Is it OK to use cassoulet as a verb? I am going to cassoulet this weekend. Well, maybe not, but perhaps I’ll make a case to use it as a verb after I make it. That’s right, friends, I am going to make cassoulet this week. It’s like so many storied French dishes that everyone must make at least once. I have done souffles, quiches, Coq au Vin, all sorts of daubes, soups, you name it. But never the legendary cassoulet. And, like other iconic recipes, the French people insist that there is one, true, authoritative recipe that must be adhered to the letter of the law or it simply isn’t this dish, then have no consensus as to what that recipe contains and how it is to be cooked.

Something new- I am currently taking requests for menus or at least dishes that friends want me to make. I am happy and excited to do this as I need to be pushed a little bit these days, at least with regards to making new to me recipes. Cassoulet is the first one requested and will be the first big cooking project of 2026. I knew it would take a good deal of time, but other than that I thought it would be simple.

The first thing I should mention to the reader at home is that this has not happened yet. I can not tell you how it tasted, I have not tasted it yet. There is nothing to taste yet, you see. I scoured my cookbook collection, and in the database that use, there are no fewer than forty seven recipes for cassoulet. Each recipe has several things in common and several things that are very different. I will tell you which recipe I decided to go with, and why, but I’m not going into any huge comparison or anything like that.

First and foremost, cassoulet is a dish of slow cooked beans. It really is French pork and beans. Now, I don’t know if you are the kind of person that A. doesn’t eat beans, B. has only ever opened a can of beans, microwaved that and eaten it, or C. has opened a can of beans in liquid, tarted it up with some spices and cooked it in the oven, you may not know the glory that is the slow cooked New England baked beans. This is a dish that is cooked low and slow until the beans are so creamy and juicy and savory, that, well, I don’t know, something special happens. Point is, American baked beans like this are very much like Cassoulet.

This was not true of all the recipes, but most of the forty seven recipes in my collection finish with a layer of fresh bread crumbs spread on top of the cassoulet before the final cooking. Frequently the bread crumbs are tossed in walnut oil before scattering on top of the beans. Now, that sounds fun, huh?

A third and final similarity: Each recipe called for at least three, often four, sometimes five or six, types of meat. Some of the recipes were revolting to read-pork shoulder, ham hock, bacon, pork belly, fresh duck, fresh goose, duck confit, goose confit, lamb shoulder, kielbasa, garlic sausage, pork skin, cracklings, everything really except chicken or beef, make their way into the cassoulets. Honestly, I would be reading these recipes and I swear I could smell cooked meat smell oozing out of my own skin. It was horrible! So, I had to find a recipe that didn’t make me feel this way.

I found a recipe from a wonderful book that I have used many times call My Paris Kitchen by David Lebovitz. David I’ll call him, though I don’t know him, is a sometime San Francisco resident who, unsurprisingly, spends most of his time these days living in Paris, and I for one hope that he is very happy. He is a friend of Judy Kasinsky, owner of the building that has housed until recently Cookin’ a used cookware shop here, and Judy is the famed cantankerous proprietor. Another story for another day. I always mention him when I am in the store, and she regales me with some tale of her friend David, and some recipe she tried and how she fixed it when it didn’t work out. Well, the shop is closed now, and so I won’t be able to talk to her about my cassoulet.

It is currently Saturday. The serve date of the cassoulet is next Friday, six days from now. The dish is already in the making, here’s what I got so far.

David’s recipe calls for unsmoked ham hock, an ingredient I was unable to find even in our foodie city. I could find smoked ham hock, or unsmoked ham that is not the hock. He clearly doesn’t want that smoky flavor in the dish, so I will use a cured but not smoked piece of ham. I also couldn’t find duck leg confit for sale in a grocery store, I’m sure there must be some in town, but David actually gives a recipe for a quick homemade confit that sounds really great, so I got fresh duck legs and we’ll do that. Exciting!

One great adventure-I’ve found an amazing new-to-me butchery in town, Olivier’s Butchery in the Dogpatch neighborhood of San Francisco. It not only has all the meats that need (including making the duck legs “confit ready”) but also the Toulouse sausages that most “authentic” recipes call for. So, the meat totals for this dish will be: Pork belly, pork butt, duck confit, and sausage. Four types of meat, that’s plenty. And the beans. And the breadcrumbs. OK, more to come, I pick up the meat on Wednesday.

Also, I know there are mistakes. I am only to write things once, I am no longer allowed to delete or edit anything on this platform, which I am still looking for a new one, btw. If you use WordPress and know something about this, please share it. It’s annoying. OK, love and best wishes to you all.