Cookaholics Bulletin Board

We also have a gourmet dinner group like Mary; every other month or so we get together and the hosts serve the main dish and the others bring either appetizers or dessert. We hosted and DH and I collaborated on cassoulet (recipe from Saveur instead of Julia). It was really good and even better today. We had so much leftover despite gorging ourselves that I froze some. Do you think this will work? TIA
Nancy

I don't see why not. I have frozen cassoulet before, and the beans may have gotten a little softer, but that's no big deal. And I'm sure you guys ate all that crust!

So how was it compared to Julia's?

What Dave said...you want to send me some to test?

Amy

I'll volunteer to round out your tasting panel.

I like cassoulet too much to only eat it when I have the time and money to make the real deal, but I've never know any incarnation of it not to age well. After all, it's stew and beans and both of those things are better with some fridge time.

It was really good, but I bet Julia's would be even better. I confit-ted duck legs from a recipe that referred to their method as ghetto, because it was faster (i.e., not herbed overnight). It worked fine, but I am sure that Julia's complete recipe would have yielded a crisper crust and even richer results. I bought duck fat at the Ferry building in SF so it did have a great deal of richness from that. Overall a great option for a one day vs. two day cooking spree.

http://www.saveur.com/article/Recipes/C ... 1000068227

I did freeze some so c'mon over

Julia Child's cassoulet was developed for the American kitchen in the 1960's using ingredients that were available at that time.

I think the ultimate Toulouse style (sans lamb) cassoulet is Paula Wolfert's from "The Cooking of Southwest France." This uses pork skin, tarbais beans and duck fat. It takes a few days but is incomparable.

Paula Wolfert discusses the recipe on an eGullet thread aboutthe book.

tim

I love Paula Wofert...

Amy

Pretty sure I have at least 8 cassoulet recipes, including one from a chef in Castelnaudary (handwritten) and certified with Armagnac....

That stuff is almost a curse

@ wino oh yeah!
I'm going to look up Wolfert's recipe. I forgot about her for this...

found it:
http://www.foodandwine.com/recipes/toul ... ulet/print