Cassoulet
- Total Time
- 5½ hours, plus marinating
- Rating
- Notes
- Read community notes
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Ingredients
Yield:12 servings
- 2½pounds bone-in pork stew meat, cut into 2-inch pieces
- 2½pounds bone-in lamb stew meat, cut into 2-inch pieces
- 2½teaspoons kosher salt
- 9garlic cloves, peeled, plus 3 grated or minced garlic cloves
- ⅛teaspoon ground cloves
- 1teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
- 1bay leaf, torn into pieces
- 2sprigs rosemary, torn into pieces
- 2sprigs thyme, torn into pieces
- ½cup/4 ounces duck fat, melted (or goose fat or lard, or a combination)
- 1pound dried Tarbais, flageolet, lingot, Great Northern or cannellini beans
- 3teaspoons kosher salt
- 1bouquet garni (3 sprigs Italian parsley, 3 sprigs thyme and 1 bay leaf, tied with kitchen string; see Techniques)
- 1stalk celery, halved
- 1large carrot, halved
- 2garlic cloves, peeled
- ½teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
- 1whole clove
- ½white onion, cut stem to root end
- 8ounces fully cooked French garlic sausage or kielbasa, skin removed and cut into chunks
- 8ounces salt pork
- ¼cup duck fat (or goose fat, lard, a combination or olive oil), more as needed
- 1pound fresh pork sausage, pricked all over with a fork
- 1½large onions, diced
- 2large carrots, diced
- 2celery stalks, diced
- 9garlic cloves, peeled
- 3cups tomato purée, from fresh or canned tomatoes
- Kosher salt, to taste
- 4legs duck confit, bought or homemade (see Techniques)
- 1½cups panko, or other plain, dried bread crumbs
For the Meat
For the Beans
For the Rest
Preparation
- Step 1
The night before cooking, marinate the meat and soak the beans. For meat: In a large bowl, combine all ingredients except fat and toss to combine. Cover and refrigerate overnight. For beans: In a large bowl, combine beans, 1 teaspoon salt and enough cold water to cover by 4 inches. Cover and let sit overnight.
- Step 2
The next day, roast the meat: Heat oven to 325 degrees. Pour fat over meat in the bowl and toss to coat. Spread meat in one even layer on a rimmed baking sheet, leaving space between each piece to encourage browning (use two pans if necessary). Top meat with any fat left in bowl. Roast until browned, about 1 hour, then turn pieces, cover with foil, and continue to roast until soft, another 1½ hours. Remove meat from baking sheet, then scrape up all browned bits stuck to the pan. Reserve fat and browned bits.
- Step 3
Meanwhile, cook the beans: Drain beans, add them to a large stockpot and cover with 2 inches water. Add bouquet garni, celery, carrot, 2 garlic cloves, 2 teaspoons salt and the pepper. Stick whole clove into the folds of the onion half and add that as well. Bring to a boil and then simmer over medium heat, stirring often, until beans are cooked through, 1 to 1½ hours, adding garlic sausage after 30 minutes. When beans are cooked, remove bouquet garni and aromatics, including vegetables. Reserving cooking liquid, drain the beans and sausage.
- Step 4
While beans are cooking, bring a medium pot of water to a boil and add salt pork. Simmer for 30 minutes, remove and let cool. Cut off skin, then slice pork into very thin pieces and reserve.
- Step 5
Heat a very large skillet (at least 12 inches) over medium heat and add a drizzle of duck or other fat. Add fresh pork sausages and cook until well browned on all sides, about 20 minutes. Remove to a plate and reserve, leaving any sausage fat in skillet.
- Step 6
In same skillet over medium-high heat, add ¼ cup of the reserved fat and the browned bits from the roasted meat. Add diced onions, carrots and celery, and cook until softened, about 10 minutes. Add 9 whole garlic cloves and cook until fragrant, another 2 to 4 minutes. Add tomato purée, season with salt to taste, and simmer until thickened to a saucelike consistency, 5 to 10 minutes, if necessary. Add cooked beans and stir to combine. Remove from heat and reserve.
- Step 7
Assemble the cassoulet: Heat oven to 375 degrees. In a large Dutch oven, lay salt pork pieces in an even layer to cover the bottom of the pot. Add a scant third of the bean and garlic sausage mixture, spreading evenly. Top with half of the roasted meat pieces, 2 pork sausages and 2 duck legs. Add another scant third of the bean mixture, and top with remaining meat, sausages and duck legs. Top with remaining beans, spreading them to the edges and covering all meat. Pour reserved bean liquid along the edges of the pot, until liquid comes up to the top layer of beans but does not cover. Sprinkle bread crumbs on top and drizzle with ¼ cup duck fat.
- Step 8
Bake until crust is lightly browned, about 30 minutes. Use a large spoon to lightly crack the crust; the bean liquid will bubble up. Use the spoon to drizzle the bean liquid all over the top of the crust. Return to oven and bake 1 hour more, cracking the crust and drizzling with the bean liquid every 20 minutes, until the crust is well browned and liquid is bubbling. (The total baking time should be 1½ hours.) Remove from oven and let cool slightly, then serve.
Private Notes
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Cooking Notes
Tej
What size dutch oven would be needed for this dish?
video instructions
NY Times staff: can you share what that wonderful background music is in the cassoulet video?
Terry J
I've tried various cassoulet recipes and while this one is quite good, something was off. I marinated and roasted the stew meat from a good butcher exactly according to instructions but it came out of the oven really tough and dry, and it didn't get much more tender when stewing in the oven. Perhaps a lower roasting temperature and less time?? Also, 5 lbs of stew meat overwhelmed the pot and beans. I would use less stew meat the next time.
Andy in Iowa
Making cassoulet is a commitment! But the result is an inimitable mix of elegant flavors and textures.
Thank goodness D'Artagnan products are so widely available! Their duck fat & garlic sausages are top notch. Ditto for Rancho Gordo's cassoulet (Tarbais) beans. I confess to using chicken thighs, not duck this time. Also bacon instead of salt pork. Added a cup of sauv blanc to the tomato purée.
Fabulous result!! A seasonal Must Have in our home every winter!!
Kevin Osinski
A note on ingredients: I got a "Cassoulet Kit" from d'Artagnan which included Tarbais beans, garlic sausage, duck and armagnac sausage, ventrèche (French pancetta), duck confit and duck fat. I used 6 oz ventrèche instead of the salt pork (no boiling), and the duck sausage instead of the pork sausage. I found that the fat left in the pan of roasted meat was all I needed to complete the recipe, so I only used 4 oz of duck fat.
Seth Savarick
If you put a pizza stone on the bottom of you oven or On the lowest rack, and bake your cassoulet on that you will get a great crust on the bottom.
David
Same experience as Terry (q.v.); the pork and lamb @ 325 for 2.5 hours produced something akin to jerky. I’d ignore the time advice and simply monitor for done-ness. As for the duck confit, the drumsticks I found were far beyond the budget for most folks; instead I skinned bone-in chicken drumsticks and cooked them slowly in duck fat at 200 degrees in a covered saucepan on the stovetop, then later tucked them into the construction of the cassoulet. Great taste.
Chris
1. As requested by another reader, it would be helpful for recipes like this to note the size of dutch oven needed.
2. Altogether this was excellent. However, while the recipe description refers to a "crisp salt pork crust", the salt pork was the opposite of crisp. Given that its boiled, and then sits at the bottom of a pot filled with stock this isnt that surprising. But, I wonder if one might crisp the salt pork a bit before adding all the other layers?
Kevin Osinski
This was very good, and got raves from my guests. I think it has too much tomato -- next time I'd use 1 1/2 or 2 cups of sauce. I pressure cooked the beans and garlic sausage in an Instant Pot for 30 minutes, natural pressure release. I roasted half of a bone-in lamb shoulder and a few bone-in pork country ribs, cooled and de-boned before adding to the beans. The ratio of meat to beans was quite high and could be reduced. It filled a Le Creuset #31 Dutch oven (6.75 qt).
Wendy
Make half portion meat and beans, full on everything else
Kristen
I agree with the other comments regarding the bean to meat ratio. I used the full amount of beans and half the meat - - and still found there to be plenty of meat. I also agree the cooking time for the stew meat is too long. I used lamb riblets and pork spareribs - about 2 lbs total, cooked about 1-1.25 hours. Meat was perfectly tender. I used frozen duck legs instead of confit, which is hard to find. Cooked with the ribs - perfect. Also used a spicy merguez sausage (lamb & pork) -yummy!
Matt
Very delicious! But not a small amount of work, particularly collecting all of the ingredients.
I blended a 28 oz. can of Italian tomatoes for the tomato puree. The time roasting the meat was a little too long, and I should have saved the bean liquid after I assembled the cassoulet as the end result could have been a little saucier.
Get a Cahors Malbec for the classic pairing. 12 servings is not an exaggeration - there was a ton of food and it's very filling.
Ann M
I used the Shazam app on my phone and got this for the music: "Cognac S'll Vous Plait" by Martin Taylor and Jean-Pierre Fabien
SPS
Attempted to make as directed but needed more salt pork to cover bottom of pan. Also, the stew meat ended up being too dry and did not tenderize in baking process. Beans were delicious. I may have cooked them a bit long as they seemed to lose shape in the baking process.I used canned duck confit. Overall, the dish was good. Would try again to make, but only because so many rave about. Not because mine came out all that great. Next time…larger meat pieces and watch more carefully.
cynthia
I cooked duck breast and legs, both with skin, along with sausage and the marinade ingredients (no liquids) in a crockpot on high for 3 hours, then low for 2.5. The meat browns and plenty of fat was rendered. Result was very tender, well-seasoned meat.
Michael Potashnik
I followed Melissa's recipe, but also took ideas from Julia Child's and the results were excellent!! I made the beans according to Melissa's instructions, adding garlic sausage 30 minutes in. I cooked the meat with bones on the stove following Julia's recipe, as some commented that the meat dried out in the oven in Melissa's recipe. I included lamb shoulder, bone-in pork, sausage, and duck. Added white wine to the tomato pure (Julia's idea), and used bean liquid at the end-both recommended
sfm
Use less tomato puree and more bean liquid. Do not get rid of liquid until fully cooked so you can add more liquid if it becomes dry. Check cassoulet every 30 minutes. Probably only needs 1 hour max to cook.
Mardi
I appreciate everyone who shared their experience with the roasting time for the meat. I came up with a hybrid method - I pan seared it (cut up bone in lamb and pork chops) and then put it in a 350 degree oven for just twenty minutes. Came out perfect.
Ann S
Since everything is cooked before assembly, I would love to hear if others have frozen this after assembling it but before baking it. I’d like to freeze some of the duck fat as well as some of the bean liquid to add after defrosting before baking. I’d also wait to add the topping until ready to bake. Does this make sense or is it better to bake then freeze?
George Lazar
Oh! Ms Clark! I think you've outdone yourself! And for the person asking about the music it may be Django Reinehardt and Stephane Grappelli or someone playing their music in their style. Google Hot club de France, Le Jazz Hot. Very cool.
ABCC
I've made this dish twice and it's become an annual birthday request from my husband. After reading, reviewing and studying a handful of recipes, this is the crowd pleaser. The effort it takes is worth the pleasure it brings. Most of work the first round was tracking down ingredients. Once I knew where to find everything - this year's endeavor was much easier. Bone-in meat is better. Store bought duck confit works fine! This year was better than last. Throw in other sausages too! It's a keeper!
ann sajecki
How long can cassoulet, once cooked, remain in the refridge. I'm cooking it today for the weekend.
Lynn S
I used sous vide duck legs (separate the thigh for more servings) from a previous dinner and boneless wild boar and lamb stew meat in a 13 Qt pot. Pot was a little too big. I also threw in all sorts of meat drippings from previous meals. It was on the dry side, so I also added chicken stock. It was delicious, but waaay better the next day. It was a little heavy on meat, but probably because I used boneless stew meat. I'd do it that way again, but add a half amount more of beans.
Peony
I had my eye on this recipe for years but have not felt like taking on the day-long challenge of making it, until today. My findings; this cassoulet is a lot of work and in my opinion, not worth the effort. I have made other pork and bean dishes that are tastier and less effort. My suggestion is; to look for an easier recipe with many of the same ingredients. You don't need all the various types of meat, pork shoulder, lamb, garlic sausage, and duck legs to make a cassoulet memorable.
Jason V
Regarding video background music, that has to be from Django and Grappelli … maybe from their Quintette du Hot Club de France.
OperaSwain
One of the essential elements of provincial European cooking is that dishes like this are the end result of previous meals, not a venture in and of themselves. It's what you do with a leftover roast, so enjoy that roast lamb or pork dinner which is way too much for one meal, then use the rest in the cassoulet. It's amazing how much more affordable both meals become.
Chefkreidler
Don't buy the duck confit, make it yourself. Homemade confit is stuffed with the flavors of their marinade and you get to cook them till they are almost falling off the bone. Just handle them with care. Cassoulet comes from the heart, don't skip any steps. Use the largest Dutch oven you have. I use a 13qt. makes enough to have extras, Cassoulet freezes great.
Kristen
I agree with the other comments regarding the bean to meat ratio. I used the full amount of beans and half the meat - - and still found there to be plenty of meat. I also agree the cooking time for the stew meat is too long. I used lamb riblets and pork spareribs - about 2 lbs total, cooked about 1-1.25 hours. Meat was perfectly tender. I used frozen duck legs instead of confit, which is hard to find. Cooked with the ribs - perfect. Also used a spicy merguez sausage (lamb & pork) -yummy!
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