"Larry Swain" > wrote in message
...
> Does anyone have a good cassoulet recipe they'd like to share?
>

Cassoulet from Castelnaudary

800 g white beans
800 g pork backbone
8 slices of breast of pork
200 g fresh pork rind
1 garlic sausage
2 soupspoons of lard
2 salted pork hocks
250 g tomatoes
3 onions studded with cloves
200 g of carrots
1 bouquet garni
ground pepper
200gr neck of mutton
200gr mutton from the leg

Prepartion of the beans:
Wash the beans carefully and soak them at least overnight in cold water.
Be careful to avoid to avoid using hard water. Rinse the beans, blanch
them and rinse in warm water.
For 8 people - cooking time 4h


*A "cassole" is an earthenware pot in which you can simmer on a low heat and
put it in the oven for browning. It is the origin of the term cassoulet. It
corresponds roughly to the English word "casserole".

In a large casserole, heat the lard with the tomatoes, diced pork breast and
sliced carrots. When this is cooked, put the beans on top and cover with two
litres of water, add the bouquet garni, garlic, pepper, onions, pork rind,
the backbone, les oignons, the pork hock (which you would have desalted) and
the other meat. Cook
over a low heat for at least two hours.

If the casserole is not ovenproof, transfer the whole of this into a
"cassole*", or an deep earthenware pot. Spread the meat over the
surface and add thick slices of garlic sausage. Put the dish into a warm
oven. When it is covered with a brown crust push this into the
beans with a wooden spatula. (Repeat this six times in all during the
cooking). Cook in the oven for at least two hours. This long and delicate
process is the essential part of the preparation
of an excellent cassoulet.
Serves 8

Cassoulet from Toulouse

Same method and same ingredients as the cassoulet from Castelnaudary
except that after one hour's cooking add 200 g of neck of mutton, 200 g of
mutton from the gigot. Before putting it in the oven add a pork rind
sausage and four pieces of duck confit (remove the
preserving fat). Cook in the oven as described above.


Cassoulet from Carcassonne

Same method and same ingredients as the cassoulet from Toulouse but
add twice as much mutton and replace the duck confit with a plucked
and emptied red-legged partridge. Omit the Toulouse sausage and the
breadcrumbs.


ÓChantal Moret 1999, 2000
Cassoulet is a basic recipe with a large number of local variations. The
best known are the cassoulet of Castelnaudary, of Toulouse and of
Carcassonne which are decribed here - but the basis of all cassoulets are
the beans.