INGREDIENTS

• 450 g canned white beans or 350 g dry white beans
• pork skin – 100-150 g
• medium carrots – 1 pc.
• onions - 2 medium onions
• garlic – 3 cloves
• cloves – 4 buds
• raw lard – 180 g
• bay leaf – 1 pc.
• parsley – 2 sprigs
• thyme – 1 sprig
• pork (ribs) – 500 g
• boneless pork (shoulder) – 250 g
• tomato paste – 2 tsp.
• various smoked pork sausages – 300 g
• salt, freshly ground black pepper

STEP-BY-STEP COOKING RECIPE

Place the canned beans in a sieve. Or soak the beans in plenty of cold water for 6-7 hours. Roll the pork skin and tie with twine.

Peel the carrots, onions and garlic, stick clove buds into 1 onion. Cut the pork lard into small pieces.

Place the prepared beans in a colander, rinse, place in a large saucepan, add 150 g of lard, pork skin, carrots, onion with cloves, 2 cloves of garlic, bay leaf, parsley and thyme. Pour in 1 liter of water and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer covered for 1.5 hours. Add salt at the very end.

Cut the ribs one at a time, cut the meat into large pieces. Chop the remaining onion and garlic. Fry the remaining lard in a large saucepan until cracklings form. Add the meat and ribs and cook, stirring, for 5 minutes. Season with salt and pepper and transfer to a plate with a slotted spoon. Fry the onion and garlic in the same saucepan, stirring, for 5 minutes. Return the meat and cook, covered, over low heat for 1 hour. Add a small amount of water from time to time. In 10 min. Add tomato paste until finished and stir.

Remove vegetables, herbs and pork skin from the pot with beans. Cut the skin into circles, removing the twine, and return to the pan. Add the meat and ribs along with the sauce, as well as the sliced ​​sausages. Stir and cook over low heat for another 1 hour.

The name of the dish comes from cassole - this is a special type of dish, a deep conical clay bowl. The cassalette is narrowed at the bottom and widened at the top, with sloping edges (like an inverted pyramid).

In distant historical times, it was continuously heated on the hearth for hours or even days. At various intervals, the peasant women threw the food they were going to cook into it. As a result, the stew in cassole turned out to be satisfying and rich, because each new portion of beans and meat was put into the remnants of the sauce from the old one.

Beans in a pot: history of the issue

All regions in the south of France have been vying for the right to be considered the birthplace of cassoulet for centuries. Recipes partially differ from each other literally every 20 km. In Castelnaudary they use large beans, pork skin and meat, shanks, onions and bouquet garni. In Carcassonne, game birds (partridges) can be found on the food list. In Toulouse, they prefer to prepare stews based on pork, with lamb, duck or blood.

The dish may change depending on the season and what you have on hand.

Basic Ingredients

Beans. The original used beans or Spanish lima beans. In our conditions, any white bean is suitable, for example, varieties Coco, Lingot, Navy beans, Cannellini. The variety cannot be fast-cooking! The beans should be tender and soft, but not mushy. In France, they believe that if the beans fall apart, the dish is hopelessly destroyed.

Meat. Choice of pork, lamb, duck. They must be prepared in advance, boiled or baked at a low temperature in their own fat.

Sausages. Exclusively pork, made from minced meat, preferably with garlic and spices. You can use blood sausage, extra garlic in large quantities, pork shank (or hind leg bone and meat from another cut).

The composition also includes spices and herbs, pork skin, which is used as natural gelatin. Spices used include black pepper, nutmeg, cloves, and garlic.

Technology

Rather, this dish is not even prepared, but rather assembled. You need to pay attention to each ingredient, cook separately: beans, pork, pork skin, duck confit, sausage. When all the listed ingredients are ready, they need to be laid out in layers in a mold, and finally baked in the oven.

In appearance, the dish should resemble a stew (less often it has the consistency of a thick soup). The ideal proportions are: beans and broth - 70%, meat - at least 30%.

Total preparation time: 3 days
Cooking time: 9 hours
Yield: 8 servings

Ingredients

• pork knuckle – 1 pc.
• pork shoulder – 1 pc.
• duck confit – 2-6 legs
• white beans – 300 g
• carrots – 1 pc.
• onions – 1 pc.
• garlic – 1 unpeeled head + 2 cloves.
• large tomato – 1 pc.
• water – 1 l +2 glasses
• fresh pork sausages – 3 pcs.
• salt and freshly ground pepper - to taste
• parsley – 4 sprigs
• celery root - 2 small pieces
• bay leaf – 1 pc.
• thyme – 2 sprigs
• fresh bread crumbs - 1/4 cup
• breadcrumbs - 1/4 cup

Preparation

First day. Wash the pork knuckle and shoulder thoroughly in running water with a brush, remove all dirt with a knife. Fill with clean water and lightly salt. Cover and refrigerate overnight.



Sort and rinse the white beans, cover with clean water and also soak them overnight.



Prepare confit - duck meat that simmers for a long time in a large amount of its own fat. Take a few legs, sprinkle with coarse salt and black pepper, sprinkle with lemon juice and add an onion, cut into half rings, marinate for 8-12 hours. Separately, melt the internal fat of the duck and place the marinated meat in it (without onions), add a couple of cloves of garlic, a sprig of rosemary and thyme.

Simmer for 3 hours at 140-150 degrees, tightly covered with a lid. When ready, leave to cool and put in the refrigerator. Details on how to cook duck confit.



Second day. The next morning, take a pork shoulder, cut off all the skin with a thin layer of fat - try to remove it in a whole layer.



Cut the skin into strips - you will need 5 long pieces in total. Roll the strips into rolls and tie with twine or thread. Then remove the meat from the shoulder (you can throw away the bone or freeze it, it will later be good for broth or can be added to jellied meat, it contains a lot of gelling substances), cut it into 3-4 cm cubes.



Dry the knuckle and sliced ​​pork shoulder to remove excess moisture with a paper towel. Next, you will need a large cast iron pan with an enamel coating (I used a Soviet-style duck pot). Please note that the dishes must be thick-bottomed and enameled; If the cast iron is without enamel, then you won’t be able to store the cooked meat in it; you will have to pour it into another container overnight. So, heat the duck fat in a duck pot - take a couple of spoons from the confit. Fry the sliced ​​shoulder over medium heat until lightly browned. Transfer it to a plate.



Place the shank in a cauldron and fry until lightly caramelized. If the knuckle is large, then for convenience you can cut it into 2-3 parts.



Peel the carrots and chop into thin rings. Chop the onion and tomato into cubes. Add the carrots and onions to the pan and continue to cook over moderate heat, stirring, until the onions are golden brown (about 7 minutes). Add a whole, unpeeled head of garlic and chopped tomato and fry, stirring regularly, for 1-2 minutes.



Pour in 1 liter of water (or more, the liquid should cover the meat), add a bouquet garni, a piece of celery, pork skin rolls, and previously fried pork. Bring to a boil, add salt to taste, cover the roasting pan and simmer the stew over low heat for 2 hours, stirring occasionally.



After the specified time, the knuckle should be cooked and expose the bones.



Remove the knuckle, cool slightly, separate the meat and fat from the skin. Cut the meat into small pieces and return it back to the pan. Discard the bones, and put the pieces of skin with fat in a container and put them in the refrigerator, they will be used for garlic dressing. Discard the bouquet garni and celery root. Remove the skin rolls from the broth and also put them in the refrigerator.



Drain the beans. In a separate saucepan, pour clean cold water over the beans and bring to a boil over low heat. Cook over moderate heat for 3 minutes, then drain. Toss the beans into the stew.



Add another 2-3 glasses of water and simmer over low heat until the beans are soft - about 1-1.5 hours. Be careful not to overcook the beans! Let the stew cool, then refrigerate overnight.



The third day. Skim off most of the solidified fat from the surface of the stew. Remove the head of cooked garlic.



Peel a head of boiled garlic and 2 cloves of fresh garlic. Place them in a mortar (or blender bowl) and grind them together with the boiled pork skin set aside from the shank (not the kind in rolls!). I admit honestly, I only used half of what was set aside; the stew seemed too fatty to me anyway, but the French, of course, would have put all of it in without leaving a trace.



Bring the stew to a boil, add the garlic mixture and simmer over low heat for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally.



At the same time, brown the confit duck legs in a frying pan.



Then, in the same fat that remained after the legs, fry the sausages until golden brown (do not forget to prick them with a thick needle or toothpick first so that they do not burst).



Assemble the cassoulet. Ideally, use a special cassole for baking, but if you don’t have one, then use any other ceramic dishes or clay pots you have (I cooked half of it in a mold and put the rest in pots).

So, rub the baking dish with a clove of garlic. Untie and straighten the pork skin into rolls. Line the bottom of the mold with skin, fat side down.



Transfer half of the stew into the pan. Top with confit and pork sausages.



Then distribute the remaining stew (along with the broth).



Sprinkle with bread crumbs - crumbs from yesterday's baguette (grated on a coarse grater) and breadcrumbs will do.



Bake at 160 degrees for 1-2 hours until the cassoulet is golden brown. During the process, look into the oven several times and stir the top - break the crust so that it does not burn, but is saturated with fat and juices, and becomes golden brown and crispy. If necessary, you can add broth if it has boiled over.



Let the dish sit for 20-30 minutes before serving. Serve the cassoulet warm. Can be paired with a glass of red wine and a baguette. From the specified amount of ingredients, the yield will be quite large - 8 servings.

In the spring of 2014, a program compiled for a group of Spoon! readers, not without a preference for knives and boards, pots and stewpans, set out to get acquainted with one of the oldest regions of France - Gascony. With all its main towns, food stalls and markets, homemade food and wine. The main thing on the trip (well, that is the goal) is to master cassoulet: a dish of beans, meat, poultry and sausages, stewed in the oven, one of the symbols of the region.

As it turns out, everyone here is fighting for the right to be called “the city where the best cassoulet is prepared.” Palma is currently held by Mirepoix, a tiny town with an old central square, wooden houses and the largest antique market in the region. There are copper dishes, books, tons of postcards and books, stamps and records, embroidered tablecloths and antique glasses. Accordingly, Mirepoix is ​​also home to the Academie du cassoulet, which knows everything about the dish.

Way of cassoulet

From the sandy beaches of the Mediterranean to Toulouse, through 5-7 towns, runs the so-called cassoulet route. The right places on the list include Narbonne, Carcassonne and the surrounding area, Castelnaudary and the whole area around Toulouse. In general, it’s strange that Languedoc-Roussillon is not considered a very gastronomic region. Between the sea and the ocean, the vineyards and the Spanish mountains, there is plenty to eat. Meat is worth trying in the form of a variety of sausages and dried jambon ham (jamon, actually), fish - from sardines to tuna, but shells are more respected here. In every major market you can find tables where you can eat freshly bought oysters or quickly cooked mussels with a glass of white. Anchovies stand apart - they have been expertly prepared here since the Middle Ages. Snails, cheeses and apple pies - of course. But let's digress from the cassoulet.

They say here that cassoulet rewrites the history of the region from generation to generation. A dish with a taste of terroir. The recipes differ slightly every 15-20 km: in Castelnaudary they use large white beans, pork skin, stewed pork meat, knuckle, onion and bouquet garni. In Carcassonne, the ingredients often include game birds, often partridge, and in Toulouse, cassoulet with lamb or duck, as well as blood sausage, is revered. Therefore, there is no one correct and standard recipe.

Cassoulet is the god of local Occitan cuisine. Each chef here has his own special balance of ingredients and technologies. You are unlikely to be able to find out the recipe down to the gram. The secret and uniqueness of craftsmanship, so to speak. I had to show it and approve it. I show them and they nod affirmatively. Yes, this is a real cassoulet. And good. Real means you have to cook and share. Look what comes out.

Cassoulet recipe

Basic Ingredients

The three most important ingredients are beans, confit meat (pre-simmered for a long time) and pork sausages. Beans. Large, white. Dry. Sometimes colored is allowed, but canned - never. Meat. Goose, duck or pork. Prepared in advance - stewed or baked in their own fat. Set the canned food aside again. Sausages. Always pork, made from minced meat and sometimes skin. With or without spices. Blood sausage, extra garlic, pork shank (or hind leg bone) are allowed. This is the base.

Technology

Cassoulet, in modern terms, is a slow cooking dish. Bake in the oven until crusty. Mix everything. Let's bake some more. This procedure of baking and “breaking the crust” can take place up to 7 times.

Here they say “a chef and his oven are like an artist with an easel”

Classic cassoulet recipe

1 kg dry large white beans
1 kg raw pork sausages
pork: 1 shank (part of a bone with a joint), 1 hoof, 500 g skin, 400 g meat (neck), 1 extra bone, all of the best quality, of course
1 whole head of garlic, 4 large onions
5 duck or goose legs, stewed in their own fat (confit, save with fat)
1 bouquet garni (parsley, celery, thyme, bay)
8 pcs clove pepper, salt, black pepper

The day before preparing the cassoulet, cook the broth from the ingredients in the “pork” list - 1 shank (part of a bone with a joint), 1 hoof, 500 g of skin, 1 additional bone. There is a decent amount of water - from 5 to 9 liters. Add bouquet garni. Cook over low heat for 2.5 hours. Carefully add just a little salt. Degrease a little - skim off some of the congealed fat from the cooled broth.

Also soak the beans the day before cooking. Change the water 2-3 times. Prepare duck confit. Fry the legs until golden brown, transfer to a baking dish, pour in your own fat and bake.

Cut the neck into small cubes, finely chop the onion and garlic. Fry everything in a small amount of vegetable oil until the pork begins to color. Set aside.

Place the beans in a saucepan with cold water. Boil. Cook for 10 minutes. Drain the water. Cut the sausages into 10 cm pieces and fry a little. Place the beans in a large saucepan or baking dish, pour in the broth, add the meat with onions and garlic. Add a little salt. Add sausages. Bake for 2 hours at medium temperature (130-150C). When the liquid has evaporated a little and a crust has formed, add broth little by little. Allow the finished dish to cool. Cassoulet tastes even better on the second day.

Kasule– one of the most substantial dishes in France. It requires a lot of time, ingredients and, of course, a lot of guests. And, like every folk dish, cassoulet has many variations. The homeland of rich stew is Languedoc. It is said that during the Hundred Years' War, the townspeople decided to help each other survive. To do this, everyone brought all the remaining supplies to the main square, and from them they cooked a rich dish in a huge cauldron, which saved the inhabitants of Languedoc from death.

Main component cassoulet- these are beans, and in the original they were used Lima - Spanish beans. The French divide cassoulet into three types, calling them “ Trinity»:

— Casoulet the Father of Castelnaudary– beans with pork, including skin, as well as goose meat.
— Casoulet-Son of Carcassonne prepared with lamb.
— Casoulet-Spirit of Toulouse, for which a small amount of lamb, pork fat, goose or duck is also used, and the most important ingredient is Toulouse sausages.

Classic ratio of ingredients and serving cassoulet

Kasule mostly resembles a stew, less often a thick soup. Consistency in ratios is so important for this dish that in 1966, the following proportions for cassoulet were approved: meat - pork, lamb, goose or duck - at least 30%; beans - 70%. Herbs, spices and pork rinds, which are natural gelatin, are also added. Beans and meat are usually cooked at the same time, but pork and lamb must be cooked separately. At the same time, the sausages are fried. The inside of the ceramic pot is rubbed with garlic. Then all the ingredients are mixed and baked in the oven for a long time. Serving the dish is very simple - a clay pot is placed directly from the oven on the table. A common cauldron brings all diners closer together, makes communication informal, and the atmosphere in the house cozy.

Try making cassoulet according to one of the legendary recipes from the provinces of France.

Cassoulet recipe from Castelnaudary

Upon entering Castelnaudary there is a monument - a hospitable hostess with a pot in her hands welcomes you to the homeland of cassule. In this city you can buy everything you need for this dish in every store: canned confit and beans.

Monument in Castelnaudary

For 4 servings of cassoulet according to the recipe from the inhabitants of Castelnaudary you will need:

- white beans - 300 g;

- pork - 200 g;

- confit duck thigh - 2 pieces;

- pork sausages for grilling - 4 pieces;

- lard or fatty bacon - 250 g;

- pork fat for frying;

- pork and chicken bones, carrots and onions for broth.

1. Pre-cook 2.5 liters of broth, strain. Soak the beans for 12 hours, drain the water and add fresh water. Boil over high heat for 7-10 minutes.

2. Strain the beans and add to the broth, cook them until al dente, that is, leave them slightly undercooked and hard.

3. Fry the meat ingredients. Heat duck thighs in a frying pan until fat is removed. Then remove them with a slotted spoon and fry the sausages in the same frying pan until crispy. At the end, fry the pieces of lard there.

4. Prepare a deep clay pot. Place slices of lard on the bottom, then duck confit and sausages. Place the beans on top and pour in the broth. You can use any French bouquets as a seasoning - rosemary and thyme go well with cassoulet. Salt - to taste.

5. Bake the cassoulet in the oven. The dish simmers for a very long time - about three hours. The beans become tender, boiled, and acquire the aroma of all types of meat and spices. The cassoulet is baked at 150 degrees. It may be necessary to add broth during baking, so keep an eye on the dish.

French-style goose or duck confit is an essential ingredient in cassoulet

Cassoulet is used in many variations confit. You can buy it in cans called confit d'oie or de canard, but, unfortunately, we don’t have them everywhere. In fact, confit is a duck or goose stew. It is quite simple to prepare, and one jar is enough for 5-6 servings of cassoulet.

So, cut a whole goose or duck into pieces, roll in coarse sea salt. Place the meat in a ceramic dish and leave it in the cold for one day. Grind the internal fat of the bird and melt it. Add the settled duck there, shaking off excess salt from the meat.

Simmer the meat over low heat for up to two hours without a lid, evaporating the liquid. To check if the duck is done, pierce it with a fork in several places. If the meat is soft and light juice is released, without blood, then the duck is ready. Place the hot meat in sterilized jars, pour hot fat over it and roll up the lids. Store for up to 6 months in a cool place.

Cassoulet with lamb from Carcassonne - photo recipe

Cassoulet with lamb from Carcassonne

Ingredients:

- white beans - 2 cups;

- pork skin - 300 g;

— lamb (shoulder and brisket) — 1100 g;

- garlic - 5 cloves;

— onion — 2 pcs.;

— tomato puree — 150 ml;

- fried pork sausages - 300 g;

- white bread crackers;

- a mixture of aromatic herbs

Step 1. Pre-infuse white beans in water for about 10 hours. Then strain, crush three cloves of garlic and add with chopped pork skin. Boil for one hour. After this, add blanched lamb brisket to the beans - 300 g. Cook until the beans are ready.

Step 2. In a deep bowl, brown the sliced ​​lamb. Add chopped onion and a crushed clove of garlic to the meat. Fry the onion until crispy. Then fill the pan to the top with bean broth, add tomato puree and place in the oven for 1.5 hours. Simmer over low heat.

Step 3. Place pieces of lard on the bottom of a deep form. Next, fill in layers: beans, pork cubes, sausage rings. Sprinkle breadcrumbs on top and bake for an hour over low heat, baste with bean broth from time to time.

In France, Cassole is the name for both a dish and a wide, large pot made of glazed clay.

Casoulet with Toulouse sausages

Casoulet with Toulouse sausages

Before you cook cassoulet in Toulouse, you need to buy or make Toulouse sausages yourself. If you have an electric meat grinder, it is very easy to prepare them using the sausage attachment. You need to have 1 kilogram of pork (neck and brisket), 350 g of lard, well-washed pork intestines, 25 g of sugar, 35 g of salt. You can also add Jamaican and black pepper.

Use a meat grinder to pass the meat through a large wire rack, and the onion and lard through a fine wire rack. Add seasonings to the minced meat and fill the intestines using a special cone. Tie the end in a knot and let it sit overnight in the refrigerator. The French hang their sausages out overnight to dry at room temperature. The next day, fry the sausages, piercing them in several places with a fork.

Required ingredients for Toulouse cassoulet:

- choice of pork or lamb, you can also use two types of meat - 400 g;

- young white beans - 500 g;

- pork ham skins - 250 g;

- 3 carrots and 2 onions;

- 100 g goose fat;

- 400 g Toulouse sausages;

- 100 ml dry white wine.

Wash beans and soak in salted water overnight. Boil finely chopped ham skins for 3 hours until a rich broth is obtained.

Strain the settled beans, add broth, mix with boiled skins and cook for about two hours. Towards the end of cooking, add thinly sliced ​​carrots, a clove of garlic, season with thyme, pepper, bay leaf and salt.
Chop the meat into small cubes and fry in goose fat until crisp. Lamb needs to be cooked a little longer than pork. Add finely chopped onion and one clove of garlic to the meat. Simmer over low heat for an hour.

Add beans to the boiling meat, pour in wine and the rest of the goose fat, simmer everything for 25 minutes over medium heat. Make sure that the sauce in the cassoulet does not boil away completely, but only thickens a little.
Cut the fried Toulouse sausages in half lengthwise. Place the beans and meat in a fireproof clay dish, nestle the sausages and sprinkle with herbs. Bake for 1 hour, removing the crust during the process. When all the liquid has boiled away, the dish is ready.

Duck cassoulet from Gwyneth Paltrow

Cassoulet recipe from Gwyneth Paltrow

Paltrow is not only a famous actress, but also an amateur cook. Once while traveling in France, she tried duck confit and was amazed at its extraordinary tenderness and crispy crust at the same time. But the actress was even more delighted after trying cassoulet with duck confit. Gwyneth does not eat pork or red meat, so she came up with her own cassoulet recipe, which is distinguished by the rich aroma of a variety of herbs. This recipe is featured in Paltrow's book: Daddy's Girl. Delicious and simple recipes for family togetherness.”

For duck cassoulet you need to take:

— beans of a special thin-skinned variety “cannellini” — 800 g;

- canned tomatoes - 450 g;

— duck confit and smoked duck — 250 g each;

- garlic - 7 cloves;

- onions and leeks - 1 pc.;

- bouquet garni, which includes a sprig of rosemary and 3 stalks of parsley, bay leaf, 6 black peppercorns;

- 2 stalks of thyme.

The beans in this recipe are canned, so there is no need to soak them. Chop the leek, crush the garlic clove and mix with the beans, add the bouquet garni. Pour in water and bring to a boil. Add salt and leave to simmer over low heat.

Brown the confit duck legs well - 6-7 minutes on each side, then remove with a slotted spoon. Add olive oil to the remaining duck fat, add 2 cloves of garlic and heat over medium heat. Grind yesterday's air-dried baguette into fine crumbs and add to the pan with fat, fry for 2 minutes so that the crackers absorb the aroma.

Cut the onion into small cubes, chop 4 cloves of garlic. Peel the tomatoes and mash with a fork. Cut the smoked duck into slices, fry over high heat until golden brown, reduce the heat and add vegetables. Simmer for at least 12 minutes over low heat. Then pour in the juice from the tomatoes, pepper and salt. Boil for 1 hour over low heat.
Remove the onion, bouquet garni and garlic from the beans. Drain the broth and set aside for baking. Mix tomatoes and meat with beans, add duck legs to them, season with thyme, salt and pepper.

Place the beans in a deep form, preferably ceramic, sprinkle the cassoulet with bread crumbs, and pour in the bean broth. Bake at 180 degrees for about half an hour until the bread crumbs are browned. At the end, sprinkle with chopped herbs.

Gwyneth considers this dish the best dinner option for a weekend spent with family. Prepare this dish of unity, too, and let peace be in your homes. Bon appetit!

Cassoulet is a French dish, which is a stew of beans with different types of meat - lamb, beef, pork or poultry. Toulouse is famous for foie gras and its version of cassoulet, a stew made from duck with beans, pork sausage and bacon. The dish turns out to be very filling, but very tasty.

To prepare Cassoulet in Toulouse, take the ingredients according to the list.

Sprinkle the duck leg generously with sea salt and leave to marinate for several hours. After a while, wash off the salt and dry the leg with a paper towel.

Fry in goose fat in a small saucepan over low heat for 45-50 minutes. To be honest, I fried it in the fat that came out of the duck leg during cooking and it was more than enough to cook it.

Pre-soak the beans overnight in water.

Cut the onion into small cubes, fry in olive oil, add beans, stir. Separately, fry the carrots, coarsely chopped.

Pour in the broth, cook for 20 minutes.

Add tomato sauce, stir, simmer for another 20 minutes.

Add chopped tomato and crushed garlic, simmer over low heat until the beans are ready.

Add chopped sausage and bacon. If desired, they can be pre-fried. Cook for another 5-7 minutes.

Place the beans in a baking dish, put fried carrots and duck leg on top, cook in an oven preheated to 180 degrees without convection for another 30 minutes. By then the liquid will almost evaporate.

Stir Cassoulet before serving.

Serve Toulouse-style cassoulet with dry white wine.