Cook-off 1: Cassoulet

[Chris Amirault]

Last night, looking through the December 2004 issue of Food Arts, I came across a recipe for Boeuf Bourgignon adapted from Keller's Bouchon book. Given that so many people have already made Bourdain's and loved it, perhaps this would be a better head-to-head competition? 

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I think that there's real interest in starting with cassoulet, and I'd like to support that interest. But boeuf bourgignon is a worthy later choice, for sure!

Just to be clear, I'm not at all advocating a competition of any sort. I think that having a place to talk about the ins and outs of a particular dish or recipe among eGulleteers is the point, not winning or losing. I'm also not sure how that judging would work -- rather like an international skating competition, I'd think!

[Gifted Gourmet]

I'm also not sure how that judging would work -- rather like an international skating competition, I'd think! 

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How about this scenario? Jason and Steven fly around the country (using their eGullet One jet) to taste test and objectively evaluate the results ...

or we would FedEx them the "results" frozen in baggies ...

They would have a rubric created for the cassoulet and, as you so correctly surmised, give the results a 10 or less, based upon things they found properly eGullet-replicated from whatever the original recipe ...

Yeah, that works for me!

[Chris Amirault]

Just so long as I can pay-off a French judge or two....

[phifly04]

Well Chris ,we all like the idea and since it is your very excellent idea why dont you set up the date and the parameters,lets find out who wants to play and what recipe or book they will be making there dish from and lets do this thing Looking forward to it

Dave s

[Suzanne F]

No problem! And maybe we should start thinking about the warm-weather dish(es) . . .

[highchef]

I would absolutely love to do this. I have Les Halles, and need to check the recipe and see how it compares to my old recipe..this is a good dish for that giant le cruset pot! when are we starting???

[highchef]

Last night, looking through the December 2004 issue of Food Arts, I came across a recipe for Boeuf Bourgignon adapted from Keller's Bouchon book. Given that so many people have already made Bourdain's and loved it, perhaps this would be a better head-to-head competition? 

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I love Julia's recipe for Bourgignon...I'd do this as well..

[BeJam]

I'd like to join in too but don't have Les Halles and, due to seasonal budgeting, am not planning on acquiring it very soon. I do have "Mastering the Art," however. Maybe a limited number of available recipes from common books for comparison starters. I like the idea of a common preparation of the same recipe. I'd be cool to see what variations occur given the region and available produce.

[Gifted Gourmet]

I have Les Halles ... that's a plus ... but ... the downside?

keep kosher kitchen and risk-averse ....

there is a lot of bacon and pork in this recipe ... classic cassoulet is very pig-friendly ...

in the spring, perhaps Bloviatrix and Swisskaese and I will invite you folks to a gefilte fish cooking contest ...

[bloviatrix]

I have Les Halles ... that's a plus ... but ... the downside?

keep kosher kitchen and risk-averse .... 

there is a lot of bacon and pork in this recipe ... classic cassoulet is very pig-friendly ...

in the spring, perhaps Bloviatrix and Swisskaese and I will invite you folks to a gefilte fish cooking contest ... 

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I toyed around with joining this cook-off until I pulled out my copy of Les Halles. .

Now perhaps we can come up with a way of adapting it. Anyone know a good replacement for lardons?

[Chris Amirault]

OK, let's do cassoulet! I'm happy to facilitate, but I must admit that I tend toward obsessive planning, so please do not treat these suggestions as rules or anything like that.

Now, the obsessive planning:

First off, I think that we should all weigh in on what recipes we'll be using. I'm going to use the recipe in Saveur Cooks Authentic French for the basic dish. The Larousse recipe, like so many from those tomes, seems a fascinating but vague collection of instructions; the other books I checked have less interesting recipes to me -- especially Bittman's How to Cook Everything, which is far too simplistic for my tastes and includes a bizarre suggestion that you use "Italian sausage." Which brings us to number two:

I would like us to talk a bit about ingredients, particularly the sausage (BusBoy, do you have recipes to suggest?) and confit (again, I point you to Culinary Bear's thread on the subject): both ingredients can be purchased, but I think that the fun of cassoulet is connected to making these items from hand if possible. I'm game for making the sausage (if they don't need lengthy curing), but the confit may be trickier, as finding a moulard duck in a day or two is going to test my grocer's mettle. I'm also wondering about bean types, having read suggestions for navy, Great Northern, and a few others. Is anyone going to try to use fresh beans?

Third, I think that we should discuss the rest of the menus we'll use, including -- mais oui! -- wine. I'm thinking of making a frisee salad (with the duck cracklings if I make the confit from a whole duck) and serving some good wine, but that's about it. Does anyone have suggestions on an appropriate wine?

Fourth, let's set an approximate date. I'm planning to serve this as dinner on New Years Eve, so shall we aim for the end of this week? I know that some people might not be able to do it by then, but if we can try to get it done in the next week or so that would give a critical mass to the experience.

And finally, we should probably get into massive arguments about le vrai de vrai cassoulet in either French or English, given that such tussles appear to be part of the making of this dish. (Perhaps next we can tackle French, I mean Freedom, I mean... pommes frites. )

Does that sound like a plan?

[Gifted Gourmet]

Anyone know a good replacement for lardons? 

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why am I hearing Al Dente's pre-Thanksgiving plea for how to make a kosher collard greens?? and the chorus of responses screamed "smoked turkey leg" ... not the same, I tell you.. never the same ...

dilemma resolved on kosher kollard greens

[little ms foodie]

I'm planning on trying the Les Halles recipe this week. Will make my own duck confit as long as I can find legs but will buy the sausage. Creating a shopping list and will head out tomorrow to forage! fun!

[pam claughton]

I'm in too. Have the Les Halles and have never attempted cassoulet before, so should be fun.

Pam

[Jensen]

Fourth, let's set an approximate date. I'm planning to serve this as dinner on New Years Eve, so shall we aim for the end of this week? I know that some people might not be able to do it by then, but if we can try to get it done in the next week or so that would give a critical mass to the experience. 

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Why not set a two- or three-week period during which to make the cassoulet, at least for this first cook-off?

This is a busy time of year and I'm guessing a number of folks have a bunch of dinner plans already made for next week. Adding cassoulet into the mix might just be too much to ask this late in the day.

[Daddy-A]

I would like us to talk a bit about ingredients, particularly the sausage (BusBoy, do you have recipes to suggest?) and confit (again, I point you to Culinary Bear's thread on the subject): both ingredients can be purchased, but I think that the fun of cassoulet is connected to making these items from hand if possible. I'm game for making the sausage (if they don't need lengthy curing), but the confit may be trickier, as finding a moulard duck in a day or two is going to test my grocer's mettle. I'm also wondering about bean types, having read suggestions for navy, Great Northern, and a few others. Is anyone going to try to use fresh beans?

Might I suggest those of us living near each other help each other out with some of the ingredients. e.g. peppyre lives near me (or at least where I work) so we could join forces with regards to say, confit. From CB's excellent post, I gather it's simpler to to it in larger portions ... and perhaps make it simpler to do cassuolet or more than one occaision. Same story for sausage, although I doubt I'll be making my own ... too many good sausage places near me.

A.

[Suzanne F]

Last night, looking through the December 2004 issue of Food Arts, I came across a recipe for Boeuf Bourgignon adapted from Keller's Bouchon book. Given that so many people have already made Bourdain's and loved it, perhaps this would be a better head-to-head competition? 

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I love Julia's recipe for Bourgignon...I'd do this as well..

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This could be the basis for a world-wide eG Pot Luck, whatever dish is chosen! All participants make some version of the dish, then get together to taste one against the other. For those not in traveling distance from anyone else, hmmm well we'll have to do that part virtually.

[Swisskaese]

I have Les Halles ... that's a plus ... but ... the downside?

keep kosher kitchen and risk-averse .... 

there is a lot of bacon and pork in this recipe ... classic cassoulet is very pig-friendly ...

in the spring, perhaps Bloviatrix and Swisskaese and I will invite you folks to a gefilte fish cooking contest ... 

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I toyed around with joining this cook-off until I pulled out my copy of Les Halles. .

Now perhaps we can come up with a way of adapting it. Anyone know a good replacement for lardons?

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Use smoked goose in place of the lardons. I think it is going to be very difficult to make a Kosher cassoulet. If you have any ideas, please let me know.

In any case, Cassoulet is "kielou" (sort-of) Cholent. Why don't we have a Cholent Cook-off? There is a recipe in The Book of Jewish Food by Claudia Roden that speaks about the similarities of Sephardic Cholent to Cassoulet.

Gifted Gourmet and Bloviatrix, you will have to teach me how to make gefillte fish. We never served it at my house. We always bought the horrible jarred version. I didn't know what good gefilte fish was until I had my cousin's here in Israel.

Edited December 27, 2004 by Swisskaese (log)

[Chris Amirault]

Why not set a two- or three-week period during which to make the cassoulet, at least for this first cook-off? This is a busy time of year and I'm guessing a number of folks have a bunch of dinner plans already made for next week. Adding cassoulet into the mix might just be too much to ask this late in the day.

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Makes sense to me -- why don't we say we'll do cassoulet between now and "early January"? Seems like a good idea to let them trickle in as we make 'em.

[bleudauvergne]

I think we should consider Paula Wolfert's cassoulet - it's a good recipe and one I have on the shelf. In any case, I'm in!

[little ms foodie]

I've started Duck legs are in the fridge for their overnight "salt". I'll be aquiring more ingrediants tomorrow. How fun!!! Great idea!

[Chris Amirault]

Ok, so....

I went to Whole Foods and got a muscovy duck. Not a moulard (I don't have time to order one from D'Artagnan), which the Saveur cookbook tells me I must have, but a muscovy duck. At least it's not a Long Island duck, which I read somewhere will bring absolute horror to my confit and thus to my cassoulet. I wring my hands with anxious anticipation....

Meanwhile, have you ever tried to find a massive tin of duck fat in Providence? No way, no how. So I go to plan two: the Saveur cookbook seems to suggest that the fat rendered from a single duck's skin is enough to make confit. Skeptical though I am, I'm diving in: I'm gonna render that fat, and I'm gonna salt those duck quarters, and then we'll just see tomorrow if there's enough fat to cover those pieces of duck. If not... I'll buy another duck then flay and render that bird, probably!

Meanwhile, does anyone have good recipes for garlic sausage? Or can anyone suggest a good sausage type to buy? I'd really like to make my own.... Busboy, any ideas?!?

[Al_Dente]

Why not set a two- or three-week period during which to make the cassoulet, at least for this first cook-off?

This is a busy time of year and I'm guessing a number of folks have a bunch of dinner plans already made for next week. Adding cassoulet into the mix might just be too much to ask this late in the day.

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Amen to that. I'm thinking I'll be doing this later next month or perhaps even Feb.

I'm going to be ordering the duck fat, the beans, etc., so I'll need plenty of time to plan this. I'm a bit torn about the sausage situation. I was going to make the confit myself, but the sausage, I'm not so sure. Seems more like a commodity than the confit, but perhaps I'll see if I can get the proper attachment for my Kitchen Aid to grind the meat and fill the casings. Does anyone know what this will cost? My Kitchen Aid is a hand-me-down older model, so I'm concerned about whether or not I can get the right accessory.

What do we think? Must the sausage (and the confit for that matter) be made from scratch? Will purchasing ready made ingredients result in penalties or disqualification?

Also, I'll go ahead and make this offer. If you're out there, Mr Bourdain, you are of course invited.

[Busboy]

Sorry to take so long to get back. I was travelling and wanted to have a chance to check my cookbooks and notebook before I answered.

The short answer is that I don't have a garlic sausage recipe, either of my own invention or in any of the cookbooks around the house. As with my approach to so much else in life and in the kitchen, my approach to sausage-making is, ahem, somewhat undisciplined. If you held a gun to my head -- or a large glass or Corbiers in front of me -- I'd probably start with a decent mild Italian sausage recipe, reduce or eliminate the sage and fennel seed, and add in a good shot of cumin and coriander -- and extra garlic, of course.

The long answer is that there is little guidance that I can find, but work is slow right now and I'd be happy to spend a couple of days knocking around to see what I can come up with. The usual suspects are of little help: Bourdain calls only for "pork sausage;" Craig Claiborn's old New York Times Cookbook calls for "garlic or Polish sausage;" Julia gives a recipe for susage cakes spiced only with allspice, bay, cognac and a small clove of garlic; my boys Jacques and TK got nothin'.

Julia describes her sausage cakes as a substitute for saucisse de Toulouse, however, and the Larousse Gastronomique calls for saucisse de Toulouse (it also posits three types of cassoulet, and calls for mutton, not namby-pamby lamb-y), so I'll spend a little time today hunting up up recipes if I can find some on the web. Seems like there was a sausage thread not long ago that had a link to about a hundred sausage recipes, but I can't locate it.

And, while I won't be getting elbows deep into a cassoulet recipe anytime soon, I'm happy to work alone or in collaboration on the sausage end of things, to see what we can grind out.

[misstenacity]

I'm in. I received Bouchon just yesterday, so I'll be using that. I've never done cassoulet, and have to confess that I don't even know what it all involves....

But I'm still in. :-) Oh, and I have a container of liquid gold - duck fat liberated from Xmas eve dinner - that I brought home with me back to NM. Hee!

Andrea

http://tenacity.net