350 replies to this topic

[Wolfert]

I have a recipe in the cooking of southwest france for making toulouse sausages. The recipe is from a spicemaker in the Toulouse main market. I forget his name but it was something like bourdonc . Don't buy the book, I'll post the ingredients here. I figure you know how to make sausage.
The recipe makes about 1 1/4 pounds
4 ounces ventreche without rind (like pancetta)
12 ounces pork tenderloin,trimmed of fat
4 ounces pork fat back
l teaspoon fine salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
3/4 teaspoon cracked peppercorns
1/4 teaspoon mace or nutmeg
3/4 teaspon sugar
l large minced clove garlic
hog or sheep casing


THE GOOD NEWS IS YOU CAN BUY TOULOUSE SAUSAGES MADE BY SOME FRENCH CHARCUTIERS WORKING IN CALIFORNIA. www.fabriquesdelices.com or via frenchselections.com

[Wolfert]

Lamb ragouts are added to cassoulets where sheep farming is prevalent: the landes and Castelnaudary.


The dryness is due, I think, to the cast iron enameled pot. The same could be said if it is too moist. I would love one of the science people out there to explain why.
The cassole, a flared earthenware pot, glazed on the inside and sometimes on the outside is the pot to use.

Edited by Wolfert, 06 January 2005 - 01:25 PM.

[Busboy]

I have a recipe in the cooking of southwest france for making toulouse sausages. The recipe is from a spicemaker in the Toulouse main market. I forget his name but it was something like bourdonc . Don't buy the book, I'll post the ingredients here. I figure you know how to make sausage.
The recipe makes about 1 1/4 pounds
4 ounces ventreche without rind (like pancetta)
12 ounces pork tenderloin,trimmed of fat
4 ounces pork fat back
l teaspoon fine salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
3/4 teaspoon cracked peppercorns
1/4 teaspoon mace or nutmeg
3/4 teaspon sugar
l large minced clove garlic
hog or sheep casing


THE GOOD NEWS IS YOU CAN  BUY TOULOUSE SAUSAGES MADE BY SOME FRENCH CHARCUTIERS WORKING IN CALIFORNIA. www.fabriquesdelices.com or via frenchselections.com

Thank you very much, Paula. This looks great, and different enough from what's generally available from the butcher to be worth spending some quality time with.

[Cusina]

This was wonderful vicarious living... thanks for the great stories and pictures.

Chris, congratulations on your eGoddess status. It's a special honor if you are the first ever male in the category.

I'd love to see more recipes tried in parallel this way. Will this be a regular thing?

[Chris Amirault]

This was wonderful vicarious living...  thanks for the great stories and pictures.

I agree -- it has become just what I hoped when I first posted the topic, thanks to all these great eGullet folks!

Chris, congratulations on your eGoddess status.  It's a special honor if you are the first ever male in the category.

Yes, well, thanks, I guess! I'm not quite sure what benefits this new status provides me. I should say that I did get several odd looks today at my preschool while wearing my new, navel-baring "I'm an eGoddess" t-shirt....

I'd love to see more recipes tried in parallel this way.  Will this be a regular thing?

That's my hope, precisely. I think that starting another one as a new topic, a la the Wine of the Week (WOW) threads, might make the most sense.

Not sure of the next dish, though. Maybe we can all think of a few possibilities and try to find a critical mass around one thing. I'd like to move around cuisines pretty widely, and certainly away from French cooking for a bit. The fun for me would be to keep doing more involved things that you rarely if ever make at home but enjoy when eating out (if you're lucky to be able to get it). It seems like the fun, risky, and rewarding work needed to make cassoulet got us talking, photo snapping, and sharing ideas -- doing what the eGullet community does best, in my opinion.

So, for instance, I was thinking that other options could include pho (Vietnamese noodle soup), or a loaf of bread made with a new sourdough starter, or char siu bao (steamed BBQ pork buns), or....

...or what??

[fou de Bassan]

Chris,
next time try cassoulet with the breadcrumbs. I used some stale brioche ground up in the food processor. 2 cups breadcrumbs with 1\2 cup chopped parsley. I broke up the crust every 20 min. It was truly wonderful. I;m wondering about the dryness? Did you save the bean cooking liquid? I ended up adding some during the cooking to prevent the cassoulet from drying out. I'm game for another mass cook-in.

[edsel]

I've been traveling too much to fully participate in this cook-along, but I did have the opportunity to make a half-assed attempt at cassoulet.

I've got the Les Halles book and was able to approximate Bourdain's cassoulet, with some major shortcuts. I didn't have any pork fat back, but did have some jowl bacon in the freezer. I sliced off the rind and used it to line the bottom of the casserole. I simmered the rest to reduce the saltiness. Some slow-cooked duck leg (see Culinary Bear's confit thread) was the best I could do to substitute for the duck confit. All I had in the way of sausage was some dried Spanish choriso. Hey, I said I was traveling! I was only home for one day last weekend (last Saturday), so I cooked the beans (I had Great Northern in the house) and assembled the mock cassoulet. I did the first baking and stuck it in the fridge.

Today I pulled the casserole out of the fridge, topped it with bread crumbs, and finished baking it. The fat on the surface turned orange from the spices in the choriso (like I said, this is a half-assed cassoulet), but the results were quite palatable. Far from authentic by any measure but tasty none the less.

For the next cook-off I heartily endorse the bœuf bourguignon recipes from Les Halles and Bouchon. They make a great contrast in approaches, and the former is freely available on Bourdain's web site.

[TheFoodTutor]

Hey, great looking cassoulet and I'm loving this discussion. I'd love to take part in some of this, and I've been looking over my Les Halles to see which recipes strike me as being most worth trying out. Quenelles de Brochet looks really appealing to me.

Anyhoo, I was wondering if you folks figured out what the specific advantage is to using Tarbais beans in the cassoulet? Do they have a special flavor or texture that makes them better than great northerns or flageolet or any other white beans? I was wondering if it's worth going to the trouble, although it's obviously worth it to make one's own duck confit, and possibly even sausage.

Thanks.

[Eden]

Anyhoo, I was wondering if you folks figured out what the specific advantage is to using Tarbais beans in the cassoulet? Do they have a special flavor or texture that makes them better than great northerns or flageolet or any other white beans?

I don't know from Tarbais beans, but I use Haricots de Soisson instead of great white northern & they are significantly different in size texture etc. so I would definately try both & compare.

In fact my cassoulet making starts next week & I'm thinking of making a small separate pot with the Tarbais if I can get them easily just out of curiosity...


Eden - must call the butcher & pre-order my duck bits!

[edsel]

Anyhoo, I was wondering if you folks figured out what the specific advantage is to using Tarbais beans in the cassoulet? Do they have a special flavor or texture that makes them better than great northerns or flageolet or any other white beans? I was wondering if it's worth going to the trouble, although it's obviously worth it to make one's own duck confit, and possibly even sausage.

Thanks.

After hearing bourdain rave about Tarbais beans I decided to order some from Dartagnan. (I was ordering Moulard duck legs from them anyways, so the beans didn't add much to the order). Next batch of cassoulet I'll try 'em out.

[Chris Amirault]

Chris,next time try cassoulet with the breadcrumbs.  I used some stale brioche ground up in the food processor.  2 cups breadcrumbs with 1\2 cup chopped parsley.  I broke up the crust every 20 min. It was truly wonderful.    I;m wondering about the dryness?  Did you save the bean cooking liquid?  I ended up adding some during the cooking to prevent the cassoulet from drying out.    I'm game for another mass cook-in.

Thanks for the tip. Yeah, I saved bean liquid and had some duck stock too. Paula Wolfert suggested that the dryness may be related to the cast iron cooking vessel; cassoulet (as well as Boston baked beans and other bean dishes) is traditionally cooked in a wide, conical ceramic pot.

Glad you're game for another one!

[Chris Amirault]

Next Steps for This Idea -- Help!!

I think that we should soon start a new thread called eGullet Recipe Cook-Off: the XXXXXXX Event. Question is, to what dish should that event be devoted? I'm a bit perplexed about how to make this decision, because I'd like y'all to weigh in, but I think that we should move onward.

So, I'm pushing -- but with a friendly smile! -- for us to select dish #2. I think that we should use the following criteria to find our subsequent dishes. It should be a dish

-- that you've always wanted to make at home (and may enjoy out) but rarely have made, or haven't made successfully
-- for which special but locatable ingredients may be used, but for which expensive special equipment is not required
-- that includes techniques, ingredient combinations, or other elements that intrigue you
-- from a different cuisine than that of the previous dish (hence my resistance to the otherwise excellent suggestions of boeuf bourguignon -- though perhaps next fall....)
-- that demands some time and effort, but that rewards that effort for even those first approaching it
-- that motivates you to try it out, ask questions, serve it to friends, and share photos and stories

I suggested a few dishes (pho [Vietnamese noodle soup], char siu bao [steamed BBQ pork buns]) that conform to those criteria and that I thought would make good next threads. But having suggested the criteria, I want to open it up.

SO: What do YOU think?

[little ms foodie]

I'm totally in! This helped me remove my fear and do something that I may not have motivated myself to do otherwise!

hmmm....I like the idea of the BBQ pork buns and the pho....also what about something like paella or jumbalaya or gumbo?? just in time for mardi gras!

Edited by little ms foodie, 12 January 2005 - 03:25 PM.

[Jensen]

How about choucroute garni?

[bleudauvergne]

I want to get my cassoulet going and then think about it... I didn't share this with anyone but my beloved butcher up and closed his doors for good about 5 weeks ago without one word of warning. It was freaky and scary. He covered his name on the store front so we know he's gone for good. In any case, I am taking this opportunity to interview the butchers in the neighborhood and see if they're up to snuff. I'm figuring out that I may end up looking all over town because one does this and another does that. Its really a rather good test. I tell them I am going an authentic cassoulet and get the non-commital "so what" look. Then I explain that I plan to confit the canard, eyes widen. They all can get me the duck legs. When I ask about the casings for the sausages, the answers vary. It's going to be very hard to find me a new butcher. These guys don't want to source anything like my old butcher used to do. I wish I knew what happened to him. My husband spotted him out walking (alone) in the week after they closed and since that time we haven't seen hide nor hair of either of them in the neighborhood.

[Chris Amirault]

I'm totally in! This helped me remove my fear and do something that I may not have motivated myself to do otherwise!

hmmm....I like the idea of the BBQ pork buns and the pho....also what about something like paella or jumbalaya or gumbo?? just in time for mardi gras! 

Oh, I am ALWAYS up for gumbo or jambalaya! Paella might also be a good idea....

OH, and bleudauvergne, that really is awful!

[Toliver]

Next Steps for This Idea -- Help!!
I think that we should soon start a new thread called eGullet Recipe Cook-Off: the XXXXXXX Event.

I completely agree. A different thread for each dish but titled basically the same.
In fact, there was a previous "cook off" about a year or so ago (I think it was titled "Make me a better Cook" or something like that) where everyone got the same cookbook and made the same recipe from the cookbook.
I can see this as a continuous learning/cooking process on eGullet.

[edsel]

Next Steps for This Idea -- Help!!

(...)
I suggested a few dishes (pho [Vietnamese noodle soup], char siu bao [steamed BBQ pork buns]) that conform to those criteria and that I thought would make good next threads. But having suggested the criteria, I want to open it up.

SO: What do YOU think?

I've already lobbied for a bœuf bourguignon (Bourdain v Bouchon) battle *, but maybe we should take a break from slow cooked, old-fashioned French dishes. Your suggestions of pho and char siu bao are brilliant! Great dishes that many of us love but few have attempted. The techniques involved are different enough from cassoulet to provide a nice contrast. There's a recipe (actually more of a tutorial) on preparing pho here. I'm sure we can locate others that are accessible to all (without violating copyright).

All of the ideas here are great. Paella? Jambalaya? Gumbo? Yes to all! But I think that your suggestions make for a nice contrast with the cassoulet.

* I'm not giving up on BBBBB Just think we should try "something completely different" next.

[Chris Amirault]

Ok, how about this: we do char siu bao next, and then do a paella or jambalaya after that?

[little ms foodie]

After googling to find that this is steamed buns I am in!!

[Jensen]

Ok, how about this: we do char siu bao next, and then do a paella or jambalaya after that?

I would go for this.

Of course, I'm crushed that no one has even mentioned my suggestion for choucroute garni... :sniff:

[little ms foodie]

Shopping made easy for those of you still wanting to make the cassoulet:

Cassoulet Kit

[edsel]

Jen, I like your idea. I do think that choucroute garni is a bit too similar to cassoulet to do next.

Char siu bao is a good choice for the next cook-off because it's quite different from the last one (cassoulet), and meets the other criteria as well. Especially the I've-always-meant-to try-making-that but-never got-around-to-it one.

There's a recipe for char siu bao in a cookbook I've had for twenty-five years. It looks intriguing, but I've always gone for the simpler recipes over that one. Maybe now I'll finally give it a try.

[fou de Bassan]

Char siu bao-- sounds great! Are we planning to use different recipes or the same? Different, I hope. I enjoyed the discussions generated by the different recipe choices.

[Busboy]

Shopping made easy for those of you still wanting to make the cassoulet:

Cassoulet Kit

Even easier: they sell the stuff in cans at Dean & Deluca. At $30 a can.

[Chris Amirault]

Here it is -- the char siu bao cook-off!

[Eden]

Coming in late to the cassoulet game (my annual cassoulet fest was already on the calendar for late January before this thread started) I salted the duck legs tonight. I hope you can tell how enormous these legs are. Bill says they slipped me goose legs, I'm voting for swans or eagles!




If you're interested check my image gallery for more photos of the process.
http://forums.egulle...album&album=643
including my Cassoulet flow chart

Tomorrow I cook the nice little duckies in fat, brine the pork bits, and run a batch of duck stock on the back burner since I'll be there anyway...

Saturday or Sunday I'll make the sausage

I do love this dish!

[Chris Amirault]

The flow chart is great! Keep posting pix!

[little ms foodie]

Eden, I'd say you have emu legs! those are huge!!

this reminds me that I'd like to make another batch of duck confit!

[Eden]

Yesterday we boiled the little duckies in oil!
Well OK I simmered them gently in a 70/30 mix of duck & pork fat, after wiping off most of the salt/herbs.
I didn't order quite enough duck fat to cover the "giant mutant duck legs of doom" but I had some rendered duck/pork fat in the freezer from last years cassoulet which I pulled out when I realized I had emu legs to deal with



and now there is a giant vat of duck confit in my fridge.
As before there are supplemental photos in the album.
http://forums.egulle...album&album=643

Will post the pork brining pics next. I had a little pigfoot trauma that delayed things a bit, so more tomorrow...
Eden