Cassoulet

The Definitive Bean Dish of French Country Cooking

‘There is no dish in the Southwest of France more iconic, cherished, and controversial than the cassoulet. Not only is it the best pork and beans dish you can imagine, but it’s also a definitive dish of French country cooking — one that, to this day as you noted, stirs up fierce debate over what makes it authentic! When most travelers go on a trip to France, they bring back photos, or maybe a copper pot; some even smuggle a Camembert or saucisson in their luggage. Me? I bring back recipes.’ A friend once wrote this to me after I shared my recipe for cassoulet with him. It really encapsulated how I felt.

Cassoulet is one of those iconic dishes from my heritage that I need to cook at least once a year. I make it exclusively in the coldest months of the year when I need comfort most. Julia Child once wrote that cassoulet ‘is everyday fare for a peasant but ambrosia for a gastronome, though its ideal consumer is a 300-pound blocking back who has been splitting firewood nonstop for the last twelve hours on a subzero day in Manitoba.’