charcuterie

Cassoulet... I actually purchased a Cassoulet kit from d'Artagnan, largely because I wanted the Tarbais beans for cassoulet, and also couldn't find either Ventreche or French garlic sausage anywhere here. These are all things you need to make authentic cassoulet. So I made cassoulet, mostly using their recipe and ingredients. I have been making confit de canard (preserved duck legs) for some time. And we can get pancetta here, too. For the record, Ventreche tastes almost exactly like pancetta, as far as I can tell. The Tarbais beans are indeed seriously hard to find, and nothing I can find in Lexington even comes close. After I made the cassoulet from Ariane Daguin's d'Artagnan, a few observations. I/we didn't/don't like the French garlic sausage. It just doesn't taste like the stuff you buy in Southwest France. The cassoulet is very good, however. And I think it may be the beans...

The kit came, however, with six confit duck legs. I used either two or three of them (three, I think) in the cassoulet. I mean, there was all this sausage (there was some Armagnac duck and pork sausage, I think it was, as well as the French garlic sausage), the confit, the pork, and I may actually have used some lamb. I just didn't need all six of those duck legs for the cassoulet.

We had the last three for dinner tonight. They are already cooked, of course, as "confit" is by definition cooked. We had them (sauteed to brown them), with new potatoes sauteed in duck fat, sprinkled with chopped garlic and parsley, and a bit of salad and red wine. Typical southwestern France meal. I asked the boys what they thought about the duck legs. They both said they are "bland" and that they like the ones I make better, this despite the fact that my confit de canard (preserved duck legs) tend to be smaller and also tend to fall apart.

So there...