Cassoulet of Pierre Perret

1kg of dry Tarbais beans, 300 g of fresh tomatoes, skinned and with the pips removed, 4 to 6 pieces of potted goose (confit) -legs or wings according to the size, 500 g of fresh sausages, 100 g of pork skin (raw crackling) 2 tablespoons of groundnut oil, 6 cloves of garlic, 2 onions, 1 bouquet garni, 1 clove stuck into half an onion, salt (very little), fresh ground pepper.

Leave the dried beans to soak overnight in a recipient of pure water (provided they are not fresh beans).  The following day, boil them for half an hour in the same water.  Add some more if they have absorbed it while swelling.  Once cooked, drain them.  Stir-fry for 10 minutes in 1 tablespoon of goose fat (from the confit) and the 2 tablespoons of groundnut oil, with the chopped tomatoes and finely chopped garlic and onions.  Next, in a frying pan heat the confit slowly, in order to melt the fat off them only.  Put them to one side and fry the sausages, having pricked them with a fork, so that they loose their juices during cooking.  Put it to one side.  Next put into a marmite, or large iron saucepan, or earthenware pot, if possible, the beans, tomatoes, the onion stuck with a clove, the garlic, the pork skin, and the bouquet garni.  Having covered them with 4 to 5 cm. of water, leave them to cook on an average heat for about 1½ hours.  Next, add to the pot, the whole confit, and the sausages cut into pieces, turning them well into the beans.  Add more water to cover.  Cook on a very low heat, over a braise or in the oven for about 1 hour.  Remove the dish from the heat, renew this operation 7 times, having allowed your cassoulet to go cold; each time you should break the skin on the surface and top-up the water level. 

 During the last operation, it is possible to put a flat cake tin, with a small edge over the recipient, and fill it with red-hot coals, in order to brown the top of the cassoulet.  This is especially valid for those who do not have the time or patience to reheat it as frequently as suggested.

Advice:  So that it doesn’t stick to the bottom, you can line the whole of the bottom of the earthenware pot with pork skin and rub it both inside and out with garlic, as the old ladies do in my part of the country. It’s even better!

Simmered three times during the first day over a braise, it is very good (every 3 hours approximately) and 3 or 4 times the following day, it is unrivalled.

"Le Petit Perret Gourmand" (PLON Publisher France)