Le cassoulet is a southwestern French food specialty. It's white cannellini-style beans called lingots that are slow-cooked with pork fat and duck fat for flavor. It's a little like Boston baked beans but without the ketchup and molasses. I've made cassoulet many times, but once in a while I buy it in a can. This one was on special at Intermarché for just 4.50 euros for four servings.
I haven't opened this tin yet. I'm not sure if we'll have cassoulet for lunch today or tomorrow. When we do, I'll post some more pictures. The photo above is meant to show the scale of the cassoulet can compared to a medium-size can of red beans. The label says the cassoulet has some saucisses de Toulouse (pork sausages) and duck wings (manchons de canard) in it. Castelnaudary ("the king's new castle"), by the way, is a town between Carcassonne and Toulouse in the southwest which is especially famous for beans cooked this way.
Here are a couple of blurbs that are on the can, for your reading pleasure. The cooking instructions say to pour the cassoulet into an earthenware baking dish (une cassole, which gave its name to the dish), and cook it at 350ºF for 40 minutes.
I remember these well. There's also a variant with lentils rather than beans which I slightly preferred.
ReplyDeleteWalt and I like lenttils too. I hope this cassoulet is good. I just opened the can.
ReplyDeleteThe picture on the can looks good. Looking forward to your review of it.
ReplyDeleteBettyAnn
I believe you have my email address, should I use your gmail address? Hope you can make it.
I think the only time that I've had Cassoulet was New Year's Eve, while spending the vacation with my au pair family chez their Toulouse friends :) It was wonderful. Thanks for today's new words for me, castelnaudary (always seen, but never knew there was a meaning, other than the name), and cassole.
ReplyDeleteThe can makes for fun reading! They can guarantee there are no small bones, if I read that correctly. I'm sure it will be tasty!
ReplyDeleteWhat that disclaimer says is: Malgré tout le soin apporté à la fabrication de nos produits, nous ne pouvons pas garantir l'absence total de moreaux d'os. I think you missed the ne.....pas of ...nous ne pouvons pas garantir...
Delete