Three Days to Perfection: Crafting the Ultimate Cassoulet

My dream is to die with an oven full of cassoulet. ~ Étienne Rousselot

Cassoulet, a quintessential French peasant dish, features pork, sausages, beans, and confit slow-cooked under a sumptuous golden crust. It is a testament to the art of patience and the rich, deep flavors that can only be developed by cooking at a grandmotherly pace. Crafting an authentic cassoulet requires a commitment of 3 days to make it properly. Take the time and enjoy the process.

The famous Cassoulet Imperial at Hostellerie Etienne, a family-run business since 1956, video by Francois

I am going to lead you to a little tavern on the rue Vavin, Chez Clemence, which makes only one dish, but what a superb dish it is!… To be good, it must have cooked very slowly for a long time. Clemence’s cassoulet has been cooking for over 20 years. She replenishes the pot sometimes with goose, sometimes with pork fat, sometimes she puts in a sausage or some haricot beans, but it is always the same cassoulet. The basis remains and this ancient and precious substance gives it the savor one finds in the paintings of the old Venetian masters, in the amber flesh tints of their women. Come, I want you to taste Clemence’s cassoulet. ~ Anatole France, from his book “Histoire Comique”

Three days. Yes, 3 days

Sylvie Bigar, the goddess of cassoulet and author of ‘Cassoulet Confessions’ had advised me to go to Hostellerie Etienne to taste the best version. I won’t repeat my account of eating it (click here to read my story) but suffice it to say that after one plate, my son became an expert and scolded me that my version was not as good. I spent the next year studying different recipes and techniques before settling upon what I call Cassoulet v2.

Be forewarned: No hacks or shortcuts will produce the same results. The slow cooking and layering of flavors result in a deep, complex, and comforting dish that is much more than the sum of its parts. This 3-day process is what makes cassoulet cassoulet.

To prepare dinner for a friend is to put into the cooking pot all one’s affection and goodwill, all one’s gaiety and zest, so that after three hours’ cooking, a waft of happiness escapes beneath the lid. ~ Edouard de Pomaine

My cassoulet confession is that it took even longer than 3 days to make. There are a multitude of small things I did that crafted this moment. Making duck confit is a 3-day process (3 days of curing plus 4 hours of slow cooking). You could buy confit already cooked by someone else. It will never taste as good. Then there was the 4 months it took to grow my beans.

The Game Plan

My house is starting to take on the look of a cassoulet factory. Partially glazed cassoles and other clay pieces are stacked on one side of the kitchen. Legions of sausages, duck confit, pig feet, and odd bits of pork are poised, waiting for the signal to jump into the vat of beans. 

Today the first long slow cook begins and my house will be blessed with the joyous smell of camaraderie and laughter. Cassoulet is a celebration of life. For me, shared meals are so much more than simply food, they become life experiences that are celebrated through laughter, friendship, and communion with the natural world. Meals like cassoulet provide meaning and context to our busy lives and enrich our souls.

Here is a synopsis of all the steps involved. My recipe is a hybrid of several recipes including Sylvie Bigar’s rendition of Eric Garcia’s recipe, Hostellerie Etienne’s recipe, and my personal experiences.

When he first came to town, he didn’t know how to make cassoulet, but he did know a waitress at a Castelnaudary hotel that was once famous for its cassoulet, and little by little — plying her with glasses of champagne, he claims — he got the recipe from her. “But it took me another ten years to perfect my own version,” Rousselot added. Could he give me some tips? I asked. “It’s all in the little things, the simple things,” he answered. “For example, I leave the cassole in the oven for seven hours, at a low temperature. Also, I let a nice crust form on the top, and then break it and let it re-form at least four times.”

Excerpt from Michael Balter’s article “The Secrets of the Real Cassoulet

Day 1: Soaking the Beans and making the Pork Stock

The journey begins with picking through your beans and soaking them overnight to soften and prep them for cooking. At the same time, you will prepare a rich pork stock which is the foundation of a great cassoulet.

Day 2: Cooking the beans, Preparing the Meats, and the First Bake

The beans are gently simmered in your pork stock with aromatics like onions and cloves, infusing them with flavor. Cassoulet is known for its variety of meats, including duck confit, pork, sausages, and sometimes lamb. The meat is browned then layered with the beans in a traditional earthenware pot, known as a “cassole,” and then baked for 3 hours.

Day 3: The Final Bake

The final day is when the magic happens, the cassoulet is baked again, and the top forms a golden crust.

To Cassole or (Frere) Not

Traditionally cassoulet is cooked in a high-sided earthen pot called a cassole. I have made cassoulet in various clay pieces and even a Dutch oven with great results. Just be careful, because a Dutch oven is made from metal it cooks hotter and quicker so you will need to reduce the cooking temperature by 25 degrees and probably add more stock along the way. For a genuinely traditional cassoulet experience, seek out a cassole made by the renowned Poterie Not. Poterie Not is a celebrated French potter located in the heart of the Languedoc region and is renowned for its traditional craftsmanship.

Cassoulet v2

PREP: 30 minutes | COOK: 7 to 8 hours| MAKES: 10 servings (2 cassoles)

Day One

• 2 pounds of dried white beans picked over, see notes

• 2 pig feet, split

• 1 pound piece of pork belly with pig skin, remove skin and save

• 1 ham bone

• 1 onion, stuck with 10 cloves

• 2 carrots, cut into large pieces

• 2 rib celery, broken in half

• 1 sprig of thyme

• 2 bay leaves

• 10 cloves garlic

Day Two

• 1/4 cup goose, duck, or pork fat

• reserved pork belly, cut into large dice

• 1 pound Toulouse sausage (coarse, fatty pork sausage) cut into 3-inch long segments

• 1 pound of country pork ribs, see notes

• 1/2 rack of pork ribs slow-cooked for 18 hours, see note

• 4 pieces of duck confit, cut into 2 pieces

• 2 sweet onions, chopped

Day Three

• 1/4 cup bread crumbs

Directions

1. On Day 1, soak the beans in a large bowl covered with a generous amount of cold water overnight. 

2. Make the Pork Stock, by combining the feet, belly, skin, bone, onion, carrots, celery, and herbs in a large stock pot. Cover by 2 inches with cold water, and bring to a rapid boil over high heat. Reduce the heat to low, and simmer for 2 hours. Place a fine mesh strainer over a large bowl. Drain the stock, saving both the liquid and the meat. Discard the pork skin. I ended up with 10 cups of golden collagen-rich stock.

3. Cut the pork belly into 1/4-inch dice and set aside. Remove all the bones from the pig feet while they are still warm and coarsely chop, mix with garlic, then puree into a semi-fine paste with a food processor. If you don’t own a food processor, hand chop as fine as possible.

4. On Day 2, drain the beans and rinse under cold water. Put in a large pot covered with hot water and bring to a rapid boil. Cook for 10 minutes, then drain. Return the beans to the pot, add your pork stock from day 1, and bring to a boil over high heat, then reduce to a simmer and let cook for 30 minutes over low heat. The beans won’t be fully cooked but instead will be al dente (for lack of a better term). Drain the beans, saving both the beans and the stock. 

5. Preheat the oven to 300°F.

6. Heat the duck fat in the Dutch oven until smoking hot and brown the belly. Remove the belly to a plate and repeat with the sausages, ribs, and finally the duck confit. Working in batches, brown each piece of meat on all sides.

7. In the remaining fat, saute the onion until soft, about 5 minutes. Add the ground pig foot and garlic mixtures and cook until soft and mixed well with the onion. Stir the onion mixture into the drained beans with the pork belly.

8. In a large cassole or Dutch oven, layer half the beans. Arrange the sausage, ribs, and confit over the beans. Top with the remaining beans. Pour in just enough of the reserved pork stock to come to the top of the beans and bake slowly for 3 hours. Watch the cassoulet cooking, when it starts to bubble and simmer, reduce the heat to 250 degrees and continue cooking. This usually happens after about 30 minutes. If cassoulet cooks too hard the stock will cook off too quickly and the fat will separate and become greasy on top.

9. Each time the top forms a crust, use a spoon to push it back down into the cassole. I usually do this twice during the first cooking. Remove the cassoulet from the oven and let cool for an hour on your countertop. Refrigerate overnight and let the flavors marry together.

10. On Day 3, Preheat the oven to 300°F. 

11. Remove your cassole from the refrigerator and let warm to room temperature on your kitchen counter for 45 minutes or so. This is done mostly to prevent breaking your clay cassole. If you heat cold clay pieces quickly they crack and break. Add a ladle full of pork stock and put your cassoulet into the oven.

12. Let it cook for 2 hours, pushing the crust down regularly. Sprinkle your breadcrumbs over the top, and let cook for the last hour unmolested. The crust is formed from the protein and collagen-rich stock mixing with the beans and crumbs. 

13. Serve immediately with a large green salad.

Notes:

Lots of arguments center around your choice of beans. Depending on which region in France you come from the conflict centers on either Tarbais or Lingot beans. In America, we don’t have this conflict, you can find tarbais beans or try a plentitude of other white beans like Great Northern.

I flip between using what is commonly referred to in the US as country ribs or pre-cooked spare ribs. Country-style ribs are defined as being cut from where the loin and shoulder meet. Most grocery stores carry these and they are dirt cheap. I happened to have a rack of ribs in my freezer that I slow-cooked for 18 hours. I like using ribs for the flavor and texture, but you could also use pork butt.

Tips:

Cassoulet is not meant to be a dry, pasty bean dish. It should be saucy with the beans remaining mostly intact. This is achieved by trusting in the process. To prevent the dish from drying out, periodically add more of your pork stock. If you run out, use chicken stock. Follow the method for cooking the beans. It produced great results and kept my beans from losing their shape. The double cooking of beans also seemed to cut feeling gasy or bloated from them.

Further Reading:

Étienne Rousselot’s Cassoulet Recipe adapted for Saveur 

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Francois de Melogue is a Photographer, reformed chef, cookbook author, and bon vivant. He lives in Saint Albans, Vermont with his wife Lisa and 13-year-old son Beaumont. Francois’s photography is available for sale at his online gallery. Click here for Video recipes.

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