Cassoulet

"In practice, most cassoulet is good - I mean, how can you go wrong when unctuous meat and snowy white beans are left to simmer gently with garlic and herbs?" Nigel Slater

This is my second go at this post. I spent an hour or so on it yesterday afternoon, only to find, when I had finished that nothing had been saved and the whole thing had disappeared. I just did not have the energy to do it again, so here I am, the day after, having another go.

I'm back to Taste le Tour with Gabriel Gaté and a much earlier episode in which he talked about cassoulet, although I don't think he made it. But I had been meaning to visit cassoulet for some time, so decided to give it a go.

Cassoulet is one of those ancient peasant dishes which is now world famous and found on restaurant menus around the world. In the Languedoc - it's ancient home - it is found on just about every restaurant menu, although you will often have to persuade someone to share it with because most restaurants don't make individual portions. Well if you are making the 'real' thing you can't really, because there are so many ingredients involved. It's a dish to make when you are feeding a crowd. And when you have a lot of time.

Because, peasant dish it may be but simple it is not. First of all you have to gather your ingredients, some of which are pretty hard to find - confit of goose anyone? You will need several different meats chosen from Toulouse (or other 'real' sausage), pork, lamb, ham, confit of duck, goose - even chicken, turkey, partridge and other game birds are suggested. (And oh the horror - in my internet ramblings I found vegetarian and vegan versions and also one with tuna!) Then there are the beans. The originals were dried fava beans which I think are broad beans, but these days the usual kind of bean is the haricot - although there are specialist varieties of them, but beans such as cannellini are acceptable.

Why so many different ingredients? Well the legend - there's always a legend with this kind of dish - is that the dish was invented back in the 14th century during the siege of Castelnaudary when food was short, so the peasants gathered together what they had - the said Toulouse sausage - well probably Castelnaudary sausage - some pork and some beans which they stewed together in big pots with breadcrumbs on top. It was so successful that the other towns around - Toulouse, Carcassonne, Castres all developed their own versions. And probably every farmer's wife too. So the variety of ingredients depended on what they had available in each district. This is the area for foie gras - hence the goose - and the duck too. So these are the things that went into it. They are not the things that you find elsewhere all in one spot. It all makes sense, but:

"A heretical few suggest the cassoulet was not a French invention at all, but an adaptation from the Arab fava bean and mutton stew." Mastering the Art of French Cooking

Also plausible but it doesn't really explain the sausage or the confits or even the breadcrumbs.

A massive opportunity for tourism though - as are the dishes in which it is cooked. The name of the dish comes from the dish itself - cassol meaning dish and a particular dish that was made in the small town of Issel near Castelnaudary. I'm sure you will be able to find them in markets and tourist shops throughout the region.

In my time I have been tempted many, many times by the beautiful pots of France, but have always had to hold back because of the weight problems of air travel. I sometimes wish I hadn't. Aren't they beautiful?

There are endless arguments about what should go into cassoulet and at least two different associations who dress up in funny costumes and lay down rules, but actually virtually everyone has their own 'secret' recipe.

"Fortunately all the talk can be regarded as so much historical background, for an extremely good cassoulet can be made anywhere out of beans and whatever of its traditional meats are available ... And truth to tell, despite all the to-do about preserved goose, once it is cooked with the beans you may find difficulty in distinguishing goose from pork." Mastering the Art of French Cooking

France Today gives a really good version of the history and how it has changed over the centuries, so that today the dish is somewhat simpler and lighter than it was.

“A cassoulet in the end is a pretty heavy dish. Today our society has changed, our nutritional needs have changed, and our tastes are changing as well. We must be able to lighten this ancient cuisine, otherwise these dishes are quickly forgotten.” Philippe Puel - Chef from Toulouse

So what do you really need to strive for? Here are two ideas.

The important item is flavour, which comes largely from the liquid the beans and meats are cooked in." Mastering the Art of French Cooking

"The perfect cassoulet is one that sends wave after garlicky wave of warmth from the end of your tongue to the tips of your toes. The beans are held in just the right amount of herby, tomatoey goo, the breadcrumb crust is crisp, and the first mouthful piping hot." Nigel Slater

"The essence of a good cassoulet is that the beans, while not falling apart, should be tender and should have absorbed the aromas and savours of the other ingredients." Jeanne Strang

The Bon Appétit recipe (picture at the top of the page) is probably reasonably authentic and it certainly looks the part. To me you just have to have that crisp breadcrumb topping - achieved by breaking the breadcrumbs up several times and basting with the juice underneath. You also have to have the right kind of sausage - I saw on article that said that the German kind of sausage just won't do - some ham or bacon and also another meat - probably duck would be my choice as duck is so much the meat of the Languedoc.

Felicity Cloake as usual has a red hot go at perfection, but I have to say that her 'perfect cassoulet' doesn't look that tempting. It just looks like a few bits of sausage floating in a mush. But it might just be the photo.

Nigel Slater has two different versions and you can find them here and here but I don't think they are very authentic. And sorry - no pictures. One of them is a 'quick' version and includes tinned tomatoes - which are definitely not authentic. There would have been no tomatoes back in the fourteenth century, and besides this is a winter dish, not a summer one. Yes we know you can get tomatoes all year round now, and there are always tins, but authenticity would decree no tomatoes. Though I'm personally with Nigel Slater in thinking they add a bit more taste.

Because, frankly it's a bit of a disappointing dish - not quite wonderful - and I have eaten very good versions in France. Even the ultimate gurus of Mastering the Art seem to almost be saying the same.

"if you have read or heard about cassoulet and never tasted it, you come to expect a kind of rare ambrosia rather than the nourishing country fare it actually is." Mastering the Art of French Cooking

I did make it once - using the recipe from Mastering the Art of French Cooking. But as warned by them, it took absolutely ages. Really you need at least two days, possibly three. You have to soak the beans overnight, and then cook them separately. You have to cook each of the meats separately - either by roasting or braising - so two or three different meals there - then you've got to assemble it all together and cook for ages. This one won some kind of award somewhere and it does look good I have to say, although there doesn't seem to be much of a breadcrumb crust.

In France you can buy it pre-cooked in a jar or a tin - or in one of the 'traiteur' shops - those that sell pre-cooked meals. These are some jars we saw in the covered market in Narbonne - cassoulet on the far left. But it's not likely to be all that good, however 'artisan' it may be. I mean how can you get beans, sausage, pork, duck in one small jar? And what about the breadcrumb crust? If you check out the net you will find lots of 'quick' versions - well one of Nigel Slater's was one of those - and Delia has one too.

It looks nice, but it's not cassoulet - more of a sausage stew.

What cassoulet is though is really good springboard for you to improvise on. Even Elizabeth David thought so:

"The cassoulet is a dish which may be infinitely varied so long as it is not made into a mockery with a sausage or two heated up with tinned beans, or with all sorts of bits of left-over chicken or goodness knows what thrown into it as if it were a dustbin." Elizabeth David

Well yes there are always little lectures with Elizabeth David.

But to close I offer you a version from Coles Magazine - food truly for the ordinary housewife and yet reasonably 'authentic' - yes I know that's a bit sexist but I bet it's a vast majority of women who still do the cooking at home. They call it Pork belly cassoulet and yes it contains forbidden things like tinned tomatoes, and they don't soak and cook the beans separately, but doesn't it look good? Just needs a few more breadcrumbs.

Oh and Robert Carrier was not impressed by cassoulet, judging by the fact that it is not mentioned in either Great Dishes of the World or his Robert Carrier Cookbook. Not a great dish of the world? I wonder how the inhabitants of the Languedoc would take that.