The Cassoulet from Castelnaudary | French Bistro Recipe

The cassoulet (from Occitan “caçolet”) is a regional specialty of Languedoc, made from dried beans, generally white, and meat. Originally it was made from fèves (butter beans).
Trying to trace the story of the birth of cassoulet is not an easy task when you know the inflammatory rhetoric it provokes.
One of the oldest cookbooks in France, the 14th century: "le Viandier" written by Taillevant, (his real name was Guillaume Tirel, a cook who served several kings for over 60 years), gives some indications to the cassoulet origins.
Taillevant describes recipes of pies and stews, including the ragout of mutton and pork with beans.
The historians think that Taillevant could have been inspired by an Arabic book written by Mohamed de Bagdad in 1226, which reveals an extremely refined kitchen. This book uses a display of spices, herbs, legumes, and mutton. It is they who, in the seventh century, introduced into the south of France, the cultivation of a white bean and which taught the inhabitants of the country to prepare this legume. Mutton stew with white bean is one of the recipes of the Baghdad Cooking Treaty. Taillevant has taken this recipe in his “Viandier”.
The cassoulet, still called “estouffet” in the seventeenth century, takes (in the eighteenth century) the name cassoulet, from the dish in which it cooked, the "cassole", a clay casserole used since the ancient times to cook all sorts of stews and ragouts.

The recipe:
Time and patience is the key to this recipe in particular, with at least three to four hours of low and slow cooking and a significant amount of ingredients to prepare, you will spent a big part of the day in your kitchen!
Ingredients;
This recipe serves 5 persons.

Duck confit;
5 duck legs, 2kg duck or goose fat, 5 garlic cloves , 4 sprigs of thyme, 3 bay leaves, 2 ½ tbsp coarse sea salt, 1 tbsp crushed pepper, 5cl water

Chicken stock;
Chicken bones leftover’s (optional), 3 tbsp chicken stock powder, 1 onion, 1 garlic bulb, 1 leek, 3 celery stalks, 4 carrots, ½ bunch thyme, 4 bay leaves, 3 tbsp duck or goose fat, 1 tbsp black peppercorns, 1 nutmeg

Cassoulet;
1 kg dried white beans, 1 kg pork belly, 5 Toulouse sausages, 400 grams salted bacon, 2 sheets Pork bard or pork rind, , ½ bunch thyme, 8 garlic cloves, 1 ½ tbsp crushed black peppercorns


The gourmet Gambit web site; https://www.thegourmetgambit.com
Watch more Recipes here:    / @thegourmetgambit4238  
Facebook:   / gourmetgambit  
Twitter:   / gambitgourmet  

Photography: Wessel Woortman
Photo and Video montage: Wessel Woortman

YOUTUBE MUSIC LIBRARY:
Going Going Gone: The 126ers
Summer nights: The 126ers
Heartland: Silent Partners
Old friend: Silent Partners
Calgary Hill: Silent Partners
HarvestTime: Silent Partners