Cassoulet without duck confit: a crime worthy of death?

[ChrisTaylor]

I bought, on impulse, some haricot beans. Naturally, this purchase--along with the shit weather--got me to craving cassoulet. I don't have any duck confit on hand and, frankly, don't really feel like making some. Don't get me wrong: even tho' the (affordable) commercially-avaliable ducks don't make a brilliant confit (this is battery farmed meat so it's very mild in flavour), I still like the stuff. I love duck in all its forms. Rare duck and 'overcooked' greasy Peking duck and duckeverything. Love it. But, yeah, making confit is expensive, even if I can stuff the two breasts in the freezer for some other ducktask.

So ... I propose a duck-free cassoulet. Well, not totally duck free ... I do have some duck fat in the fridge. I'm not thinking anything outright barbaric like, say, chicken breasts (no, really, I've seen it done) or goddamn turkey bacon but a combination of pork products. Hock/trotter. Belly. Perhaps neck. Some sausage. Pork and beans. And, because it's not like belly and neck contain enough fat or anything, a bit of duck fat for good measure. Do you think I'll regret this? That my resulting plate of pork and beans will be pleasing, yes, but ultimately unsatisfying--sort of like a great book with the last chapter torn out by a vandal? Is the confit, even if it's not matured and made from a dishonourable battery-farmed duck, actually that important if you have everything else?

Looking at the various books I have around that contain recipes for cassoulet, among them Anthony Bourdain/Guillaume Brahimi/Paula Wolfert/Larousse Gastronomique/Joel Robuchon/Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall (an excessively double-barreled surname if there ever was one), it's oft-mentioned that cassoulet 'usually' contains duck/goose confit and yet no one dares to provide a recipe for a duck/goose/bird-less cassoulet. Mutton may/may not appear. The cuts of pork may vary. And yet the only duck-free recipe that's on my shelf of a couple hundred books is, to my knowledge, the one in Pork & Sons. That recipe is basically a casserole of sausages and beans. That doesn't scream cassoulet to me.

EDIT

At the very least, before I'm hauled off and summarily executed by purists, I argue that I am not as savage as the monsters that create recipes like this one.

Edited April 20, 2013 by ChrisTaylor (log)

[Mjx]

Short answer: YES. Monster. I'm sharpening my pitchfork and... repitching my torch (?), so I won't look out of place in the raging mob storming your home.

On the other hand, since this was originally a dish of the common people, I really doubt that any hard and fast rules applied, they just worked with what they had (but I confess that If I was offered cassoulet, I'd be disappointed to not find duck in it; you might want to let people know duck will not be present).

[Keith_W]

Uncivilized savage. Off with his head!!!

If you are going to make a "cassoulet" with anything but confit duck, don't call it a cassoulet. Using the name "cassoulet" brings with it certain expectations. Just as you would be disappointed if I served you a "roast chicken" which does not contain any chicken, you should not call a dish a "cassoulet" without any confit duck. I am sure whatever you prepare would still be delicious, but the last thing you want to do is load it up with unfulfilled expectations that come with a certain name.

[MelissaH]

Y'know, if you're going to make some of that so-called "cassoulet" without duck, you could just send that horror show to me, and I'll make it disappear. Here in the sticks, I doubt that most people will know (a) what cassoulet is, and (b) that it's "supposed" to contain duck...or is that goose, perhaps?

You know your audience, and will best know whether they will expect to find duck in something you call cassoulet. If your audience isn't a stickler for names, don't worry about it.

[huiray]

...and yet it has been said (by yourself, no less) that "cassoulet" need not ALWAYS contain duck confit. If you share the DEFINITE and UNALTERABLE expectation that duck confit is to be included in "CASSOULET", as some other posters here have declared, then just simply don't call it CASSOULET.

Done. End of story.

[Syzygies]

My recent cassoulets have been with cotechino, very worth seeking out. Leaving out duck? fine. Provoking traditionalists? Call it a bonus.

[Paul Kierstead]

I've made it with turkey leg confit. Quite good. I think you need something rich in it to preserve the idea (otherwise it isn't cassoulet).

[rlibkind]

Go ahead, enjoy you cassoulet sans canard.

[pastrygirl]

At the very least, before I'm hauled off and summarily executed by purists, I argue that I am not as savage as the monsters that create recipes like this one.

Ha! I was going to say as long as its not vegan, you'll be okay. Just use lots of duck fat and whatever assorted meats are handy.

[nickrey]

Sounds like good old pork and beans to me. Wouldn't calling it Cassoulet be a bit on the pretentious side?

[Syzygies]

Wouldn't calling it Cassoulet be a bit on the pretentious side?

To me, cassoulet describes a particular style of peasant beans. If one leans into it with a pretentious tone, then a dish to avoid. Otherwise, very descriptive of a style of preparation.

[ChrisTaylor]

This morning I hit a couple of stores that usually stock canned duck confit. No luck. I ended up buying a whole duck. The breasts are in the fridge for another ducktask and the legs are now, as I type these very words, sitting in casserole dish with the various pork products (stewed shoulder and hock, roast belly). I roasted the duck and included numerous fattymeatydelicious off-cuts from the carcass. I had a suspicion that confit made today (I could have vac-cured the legs and cooked them the old way today) would be no better than, say, duck legs that were simply roasted. I notice that, according to one of the old eG blogs (that quotes Paula Wolfert, no less) that I am not alone in thinking this. It's not like you're filling ravioli or enjoying a confit leg of duck with Puy lentils and salad. We're talking about duck mixed in with very rich cuts of pork, beans and pork/bean stock. I suppose Anthony Bourdain would call this 'System D'. Or maybe he'd just punch me. Still, at this point the dish looks like it's shaping up nicely. I ended up cutting the sausages altogether. In my travels I passed butchers that made generic pork sausages w/ the fake skins I despise and supermarket sausages. If I had foresight I'd have picked up, say, some nice plain-but-high-quality English or Irish-style pork sausages in advance or even just seasoned (according to Toulouse specifications) some fatty pork mince. I know of a couple of butchers that sell the real deal but travelling across the city to buy two sausages seems to go against the peasant origins of this classic dish.

[Syzygies]

I had a suspicion that confit made today (I could have vac-cured the legs and cooked them the old way today) would be no better than, say, duck legs that were simply roasted.

...

to buy two sausages seems to go against the peasant origins of this classic dish.

I've seen (Modernist Cuisine @ Home? Under Pressure?) the point made that rancid fat is a key component of the classic taste of aged duck confit. Just as the can is a key component of the classic taste of canned tomatoes. Let's not confuse the soul of the dish with the flaws of an ancient preservation technique.

If one isn't interested in this aspect of authenticity, then duck confit is all about careful cooking of the duck, such as sous vide in fat, which somewhat goes out the window when it goes next into a pot of beans. Or not. Remember that Provencial daube is cooked at a lower heat than experience with other stews might suggest. One could optimize for the characteristics of the meats when making cassoulet, as one optimizes for the characteristics of the fish in the last stages of making bouillabaisse.

Yet a characteristic feature of cassoulet is the handling of the crust, which requires a higher heat and specific attention throughout the cook. Read half a dozen recipes (Richard Olney for example) before beginning. Developing an interesting crust is like baking an artisan free form loaf of bread; not paying attention to this is like baking bread in a loaf pan. I've had restaurant cassoulet and acceptable cassoulet from friends that conspicuously missed this aspect of the dish. This is one dish where traveling to taste the original pays off, even if one is going to change it.

One should choose the meats as one chooses pizza toppings: freely, but to support the pizza, with less is more. Think of the range of paellas for comparison, and reflect on what "tourist paella" means. Of course this goes on in restaurants, even in France. Here, support the beans. I know nothing that works better than cotechino, though it's Italian.

And why is this thread in April? I make cassoulet once a year, in January. It's not even a matter of picking a cool day; our metabolisms are different when the weather is generally colder. The peasant original supported people working hard in the fields, where a broader season makes sense. For them it was serious fuel.

[annachan]

And why is this thread in April? I make cassoulet once a year, in January. It's not even a matter of picking a cool day; our metabolisms are different when the weather is generally colder. The peasant original supported people working hard in the fields, where a broader season makes sense. For them it was serious fuel.

Because it's fall in Australia....weather is starting to get cold and rainy.

[ChrisTaylor]

Northern Hemisphere-centric. Eww. I feel like fighting the power by writing lots of words with needless 'u's and talking about prawns and the metric system and Autumn.

[nickrey]

As a sausage substitute you could always make up meatballs using the same fat proportion (basically skinless sausages).

[Mjx]

As a sausage substitute you could always make up meatballs using the same fat proportion (basically skinless sausages).

That sounds good, but I think the addition of meat balls would be pushing the dish way into another category than cassoulet.

I wonder how rabbit confit would work out in cassoulet.

[Syzygies]

Northern Hemisphere-centric. Eww... and the metric system

Sorry! It's 30 C today in California. And I do miss the year I spent a second summer in Sydney.

[ChrisTaylor]

As a sausage substitute you could always make up meatballs using the same fat proportion (basically skinless sausages).

I did consider this but by this stage I figured I'd bought enough meat.

[sigma]

Cassoulet doesn't need duck confit. Pork confit is fine. It does need preserved meat, though, or it is just beans.

[Syzygies]

From The French Menu Cookbook by Richard Olney:

There are said to be three cassoulets (Castelnaudary, Carcassone, and Toulouse), but their definitions vary too much to be taken seriously and it would be more correct to say that there are as many as there are cooks, and to define a cassoulet, in a general way, as a slow-cooked gratin made up of two or more separate preparations, one of which is always a pork and bean stew, the others of which may be chosen among preserved duck or goose, braised lamb or mutton, and roast or braised partridge.

As for the gratin, at final assembly he sprinkles the surface with bread crumbs, ladles stew sauce to just cover the beans, dusts lightly again with bread crumbs, and sprinkles with melted goose fat. He cooks at 275 F - 300 F (135 C - 150 C), basting with stew sauce then bean cooking liquid. As a gratin crust forms he breaks it up to partly submerge it, a minimum of three times over at least 2 hours.

This is a great book, (his first and available also as an eBook), even though many ingredients are indeed obscure, and he spends a tiresome amount of time explaining how now long-vanished French restaurants get everything wrong.

[Dave Hatfield]

If I didn't have access to comfit duck I'd try doing some chicken thighs. Better yet if you have access to duck fat then do the chicken in that.

Because of the loss of flavour without the duck I'd make sure I used some lamb, shoulder braised with tomato & herbs first is best. This will add taste to your cassoulet.

Olney is right about the at least three varieties of cassoulet. I might add Cahors as well. But the surest way to get an argument or possibly a fight going is to ask the Frenchmen how to make cassoulet.

[jmolinari]

My recent cassoulets have been with cotechino, very worth seeking out. Leaving out duck? fine. Provoking traditionalists? Call it a bonus.

At the risk of threadjacking, can you tell me more about this? I have a freezer full of cotechini i make every year.

[Syzygies]

I have a freezer full of cotechini i make every year.

Not sure what to say, I cook it and use it as the primary ingredient in cassoulet. Skinned, quartered and chunked. I cooked it sous vide a few hours, then skinned, quartered and chunked it, and included it along with the juices and fat in the final stages of the cassoulet.

But, use your intuition. The light bulb for me was having bouillabaisse explained to me: one adds each fish so it gets the cooking it needs exactly by the time you're ready to serve. Here, if one believes that cotechino needs a gentle four hours, and the final stage of cassoulet needs two hours, then so be it.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cotechino

[bhsimon]

For the cassoulet of the region Castelnaudary, I found this cool reference some time ago. You might find it interesting. It does mention duck or goose confit, going as far back as the 1929 recipe quoted in the right-hand column. These guys seem pretty serious; they’d probably be happy to remove your head if you don’t comply.

Great Brotherhood of Cassoulet of Castelnaudary