HAPPY NEW YEAR CASSOULET- DAY 3

Now the action starts! The duck has marinated overnight, the pork is ready, beans at hand, vegetables cleaned, start early.

First we sealed the marinated duck into vacuum pouches. Last year we tried to make do with zip closure bags, but the vacuum sealer was the secret.

The duck pouches are then cooked at 180 degF for 6 hours.

Then the rest of the pork gets cut into cubes, veggies chopped...beans are washed and set to soak overnight.

And perhaps the most interesting part of this whole caper, and the reason for being really good friends with a great butcher, you need a piece of pig skin...hair attached is optional, and the NON option is really preferred if available.

But since the butcher in Gaylord only had fresh pork, we got to scald and scrape off the hair, and singe the last little bit, then roll the skin into tight rolls, much easier said than done.

All this goes into the pot, with herbs, to make a pork ragout. It cooks awhile while the duck is in hot water.

The ragout is placed to cook for several hours. This is really a great picture!

Now the beans and meat ragout are brought together and

simmered for seeral hours. Then chill it down for overnight...easy to do on the porch here in Minnesota winters! This reduces thee sauce and blends the flavors.

HAPPY NEW YEAR...CASSOULET DAY 2

The second day (Thursday) is a light schedule. The process is to imitate duck confit. A confit is an old method of storing meats by rendering out fat and storing the meat covered with fat. In this case, we are not using fat, but the cooking method known as sous vide to tenderize the duck meat. After cutting up the duck (this was about the only part where we purchased an ingredient), it is placed overnight in a bag with herbs. Paula Wolfert gives full instructions in her book "The Cooking of SW France". The beauty of this is that it takes 2 days instead of weeks.

The result was excellent. The duck meat becomes silky smooth instead of stringy. Betsy did cheat the instructions a bit. The recipe calls for using just the legs, but she used pretty much the whole thing.

More from cassole lovers...

It is amazing what you can find on the internet! eGForums is the "eGullet Society for Culinary Arts and letters" here is one that I found interesting...
(Scroll to the bottom of the page for the photos and letters)
As for the question posed by "chrisamirault" no seasoning needed, just give it a rince and go for it!