Cassoulet

The new d'Artagnan Cassoulet kit is being sold with a charming authentic looking clay pot

http://www.dartagnan.com/565726/product ... e-Kit.html

They say you get $135 worth of stuff for less than $100.

How about paying $30 less than that?? ONLY GOOD UNTIL TOMORROW:

Go to http://www.blackboardeats.com and sign up (for free). You can get a $30 certificate good on the cassoulet kit.

I've made this before and it's great, perfect for winter weather.

They ship everywhere.

Thank you for the heads up, Frank. Got this for a great price!

[Jenise]

Just bought it myself, thank you so much! This is going to be just perfect! There's a friend whose birthday we want to celebrate, and I know he's asked for a day of cooking. He loves to cook but never gets to, and the 100 year old, poorly equipped kitchen he has to work in is smaller than a typical studio apartment's. I was colluding with his wife to give him just such a day and was considering cassoulet--he had separately asked me some time ago if we could get together to make a cassoulet some time. I wouldn't have time between now and then to make my own confit for the from-scratch Betty Lu Kessler version, so this kit makes everything possible. Smooches!

Jo Ann, hope you were able to get the clay pot. They were all out just now when I ordered.

They say one kit "serves 12."

I love this video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q76-k4wcDcE&

Jo Ann, hope you were able to get the clay pot. They were all out just now when I ordered.

The clay pot comes with the kit, doesn't it? I didn't get a notice saying otherwise. That is what makes this all around such a fabulous deal! Can't wait for it to get here. What wine pairing would you recommend?

As to the clay pot, I am hoping "no news is good news" -- I wasn't notified that it wasn't included so it probably is included.

Wines -- I really like Chateauneuf, Hermitage, Rhône wines, although the region doesn't line up perfectly. Burgundy ought to work with the duck.

This particular version (no smoked meats, no crust of breadcrumbs, if you do it as they say to) is Gascon so:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_West_France_(wine_region)

But I think sticking too closely to region:region pairing is a trap. CdP with a little age is great with cassoulet.

[Jenise]

The order list had, at the same price, kit with clay pot and kit without clay pot. By the time I got there the words SOLD OUT had been added to the "with" one, so if you didn't see that you surely got the pot.

The order list had, at the same price, kit with clay pot and kit without clay pot. By the time I got there the words SOLD OUT had been added to the "with" one, so if you didn't see that you surely got the pot.

Same happened to me when I tried for it.

I like earthy, somewhat rustic Rhone wines with my cassoulet.

[Jenise]

Same here, Mike. A CdP is perfect, though I wouldn't throw a Northern Rhone out of the queue.

My kit arrived. No cool pot!

I'm sorry if I misled people, I had been misled myself on another board (WB).

Evidently the pot would have cost $80 extra, and it was sold out before I heard about the sale.

So nobody's getting the pot...

F

Ugggghhhhh!!!

[Jenise]

My kit arrived. No cool pot!

I'm sorry if I misled people, I had been misled myself on another board (WB).

Evidently the pot would have cost $80 extra, and it was sold out before I heard about the sale.

So nobody's getting the pot...

F

Well, you didn't mislead anyone, it was D'Artagnan. As I mentioned, there were definitely two options at the same price, one with and one without the pot. They were the first and second options. No extra $80, though there might have been, further down where I didn't see it because the first option was all I was interested and then the second only when the first was SOLD OUT, a separate entry for the pot alone.

Was impressed that they supplied three pounds of tarbais beans. Those right there have a value of $5-8 dollars each, and you'd probably have to go to a specialty bean supplier like Rancho Gordo to get them (they're not in any grocery store in my neighborhood, I promise you).

Jenise, I agree that the kit is a great deal, even without the $30 off.

I've paid $11 each for confit duck legs -- that's a high price, but that would be $66 right there.

Finding all those special sausages and the pork stuff would take some shopping time as well.

Last year I bought a can of duck legs packed in duck fat by Rougie, from Gourmet Delights. I was going to put together my own supplies for Cassoulet, maybe just using Great Northern beans and whatever sausages I could get together. But I am looking forward to making the Gascon version -- I don't know if I can stand not to make a bread-crumb crust, but I like the idea of the "pure" meat flavors without anything smoked. The canned duck legs will keep until I feel like making a second batch.

[Jenise]

Last year I bought a can of duck legs packed in duck fat by Rougie, from Gourmet Delights. I was going to put together my own supplies for Cassoulet, maybe just using Great Northern beans and whatever sausages I could get together. But I am looking forward to making the Gascon version -- I don't know if I can stand not to make a bread-crumb crust, but I like the idea of the "pure" meat flavors without anything smoked. The canned duck legs will keep until I feel like making a second batch.

Canned duck legs!! Never heard of such a thing, but by way of warning I hope they're more substantive than the canned chicken I saw used as an ingredient on Chopped. When the contestants poured those oozy, nekkid pink things out of the cans there was a collective EWWW in the studio. They were super well-cooked and could not have been used whole, were definitely only good for pulling the meat from the bones.

Whole different thing Jenise. If you aren't familiar -- Rougie has stores in Paris and is one of the best purveyors of foie gras.

You could say it's the French d'Artagnan!

Confit duck is prepared in duck fat, so these legs are in their natural habitat, just waiting for me to open the can.

[Jenise]

Okay, I'm reassured. A little. Good things CAN come in cans, after all. One of the best and most unusual cheeses in America comes in a can! (Cougar Gold, made at the University of Washington, so maybe not something you've had on the east coast.)

Okay, I'm reassured. A little. Good things CAN come in cans, after all. One of the best and most unusual cheeses in America comes in a can! (Cougar Gold, made at the University of Washington, so maybe not something you've had on the east coast.)

Are you kidding? Cans of Cougar Gold line my fridge and have dates that go back 8+ years! Such West Coast snobbery.....

Drew

[Jenise]

Hey, no west coast snobbery implied; I didn't know of it at all myself until I moved north!

My shipment came today. Like the others, no pottery!

Well, Jo Anne, early on I was figuring if I got a pot I would offer it to you.

But nobody got one. And I have been looking on eBay, large crockery that is food-safe is pretty hard to come by.

Of course I'll probably just use my regular "Dutch Ovens" -- I have a metal one from Cuisinart, and an enameled metal one from Dansk Kobenstyl (very fashionable in the 1970's). I have a "bean pot" from Hull Ovenware. I don't know, the volume is so great that if I want to do it all in one pot it will probably have to be a metal stock pot.

I really wish this had worked out the way it was originally explained to me on WB.

Thanks, Frank.
Actually, I have a set of Emile Henry Flame cookware that will work just fine. I just remembered, I have one Daniel Boulud cast enamel dutch oven that I haven't used for awhile. Think I'll use that one -- something French! Perhaps it will compensate for the fact that I will be using breadcrumbs and one slice of smoky bacon. I love that flavor.

thanks Frank, I'm happy with $70-something for kit, don't really need another large container (he rationalizes)
Just the effort it saves (and how hard tarbais are to find) make it worth it.
I think our Le Creuset is 6.5 qt. We have 2 Lodge cast iron DOs that are slightly larger (7?) but I'd rather do the enameled. I might be able to fit it all, but I think I'll use 2lbs of beans, freeze a bit of the sausage, and make a slightly smaller batch.

OK, last night I soaked the beans. Right now, preparing to cook them.

Warning -- the online directions mention this (but the paper directions do not) (EDIT, yes they do). There is an invisible plastic "skin" around the ventreche. The first time I made the kit, I cooked it with the meat, not good. You won't believe it is there until you draw a knife down the side of the cylinder and it comes loose.

Anyway, I am about to stud an onion with cloves. Not sure exactly how the timing is going to work but I want to let these flavors get acquainted with each other before I serve this stuff on Saturday evening.

By the way -- I am kind of planning for a second batch, so I looked around to see if there were good prices for Tarbais beans. Amazon.com has the exact same "red label" beans as d'Artagnan for $23 per pound, and it is very hard to find them for less than that except at d'Artagnan. Reinforces the fact that this kit is a wonderful deal. $60 worth of beans and $66 worth of duck legs. I bought a spare duck leg and they are still $11 at Wegman's, and hard to find elsewhere except direct from d'Artagnan.

FWIW if I do make a second batch, for a different group of friends, I am thinking 1 pound of cannelini, one pound great northern, and one pound of Tarbais.

One other note -- on the pedantic side, I have sometimes refused to put tomato into my cassoulet because it is a pre-Columbian dish. Well that is true, but reading the bean package -- I also should refuse to use Tarbais beans on the same grounds. There were other beans in Europe before 1492 but the Tarbais are imported from the New World.

OK, I want to talk about my own confusion to perhaps help people who are following along.

I put the casserole together. There is SO MUCH MEAT. I realized as I was assembling it that I had put too many beans in the bottom layer. The meat was quite visible under the scattering of beans in the top layer. I went ahead and baked it for an hour and then took it out and had a big plate and a bowl. I pulled out all the meat and put it in the plate, then I scooped out half of the beans and put them in the bowl. Then I reassembled the meat layer, and put enough beans on top to completely hide them. I am sure that the final dish will be better for this manipulation.

Second -- for that first hour, I was cooking with the casserole uncovered (actually 2 casseroles, big and little). Then I saw that at the end Ariane says "uncover casseroles..." Wait, was I supposed to cook with the covers on?? I don't think the special pot that we didn't receive even HAS a cover. I thought "what the heck" and put the covers on. There's about 1/2 hour left in the baking and I will scorch the crust uncovered before I serve it on Saturday.

I also didn't like the way my initial top layer of beans was drying out, so I put some Keller toast (very crunchy toast made from a good baguette, sliced and sprayed with olive oil and salted, and baked in the oven on cookie sheets) -- put the toast through a grating blade in the Cuisinart to make crunchy toasted crumbs, and applied a crumb top to both casseroles. I also added dabs of duck fat which I had not yet used. So this thing WILL have a crust.