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A Very Good Cassoulet

Ingredients

  • 4 cups of dried great northern beans
  • 4 fresh ham hocks 1 lb. each
  • 3 large yellow onions peeled and quartered
  • 5 sprigs of thyme
  • salt and freshly ground pepper
  • 1/3 lb. fresh pork rind cubed
  • 1 ham bone with some meat still left on it
  • 1 Tbsp. duck fat
  • 1 lb. unseasoned fresh pork sausage cut into 2"pieces
  • 1 large head garlic separated into cloves and peeled (about 3/4 cup)
  • confit of 1 quartered duck or 4 whole legs  see recipe posted earlier*
  • 1/4 tsp. nutmeg
  • 8 cups water about

Instructions

  1. Rinse the beans thoroughly, pick through and discard stones or damaged beans; then set beans aside.
  2. Place ham hocks in a large pot. Add 1 onion, thyme and salt and pepper. Cover with water and bring to a boil over high heat. Reduce heat to medium-low and simmer, partially covered for 2 hours. Remove from heat, allow to cool for 15 minutes,and then drain ham hocks, discarding onion and thyme. Cut meat from each hock into 2 pieces. Discard bones and set meat aside.
  3. Place pork rind, ham bone and 1 onion in a large pot. Cook over medium heat, stirring frequently, until pork rind is rendered, about 20 minutes. Add beans and enough water to cover by 1/2" (about 8 cups) and season with salt. Bring to a simmer, then reduce heat to low and cook until beans are tender, about 45 minutes. Adjust salt if necessary and then set beans aside to cool.
  4. Heat duck fat in a large skillet over medium high heat. Add sausages and cook, turning to brown on all sides, for about 10 minutes. Place garlic, remaining onion, and 1/2 cup water to a blender and puree until smooth. Add garlic paste to sausages and reduce heat to medium-low. Cook turning sausages occasionally, for 10 minutes more.
  5. Preheat oven to 350. Using a slotted spoon, remove and discard ham bone and onion from beans. It is OK if some pieces of onion remain. Remove the ham from the bone and add back to the pot.
  6. Assemble cassoulet in layers: Line the baking dish with thick slices of bacon to cover the bottom. Place the meat from the ham hocks on the top of the beans and cover with sausages and garlic paste. Add a layer of the cooked beans. Tear up the duck meat and set aside. Arrange duck on top of beans, then spoon in remaining beans with pork rind. Season with nutmeg and add just enough reserved bean cooking liquid to cover the beans (about 3 cups). Reserve the remaining liquid. Bake uncovered until Cassoulet comes to a simmer and a crust begins to form, about 1 hour.
  7. Reduce heat to 250 and cook for 2 hours, checking every hour or so to make sure Cassoulet is barely simmering (a little liquid should be bubbling around edges of cassoulet). If Cassoulet appears dry, break crust (browned top layer) by gently pushing it down with the back of a spoon allowing a new layer of beans to rise to the surface. Add just enough reserved bean cooking liquid or water to moisten beans.
  8. Remove cassoulet from oven. Allow to cool completely,then cover with a lid or aluminum foil and refrigerate overnight.
  9. Remove Cassoulet from refrigerator and allow to warm to room temperature for at least 45 minutes. Meanwhile, preheat oven to 350°. Bake for 1 hour. When Cassoulet begins to simmer, break crust and add enough warm water to just cover beans (about 1 cup). Reduce heat to 250° and bake, breaking crust and adding water as needed for 1-2 hours. Remove cassoulet from oven and allow to rest for 15-20 minutes.
  10. Serve cassoulet from the pot, breaking the crust at the table.

Recipe Notes

*You can buy duck confit in a can if you don't want to make it.

**Note: Most of the recipes I read called to layer the meats separately, ham, beans, sausage, beans, duck. I decided if I did that you may not get all the types of meats when you serve the dish. So, I would suggest that you mix the ham, sausage,  and duck together when layering.