Cassoulet | Description, Ingredients, & Origin (2024)

FAQs

What is the origin of the cassoulet? ›

cassoulet, French dish of white beans baked with meats; it takes its name from its cooking pot, the cassole d'Issel. Originating in Languedoc in southwest France, cassoulet was once simple farmhouse fare, but it has been elaborated into a rich and complex dish.

Cassoulet, a hearty slow-simmered stew of sausage, confit (typically duck), pork, and white beans, is one of the great hallmarks of French country cuisine. The best versions are cooked for hours until the beans and meat meld into a dish of luxuriant, velvety richness.

According to his book French Regional Food, co-authored by historian Loïc Bienassis, Castelnaudary cassoulet generally contains confit goose or duck, Carcassonne's has pork chops, and the Toulouse version uses mutton and the city's famous sausage.

There are three types of cassoulet – the Holy Trinity. There's the 'Father' (pork and goose), the 'Son' (mutton and partridge), and the 'Holy Ghost' (sausage, mutton, and duck).

cassoulet in American English

(ˌkæsəˈlei, French kasuːˈle) noun. a white-bean stew of French origin, often containing pork, mutton, garlic sausage, and preserved goose or duck.

The beans, though, aren't hard to procure. Great Northern and cannellini beans make fine substitutes for the Tarbais, flageolet and lingot beans used in France. Then give yourself over to the rhythm of roasting, sautéing and long, slow simmering.

The first cassoulet is claimed by the city of Castelnaudary, which was under siege by the British during the Hundred Years War. The beleaguered townspeople gathered up the ingredients they could find and made a large stew to nourish and bolster their defenders.

Toulouse sausage is deliciously grilled over hardwoods, gently roasted in a 180°C oven, and, of course, in cassoulet and other winter soups. The Toulouse Sausage is offered in a variety of tastes in France. The main ingredients, however, are pork, red wine, and garlic.

You can serve cassoulet on its own with a salad and bread on the side, but it's traditional to accompany it with something colorful . . . usually greens of some sort. If you're looking for a great meal to prepare for the colder weather, try making a cassoulet.

Originating in the South of France, cassoulet is a profoundly hearty peasant dish that typically includes white beans, duck (or goose) confit, and sausage, through specific preparations vary from town to town. It also is supposed to take a couple of days to put together, as the flavors of the meat develop slowly.

What French town is famous for cassoulet? ›

Castelnaudary is widely regarded as France's capital of cassoulet, and it's the only place in the world that can claim to hold the official recipe.

Mary Anne here. Preparing a traditional French Cassoulet (a la Julia Child) is incredibly time-consuming and can be fairly pricey since it requires hard-to-find ingredients like goose and mutton.

All the ingredients for a good cassoulet can be found in most grocery stores. Purists will argue that you need to find real tarbais beans but I have found white kidney beans work just as well. They will mention that there are 3 versions of true cassoulets (Castelnaudary, Carcassone, and Toulouse).

If you like cassoulet, you'll love fabada. It's leaner, smokier, and—crucially—takes a fraction of the time to prepare.

Cassoulet is rich and stewy, with a fragrant meaty broth. A simple green salad and hunks of torn baguette to dip into the broth are all you need to complete the meal. Serve it with a light red wine such as Beaujolais or Cahors, a full-bodied rosé, or chilled dry white wine.

The main difference between a casserole and a cassoulet is that a casserole is more of a food category than one specific dish. In contrast, cassoulet is the name of a particular dish. This dish combines meat, usually pork or mutton, with white beans and seasonings.