Tarbais", I can confirm, as it's a regional thing here.
I was going to put Saucisse de Toulouse in but the beans I bought had sausage in it already. Do you happen to know what spices are supposed to go in it? That was the biggest thing I was unsure about.
I know @rubido already answered to you, I agree with clove, you can also add cumin, paprika, safran, Madagascar black pepper, or even an orange zest; you could add cinamon if you're crazy!
Okay, I'll keep those in mind. Thanks.
Cinnamon does seem a bit weird to me for Cassoulet. I reserve Cinnamon for oatmeal lol
HAha fair enough
Great post. We made it tonight for Sunday dinner. Substituted diced ham left from Thanksgiving for the sausage and added chicken broth from one our rooster's. Will try it with duck meat and fat if we raise them this year
Nice! That's awesome. Those substitutes would work great. Was it just a coincidence that you made it tonight or did you set out to do it after seeing my post?
My favourite dish from France too. Love, love, love it!
Yeah definitely comfort food, which is always the best type of food
I can imagine how much comfort it gave you. 😂
I don't know about the original dish, but I would add some more cheese if I made this 😋
Cheese might be a good addition. I've never tried that. Cheese makes everything good though
yeah, totally 😂
I rarely try French cuisine, but this looks delicious and easy to make. I think I prefer chicken to duck.🙂
It's a very hearty meal. Good for colder weather. They way I make it is pretty easy. Like most things, you could make it more complex if you chose to. A lot of times simple is the way to go though
It looks so very yummy, I will definitely give this one a try.
Let me know how it turns out. Good luck!
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