I made good on the threat to turn the goose confit into cassoulet. The weather has turned unexpectedly cool here, and being the heavy dish it is, cassoulet was exactly the sort of thing my husband wanted. Me? Nah, can’t eat this stuff (without getting ill anyway) though I had great fun preparing it.
I omitted the sausages that typically go into cassoulet using “lamb” and preserved goose instead. I used Great Northern beans, though I don’t see why lima beans could not be substituted (I rather like the lamb and lima bean combination). I put “lamb” in quotation marks for a reason. As I purchased necks and rib-bones over a couple of months and set them in the freezer, I did not examine them too closely until it came time to cook and eat them.
In the United States, it is very difficult to fine mutton, per se. We do however, have rather aged lamb. As I was purchasing necks and rib bones for stewing, I cannot really return to the market complaining loudly that I was sold something that is only “lamb” in the most stretched definition as anyone, anywhere else in the world would call it mutton. I have nothing against mutton mind you, though paying lamb prices ($3.99 lb. mind you, for necks and ribs!) does irk me a bit. It is my fault for purchasing it at the supermarket rather than the butcher. I certainly would hesitate to purchase any ground “lamb” from that store as I could not be confident of what I was getting.
As it happens, my husband is quite fond of mutton (insert Scottish joke) and found the cassoulet delicious and not suffering for the lack of sausages either.
I prepared the cassoulet in stages soaking the beans overnight, cooking them early the next morning, preparing the lamb mid-day, and then assembling the entire thing about a hour before serving.
The recipe I followed (though really, you hardly need a recipe for assembling beans, cooking liquid, stewed lamb and breadcrumbs into a casserole dish) came from “Julia Child and More Company” Knopf, 1978. The recipe is on page 81, with the directions for the preserved goose confit preceding. Without direct permission to reproduce the recipe here, I’d rather send you to the library (or abebooks.com) where it should be readily available.
I had my doubts about the preserved goose confit, but my husband has been eating it for three days now and there’s no sign of botulism, so as the kids like to say, “It’s all good.”
I omitted the sausages that typically go into cassoulet using “lamb” and preserved goose instead. I used Great Northern beans, though I don’t see why lima beans could not be substituted (I rather like the lamb and lima bean combination). I put “lamb” in quotation marks for a reason. As I purchased necks and rib-bones over a couple of months and set them in the freezer, I did not examine them too closely until it came time to cook and eat them.
In the United States, it is very difficult to fine mutton, per se. We do however, have rather aged lamb. As I was purchasing necks and rib bones for stewing, I cannot really return to the market complaining loudly that I was sold something that is only “lamb” in the most stretched definition as anyone, anywhere else in the world would call it mutton. I have nothing against mutton mind you, though paying lamb prices ($3.99 lb. mind you, for necks and ribs!) does irk me a bit. It is my fault for purchasing it at the supermarket rather than the butcher. I certainly would hesitate to purchase any ground “lamb” from that store as I could not be confident of what I was getting.
As it happens, my husband is quite fond of mutton (insert Scottish joke) and found the cassoulet delicious and not suffering for the lack of sausages either.
I prepared the cassoulet in stages soaking the beans overnight, cooking them early the next morning, preparing the lamb mid-day, and then assembling the entire thing about a hour before serving.
The recipe I followed (though really, you hardly need a recipe for assembling beans, cooking liquid, stewed lamb and breadcrumbs into a casserole dish) came from “Julia Child and More Company” Knopf, 1978. The recipe is on page 81, with the directions for the preserved goose confit preceding. Without direct permission to reproduce the recipe here, I’d rather send you to the library (or abebooks.com) where it should be readily available.
I had my doubts about the preserved goose confit, but my husband has been eating it for three days now and there’s no sign of botulism, so as the kids like to say, “It’s all good.”
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