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Cassoulet

by | Jan 4, 2017 | French

This is my grandmother’s Cassoulet and one of my all time favorites.

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Cassoulet
Author: 
Recipe type: Main
Cuisine: French
Prep time: 
Cook time: 
Total time: 
Serves: 8-10
 
Ingredients
  • 2 lbs. preserved goose
  • 2 lbs. dried Great Northern beans
  • ½ lb. lean salt pork
  • 1 whole onion, stuck with cloves
  • 1 large carrot
  • Bouquet garni (thyme, bay leaf and parsley tied together)
  • Salt, pepper
  • 1 lb. Toulouse sausage (Polish or other type of garlic sausage)
  • 1 lb. pork loin, cubed (boneless)
  • 1 ½ lb. lamb breast or shoulder, cut up
  • 3 tbsp. fat from preserved goose
  • 4 medium onions, chopped
  • 2 garlic cloves, chopped
  • ¾ cup tomato puree or small can chopped tomatoes
  • Salt, pepper
  • Bouquet garni
  • ¾ cup breadcrumbs mixed with ¼ cup finely chopped parsley and freshly ground pepper for topping
Instructions
  1. Cover beans with cold water in a large pan. Bring to an almost boil, remove immediately from heat and let stand 2 hours. Drain and throw away the water. Put the beans back in the rinsed saucepan, cover with water, and add the salt pork, the onion, the carrot, the bouquet garni and simmer for 30 minutes. Add the sausage and continue cooking at a bare simmer for another 30 minutes. Drain the beans, keeping the cooking liquid in another saucepan.
  2. In a large skillet, heat the goose fat, sauté the lamb and pork until brown, adding more fat if necessary. Remove meat and keep aside. In the same skillet sauté the onions until soft, add the garlic, cook 1 minute, add the tomatoes and seasonings. Put the meats back in this sauce, cover and cook for 20 minutes
  3. In a 5-quart casserole, preferably earthenware, arrange in layers, some beans, then some of the various meats, then another layer of beans and so on until all ingredients are used. Pour the sauce from the skillet in which the pork and lamb were cooked and add some of the bean juice. Top with the sausage cut in rounds and cover with the breadcrumbs. Bake 2 hours, with a lid on. During the baking in a preheated over at 325 degrees, check the cassoulet a few times, pushing the bread crust down and adding additional bred crumbs each time. Also check if beans are not too dry; in this case add some hot bean juice. The cassoulet can be put together a day or 2 before and refrigerated, in this case the baking time should be ½ hour longer or 2 ½ hours. Also very good reheated. Serve from the casserole.