Whole-Duck Cassoulet Recipe (2025)

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Cooking Notes

AHubby

In honor of Mark's last day at the New York Times, we are making this cassoulet, one of our all-time favorite recipes. We will miss you, Mark. Thanks for the many, many great meals.

PDeCo

The final product was excellent, but this is the single most poorly organized and presented recipe in the many dozens on NY Times cooking that I have prepared. Most glaringly, this recipe above "Whole-Duck Cassoulet" lists 4-5 hours, but you can't start this recipe until you've completed the prior recipes to make the duck stock and confit. And for that, you start at least 24 hours earlier. Allow >6 hours of kitchen working time, and 30 hours overnight for it all. And, buy extra duck fat.

Bill Meehan

Used duck breasts, duck bacon, duck stock, confit, a spicy duck sausage, white beans and black eyed beans, diced tomatoes with chilies. Saute the meats, deglaze the pan add all to the casserole bake 350 for 3 hrs. Served with fresh baguette and simple green salad.

April

Kept breadcrumbs crispy by frying them in duck fat, draining, then salting and adding chopped parsley. Passed separately.

Pat Eldridge

Instructions on dealing with beans a little sketchy and way too many cloves. Other than that a fabulous recipe. The succulent duck breasts cooked somewhat rare at the end are the proverbial icing on the cake. Delicious.

Rick H.

I’ve made as written multiple times and it is worth the effort. But this is also a great base recipe to adapt to what’s on hard. My wife and I like roast duck but usually have some meat leftover. I make duck stock from carcass and meat, browning vegetables and duck neck in fat from roasting pan. Used last 2 strips of bacon for slab. I substituted ham cubes for lamb but still followed recipe for seasoning and spicing and used duck meat for confit. Used Portuguese chourico for sausage. Excellent!

PDeCo

The final product was excellent, but this is the single most poorly organized and presented recipe in the many dozens on NY Times cooking that I have prepared. Most glaringly, this recipe above "Whole-Duck Cassoulet" lists 4-5 hours, but you can't start this recipe until you've completed the prior recipes to make the duck stock and confit. And for that, you start at least 24 hours earlier. Allow >6 hours of kitchen working time, and 30 hours overnight for it all. And, buy extra duck fat.

Mavis

Soooo good! Changes that hopefully retain spirit of the recipe while maximising flavour potential:-brown Panko breadcrumbs in some duck fat and top dish about 5 mins before taking out of the oven-take bacon out halfway through cooking beans to retain some flavour-use some duck stock for initial bean soak-dribble some duck fat through layers while layering-mix the chopped bacon, shredded confit and sliced sausage through the beans before layering (I did not put the confit in with the lamb)

Lisa Kav

It’s worth the work. I did use Dartagnan duck confit and raw breast, and made stock from a duck carcass I had in the freezer. Excellent.

Laura

Made this over the weekend. So much work, but so worth the effort! The instructions are accurate and the end result was heavenly. Not to mention I get to freeze a large portion of it. This will make me look like a rock star to future dinner guests.

Phil Minotti

I made this for Thanksgiving. Worth the effort.

Bill Meehan

Used duck breasts, duck bacon, duck stock, confit, a spicy duck sausage, white beans and black eyed beans, diced tomatoes with chilies. Saute the meats, deglaze the pan add all to the casserole bake 350 for 3 hrs. Served with fresh baguette and simple green salad.

Simcock

I cut the duck broth in half.

Emily

It is unclear to me whether I'm supposed to include the duck cooking liquids when assembling the cassoulet. Can anyone clarify? Thanks!

Margaux Laskey, Staff Editor

You won't have a ton of liquid left after 1 to 1.5 hours of simmering, but yes, you can include it.

ann

Where is the recipe for the comfit specified in the ingredients for this dish?

Perignon

Click on the link to the original article "How To Conquer The Cassoulet" near the top left. You'll find the confit recipe link there.

Margaux Laskey, Staff Editor

We added links to the confit/stock recipe in the ingredients list.

Adrienne

How many does this serve?

AHubby

In honor of Mark's last day at the New York Times, we are making this cassoulet, one of our all-time favorite recipes. We will miss you, Mark. Thanks for the many, many great meals.

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Whole-Duck Cassoulet Recipe (2025)

FAQs

What does a cassoulet have in it? ›

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.

What does cassoulet mean in French? ›

(ˌkæsəˈlei, French kasuːˈle) noun. a white-bean stew of French origin, often containing pork, mutton, garlic sausage, and preserved goose or duck. Word origin. [1925–30; ‹ F ‹ Pr (Languedoc) dim.

What do the French eat with cassoulet? ›

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.

What is it called when you cook duck in duck fat? ›

Duck Confit is an adored, age-old French preparation for duck. Called Confit de Canard in French, duck legs are slow-cooked in duck fat until the meat is meltingly tender, then the skin crisped to golden perfection.

What is the best bean for cassoulet? ›

The Best Beans for Cassoulet

Cassoulet is traditionally made with dried white beans like flageolet or regional specialty beans like these ones from Tarbais. It might be a stretch to locate these beans in your local market, but great northern beans, navy beans, or cannellini beans are all great alternatives.

Why is cassoulet so special? ›

Perhaps there is no dish in Southwest France more iconic, cherished, and controversial than the cassoulet. Cassoulet was originally the food of peasants - a simple assemblage of what ingredients were available: white beans with pork, sausage, duck confit, gizzards, cooked together for a long time.

What is the Holy Trinity of cassoulet? ›

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).

What kind of beans are in cassoulet? ›

In cassoulets, the haricot bean is now always the principal ingredient. In the medieval period, broad beans (favolles), fresh or dried, were used in stews of the cassoulet type.

What dish is similar to cassoulet? ›

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

What kind of sausage is used for cassoulet? ›

In Languedoc, you'd typically find a garlicky pork sausage flavored with a bit of red wine. Back here, I like to use whatever mild garlic sausage I can find, though if you want to play Cassoulet Choose Your Own Adventure, you can go with any flavor sausage in the shop.

What is the biggest meal for the French? ›

In France, lunch is typically the main meal of the day, and French people spend more time enjoying lunch than most people in other countries.

What are French duck dishes called? ›

Canard à l'orange is a traditional French dish in which a duck is roasted, then served with a rich brown sauce that's flavored with sugar and orange juice. The dish is typically made with a duck breast known as Magret – which comes from a force-fed duck that was raised for the production of foie gras.

How to cook a full duck? ›

Place duck on a rack in a roasting tray. The tray will collect any reduced fat which can be saved and used for roasting vegetables. Roast for 40 mins per kg, until the skin is crispy and golden. Rest for 20 mins before portioning.

What does confit mean in duck? ›

Confit is a French word that means "preserved." In the confit method, meats are cooked in fat for a long time at low temperatures. This renders tough cuts like duck legs more tender, and when stored in duck fat in a cool place, they last all winter.

Why is duck fat so tasty? ›

Duck fat is high in beneficial unsaturated fats, and its chemical composition is closer to olive oil than to butter, they say. Plus, it's delicious. “I love it,” said David Bazirgan, executive chef at the Fifth Floor restaurant in San Francisco. “It has a deep, rich flavor that coats the palate.”

What is the main ingredient of the French dish cassoulet 2 word s? ›

Cassoulet
Cassoulet served in Carcassonne, France, in a casserole sized for single serving
TypeStew/casserole
Place of originFrance
Main ingredientsHaricot beans with meat (typically pork, sausages, goose, duck, lamb or mutton)
Cookbook: Cassoulet Media: Cassoulet

What are the 3 regional styles of cassoulet? ›

Convention has it that the cassoulet of Castelnaudary is based largely on pork and pork rind, sausage, and (sometimes) goose; the Carcassonne variety contains leg of mutton and (occasionally) partridge; and the cassoulet of Toulouse includes fresh lard, mutton, local Toulouse sausage, and duck or goose.

What is the main dish in Toulouse? ›

Cassoulet. Cassoulet is one of the most quintessential dishes from southwest France, combining other several Toulouse specialties – saucisse de Toulouse and duck confit – with white beans and broth to create a rich, satisfying meal.

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