Cassoulet
White Beans Baked with Duck Confit, Pork and Sausage
Cassoulet takes the best part of a day and feeds a table. White beans are cooked until creamy in a broth made with pork and garlic, then layered with duck confit, pork and sausage in a deep clay dish and baked slowly until a brown crust forms on top. Second in the 2025 poll of dishes the French think represent them.
Three towns of the south-west claim the dish. Castelnaudary has a brotherhood, the Grande Confrérie du Cassoulet, to defend its version.
The leaflet on the brotherhood's site gives, for six or seven people, 750 g of dried beans, 400 g of sausage, 300 g of pork shoulder, three or four pieces of duck or goose confit, a pig's trotter, a whole head of garlic and three or four spoonfuls of goose fat. The beans are soaked, blanched, then simmered for about three hours in broth with the meats before being baked in the cassole for about an hour and a half.
Ingredients
Ingredients
- 750 g dried haricot or cannellini beans, soaked in cold water for 6 to 12 hours
- 1 pig's trotter, split (optional), or 150 g pork rind
- 300 g pork shoulder, cut into 4 pieces
- 1 whole head of garlic, cloves separated and peeled
- 1/2 onion
- 1 bouquet garni (thyme, bay)
- 3 tbsp duck or goose fat
- 400 g Toulouse sausages
- 4 duck confit legs
- 4 tbsp dried breadcrumbs
- Fine sea salt and black pepper
Method
- Blanch the beans Drain the beans, cover with fresh cold water, bring to the boil and boil for 10 minutes. Drain and discard the water.
- Make the broth and cook the beans Put the trotter or rind, garlic, onion and bouquet garni in a large pan with 3 litres of water, bring to the boil and skim. Add the beans and simmer gently for 1 hour 30 minutes.
- Brown the meats Melt the duck fat in a frying pan. Brown the pork shoulder on all sides, then the sausages; they do not need to cook through. Wipe the excess fat from the confit legs.
- Finish the beans Add the pork shoulder to the beans and simmer for 1 hour more, until the beans are soft and creamy but still whole. Season with salt and pepper. Remove the trotter, onion and bouquet garni. Keep the broth.
- Assemble Heat the oven to 150°C (130°C fan). Spoon a third of the beans into the dish. Bury the pork and confit in them, add the remaining beans and push the sausages into the top so that they just show. Ladle over enough broth to come level with the beans. Sprinkle with breadcrumbs and a little melted duck fat.
- Bake Bake uncovered for 1 hour 30 minutes to 2 hours. When a crust forms, press it down gently with the back of a spoon and add a little more broth round the edge if the beans look dry. It is ready when the top is deep golden brown and the sausages are cooked through and piping hot in the centre. Rest for 15 minutes before serving.
Food safety
Dried beans must be soaked and then boiled hard for at least 10 minutes before simmering. Pork sausages must be cooked through, with no pink meat, before the dish is served.
It reheats well and is often thought better on the second day.
Do not stir once it is in the oven. Break the crust by pressing, not mixing.