Cook-off 1: Cassoulet

[FoodMan]

That looks so damn good Chris. I made my 2007 Cassoulet a few weeks ago following again Wolfert's recipe from the SWF cookbook. I simply see no reason to mess with that recipe. I love her step of pureeing the fat with garlic and liquid like you picture above. I do make half a recipe though in my Chinese sandpot and give us at least two meals. A full recipe is way too much for us.

[David Ross]

I ordered the D'Artagnan Cassoulet Kit online last week. I should have made my own recipe using ingredients I bought separately.

I would only give it a 'B' grade. The meats were fine: Duck Confit, Garlic Sausage, Duck and Armagnac Sausage and Ventriche (Cured Pork Belly). My problem was with the Duck and Veal Demi-Glace that came with the kit. It was the consistency of weak black tea.

I contacted D'Artagnan and told them that I thought something was wrong with the demi-glace. They weren't overly supportive in their response but rather defensive that their demi-glace wasn't a 'paste.' I never suggested it was a paste, but that I was concerned the demi-glace wasn't as thick as it probably should be. They didn't offer to replace it but only to refund my money on that part of the kit, which I accepted.

In the end, I ended up using beef stock as a substitute because I didn't want to venture out in our bad weather to buy some veal demi-glace at the store. Sadly, I think the lack of flavor that would have come from true duck and veal demi-glace watered down my finished cassoulet.

Does anyone have another source for a Cassoulet 'Kit'? Thanks.

[rooftop1000]

D'Artagnan's packaged demi isn't what I would expect thickness wise but it is very tasty....

tracey

[David Ross]

I must have gotten a bad batch or something. After I opened the container and it looked like weak soup, I tasted it and it in fact tasted like weak beef bouillion, not at all like duck and veal demi-glace. Anyway, lesson learned and next time I plan on making cassoulet, I'll probably do it from scratch.

[Abra]

I recently made the Catalan-style cassoulet, made with lamb and a ton of garlic, from the Cooking of SouthWest France. It's a great recipe, light in comparison to many cassoulets, and very savory. Give it a try if you're looking for a cassoulet that makes the transition into spring weather.

[Vinotas]

I made Bourdain's pork rind-wrapped cassoulet this weekend and something went wrong along the way.

I sourced the Tarbais beans at Kalustyan's but found they were much bigger than the beans I got from D'Artagnan the first time I made it. In fact, the beans never cooked through and remained annoyingly crunchy, no matter how much I tried softening them. Two days later, after reheating, they were still crunchy!

I posted my results and pics on my blog, http://www.vinotas.blogspot.com/. My guests, while supportive, preferred the d'Artagnan cassoulet to this one, as did I. My next attempt might have to wait while we redo the kitchen, so we'll see.

As an aside, I was the recipient of Abra's generosity and her lamb cassoulet ROCKED.

Cheers!

[Jon Savage]

I'm late to the party but duck legs are happily confiting as I type this and I'm looking forward to my first attempt @ cassoulet this weekend.

[eldereno]

Hope you enjoy it as much as I did (and my guests) New Year's Eve 2006. Haven't had an event or occasion to make it again.......yet. Found it a wonderful experience. Not an every day kind of dish, however. Looking forward to your photos and comments.

Donna

[Eden]

I had initially decided not to make cassoulet this year, and thus not started any confit etc, but on a whim decided to make lazy cassoulet for this weekend using prepurchased duck confit and sausages. Never again.

It was not actually bad, and if I didn't know how outstanding it could be I'd be much more forgiving, but it was just eh - overwhelmingly porky and a bit bland

I bought good sausages, so they weren't a big detractor. The confit however just did not add significant duckyness to the dish not to mention that in MY recipe the duck gets salted with fun spices before confiting... Also I used beans from castelnaudary instead of my usual soissons and I can't tell if they just don't absorb flavor as well cause they're so much smaller or if it was that the flavor they absorbed wasn't as intense...

I'm making a second batch tomorrow and trying to figure out how I can perk it up... (I used the last of my duck stock up making the beans so that's out)

[Jon Savage]

This thing is killing me. I assembled it this morning and just took it out of the oven to rest a few hours before I pop it back in to develop a crust. I was going to let it rest overnight but there's no way will be able to wait until tomorrow. It already smells and tastes wonderful.

I'm kind of winging the recipe - home cured bacon in lieu of fresh belly, garlic sausage from Ruhlman's charcuterie book since I had that on hand. Smoked butt instead of ham hocks that some recipes call for. The duck confit was simply unctuous - a couple of bits were sacrificed in the name of quality control @ 0700 this morning. Goes well with coffee confit does. Beans were 500 g of large white beans from spain and a pound of great northern.

Now pondering whether I want to add breadcrumbs or simply allow the beans to develop a nice crust on their own. Would it be terrible if a handful of duck cracklings were thrown on the top of the finished dish??

[sundownyellowmoon]

Just trust the beans to develop their own crust. You've waited this long....what's a bit more time?

Jon

[Jon Savage]

It turned out really well. A little less moisture than I'd have liked - once this was recified with the addition of some duck stock made from the carcasses of the ducks used for the confit all was well with the world.

This is something that I'd definately do again, the effort to make the dish was not all too bad especially when spread over several days.

Using home made sausage, confit etc. really kept cost down as well. I think the total food cost for a cassoulet that would have easily fed 12 was less than $20.

[Chris Amirault]

I need a hand. I'm having a bean emergency.

I thought that I had two pounds of RG flageolet, but -- alas! -- I have only one. The kind folks at RG tell me that getting another pound here overnight is possible but costs an additional $40.

That leaves me with few options. I'm going to scour the stores here for more flageolets, but so far I'm out of luck. What are the best beans that people have used from supermarkets? Fresh from the WF bulk bins is probably what I want, I know, but great northerns? navy? canellini?? Help!

[kitwilliams]

if you have access to runner cannellinis...go for it!

[John Talbott]

I need a hand. I'm having a bean emergency.

I thought that I had two pounds of RG flageolet, but -- alas! -- I have only one. The kind folks at RG tell me that getting another pound here overnight is possible but costs an additional $40.

That leaves me with few options. I'm going to scour the stores here for more flageolets, but so far I'm out of luck. What are the best beans that people have used from supermarkets? Fresh from the WF bulk bins is probably what I want, I know, but great northerns? navy? canellini?? Help!

←

I have hesitated to enter the lists here with true cassoulet experts given my quick fix method that depends heavily on Monoprix, G.LaF. and Bon Marche products but to answer Chris's query, I have been known to use navy beans in the US.

[eldereno]

I need a hand. I'm having a bean emergency.

I thought that I had two pounds of RG flageolet, but -- alas! -- I have only one. The kind folks at RG tell me that getting another pound here overnight is possible but costs an additional $40.

That leaves me with few options. I'm going to scour the stores here for more flageolets, but so far I'm out of luck. What are the best beans that people have used from supermarkets? Fresh from the WF bulk bins is probably what I want, I know, but great northerns? navy? canellini?? Help!

←

Did the Les Halles recipe for cassoulet for New Year's Eve. A great success. Added some extra sausage, 2 more duck confit legs, otherwise followed the recipe pretty much exactly. Had only 4 1/2 cups of Tarbais beans so supplemented the additional 1/2 cup with Great Northern beans. Check out the difference in size, presoak.

From the cassoulet I made a couple of years ago. The great northerns held up okay.....tasted good!

[eldereno]

Too bad you don't live closer to Virginia. I have both Tarbais beans and RG flageolets in my pantry. Do you have any friends nearby that you might stop by on with a borrowing container in hand?

[Chris Amirault]

This year's cassoulet:

At this point, I'm using my own version of several recipes. I prepared two different kinds of sausages, smoked some ham hocks, cut meat off of a large pork belly and confited that while saving the rinds, and used plenty of duck confit. The gang of four here (me, wife, and two friends) thought that this one was the best ever, though it still had flaws. A few notes:

• I'm really sold on using home-smoked hocks for cooking the beans, and then reserving that stock for other purposes. (See below.) I had made some really wonderful, rich chicken and duck stock that I thought I'd use, but I ended up turning to that hock-based brew repeatedly instead. Once the meat was falling off of them, I chopped that up and threw the skins and bones back into the stock to reduce it some more. Good move.
  
• The biggest error was cooking both the great northern beans and the flageolets together, as the former needed more time than the latter. It wasn't a disaster, but the toothiness of the great northerns was, at times, more than al dente, if you get my drift.
  
• I made some garlic sausages (using a Ruhlman/Charcuterie base) last year and discovered them in the freezer, over 1 year old. I didn't want to chance that they had gone bad, so I also made another batch using Jane Grigson's Toulouse approach: a bit of saltpetre (I used pink salt), no garlic, and a healthy dose of booze. I used applejack for the last, which turned out really well, as did the freezer links. I poached the sausages in the hock stock before browning them in some duck fat, then sliced them into 2" rounds to add to the cassoulet. Good idea: It was good to be able to serve portions with lots of different meats and no foot-long links to cut up, and the two sausages were interestingly different.
  
• The biggest departure from previous efforts was omitting pork rind from the onion/garlic/stock puree. Not surprisingly, it made for a less lip-smackingly collagen-riddled mouthfeel. Two of the diners liked that change; one (raised in the UK -- I'm just sayin') wanted the sticky lips; I had no horse in the race.
  
• To minimize New Year's Day agita, I went with the bread crumbs and avoided the crust-busting. I think I'll be doing this from now on. Everyone seemed to like it, and it adds a textural quality that is different than the Maillard-y topping, which is more chewy than crunchy. After a multi-week prep, I'm happy to cut a corner like this.
  
• I served a Malbec de Cahors with the meal for the first time, specifically the Mission La Caminade 2006, a high tannin, high alcohol red that went very well with everything. On its own, however, it's pretty one-note; after some of those fatty, porky beans, it's wonderful.
  
• The only side was a frisee and parsley salad with shallots, arbequina olive oil, and Meyer lemon. That was a great idea.
  

[eldereno]

Looks beautiful, Chris. I've only made cassolet once so have not had yet the experience of experimenting. Seems like the changes you have made were successful.

Good job!

[zora]

Oh, that didn't take so long. Amazing what gets done when I procrastinate. For more color commentary, see my blog post.

**

First of all, thanks again to everyone who commented on my initial whine for help upthread. Especially Ptitpois for encouraging the use of gigantes. I did quite a lot of reading, but like others, I synthesized a few sources, referring to Julia Child and Paula Wolfert for a lot of details.

First, about 8 days before the dinner, I made some duck confit. I followed Paula Wolfert's edict of 22g of salt per pound of meat, but either I did my math wrong or that is just really a ton of salt--more than I've ever used for confit before. I didn't add all that I'd measured, and it still turned out very salty.

I also confited the whole duck, instead of just the legs. The breast meat wasn't as tender, but in the end product, you couldn't tell at all. I think for this purpose, it's fine to do the whole duck, and easier to work with.

And letting it age a week did noticeably change the flavor. AND I got the air cleared out of the kitchen, which helped my attitude a lot.

A few days later, I made some sausage. It was kind of a weak sausage effort, seeing how no meat grinder or casings were involved. I basically used Julia Child as inspiration to just make patties, and was heartened to read Paula Wolfert's encouraging words re: the use of a food processor. So my little sausage patties didn't have the fluffiest texture, but they tasted great. Amazing what a slug of brandy will do for some pork, and I subbed pancetta for straight fat, per Wolfert, and added more garlic than either called for.

I fried them up the day I assembled the cassoulet:

For the beans, I had a pound of gigantes, and I had half a pound of great northerns. I threw those in a separate pot. This was handy, actually, because I got to try a couple of different approaches to simmering the beans.

Results: whole onions are fine, pork skin is good and cloves stuck in the onion are fun to do and help clear out years-old spice inventory, but may or may not make a difference in the long run. I was happy to have gotten the pork skin--part of the effort in this cookbook is making it beyond-fancy-NYC-shopping-friendly, and it does seem like the average US supermarket carries more odd bits of pig than it used to. I got unsmoked pork hocks there too.

For the meat, I did mostly lamb, with a smidge of pork left from the sausage-making--maybe about a pound total. Per something I'd read somewhere (losing track now), I put this in its own garlic-onion-carrot-tomato-wine-stock stew for about an hour. I'm very pro-carrot--I guess I'm weak-willed, but I like to see a little veg in among my hunks of meat and beans.

Then I layered everything together. I wound up using only about 2/3 of my duck confit, and the same of my sausage (I had a little more than a pound of that). The unappealing orange stuff is the lamb stew. But it tasted good. Oh, I remember why: I put about 1/3 of a pound of pancetta in too.

Oh, I forgot: on the bottom of the pot, I put in the pieces of pork skin, kind of as a buffer. I already knew from my restaurant visits that I was not keen on the pork skin, but I figured it would be nice to line the pot with, and maybe someone would like it. But I left it in big hunks, so it would be easy to pull out.

I grated some nutmeg on top. It felt a little ridiculous, but whatever. In the end, it's hard to tell whether this or the clove did anything substantial, but I'd hate to go to all the trouble again without them, and then have it be boring...

I poured in a lot of bean stock and let the baby bake a couple of hours. Slid it in the "walk-in"--aka the uninsulated pantry--for the night. Pulled it out two hours before dinner and stuck it in a cold oven set to 300, after adding another cup or so of bean liquid.

About 20 minutes before dinner, I sprinkled on some bread crumbs, mixed with some chopped-up parsley. (The vegetables--I cling to them like a mirage), and then scooped up some of the fat layer to drizzle over them.

They crisped up beautifully at the end:

I was a little nervous digging into it, especially for the texture. The beans had cooked more quickly than I thought they would, and were verging on too soft when I layered them into the pot. I had also been very liberal with the bean stock, to counteract previous efforts, where the beans had just glommed up in a wad. And I wasn't sure if my little sausage patties would actually hold together.

Aside from the confirmed nastiness of the pork skin, it turned out pretty well. (One person at the table ate his piece of skin, and said he kind of liked it...) The key thing was the textural variety, I think. Although the beans were a wee bit squishy, they hadn't gotten totally gummy yet, and the less-than-standard sausage texture was actually a plus--it gave a little something to properly chew on. And the bread crumbs rocked. I don't care what the hard-liners say.

Next time, I will make doubly sure the beans are not too soft, and I might add even a bit more liquid. What I got was brothy enough to serve in bowls, but had also gotten a smidge thicker and starchier than I would've liked.

And I was skeptical of Paula Wolfert's declaration way upthread that smoked meats should really be avoided. But now I'm with her. Previous cassoulets I've had a hand in have usually had smoked hocks, and some bacon and some very toasty lard, which might contribute to the overall flattening-out of the flavors. This cassoulet, with nothing smoked, was a little brighter tasting--or as bright as something with that much meat in it can be.

So my co-author on the cookbook is still an avowed fan of the bean crust (no crumbs), and she hates carrots. So the recipe is going to be filled with options--but maybe that gets to the spirit of cassoulet best anyway. I feel like devising a flow chart for it... I'll let you know how it goes!

Edited January 27, 2009 by zora (log)

[Chris Amirault]

Where do others stand on the smoked v non-smoked question?

[Dave Hatfield]

Where do others stand on the smoked v non-smoked question?

←

I'm in the non-smoked camp. So, I guess I agree with Paula. Can't say that I've ever seen smoked pieces in a cassoulet her in France.

I just don't think its a flavor that needs to be added to this already complex dish.

Still, to each his or her own. If smoked stuff makes you happy why not. Certainly isn't going to wreck the dish unless way over the top in quantity or strength,

[Chris Amirault]

Since the dish was first cooked in wood-fired ovens, I figure smoke was part of the original flavor. Along with, you know, everything else cooked in a wood-fired oven.

[Dave Hatfield]

Since the dish was first cooked in wood-fired ovens, I figure smoke was part of the original flavor. Along with, you know, everything else cooked in a wood-fired oven.

←

Good try, Chris. No prize though although I must admit that the idea of cooking one's cassoulet is an intriguing one.

Wish our local bread maker, Jacques, hadn't retired. He was a friend & I'm sure he would have let me stick a cassoulet in his wood fired oven. His daughter moved the business to a larger town, Used to be a delight to go into the village and get our bread straight out of his wood fired ovens.

[Chris Amirault]

I was joking, but it does beg the question about the effect of smoke from fires on dishes developed with pre-industrial stove cooking.