Cassoulet

The fastest way to gather a crowd for a cassoulet party is to simply call out the ingredients—browned young goose, creamy great-northern beans, boneless pork loin, garlic-scented sausage, onions, tomatoes, herbs and bread crumbs—then quickly stand aside to avoid being trampled. Anatole France described the cassoulet's savor as the kind "that one finds in the paintings of the old Venetian masters, in the amber flesh tints of their women." Amber tints aside, in making a good cassoulet, you start with about ten times as much flesh as beans. By the time the cassoulet has finished baking in the oven, and the beans have plumped out like a triumphant army overriding a country and being swallowed up by it at the same time, the amalgam of flavors will be such that when you taste a single bean, you taste everything. The home of the cassoulet is the Languedoc region of France, where the geese and the garlic roam. In its birthplace, pork is the principal meat in the cassoulet, (concluded on page 189)Cassoulet(continued from page 83) often with only a token amount of goose, sometimes just a stuffed neck or a leg of confit d'oie, a form of preserved goose in which the meat is kept for weeks in its own rendered fat. Playboy's cassoulet, to be practical, reverses the order and gives the goose star billing. It's an opulent yet free-and-easy party dish and at the table is outranked in size only by a huge salad of leafy greens in an olive-oil dressing. For working hand in hand with the cassoulet, let there be chunks of crusty sourdough French bread and bottles of pinot noir ready to be poured semichilled—between room and refrigerator temperatures—as many cassouletiers prefer it.

[recipe_title]Cassoulet[/recipe_title]

(Serves six to eight)

[recipe]7-to-8-lb. young goose[/recipe]

[recipe]1 lb. boneless loin of pork[/recipe]

[recipe]1/2 lb. kielbasa (Polish sausage), 1/4-in. slices[/recipe]

[recipe]2 ozs. salt pork or sliced bacon, coarsely chopped[/recipe]

[recipe]1 lb. largest-size great-northern white beans[/recipe]

[recipe]1 medium-size whole onion[/recipe]

[recipe]2 cloves[/recipe]

[recipe]1 bay leaf[/recipe]

[recipe]Salt, pepper[/recipe]

[recipe]1 Spanish onion, very finely minced[/recipe]

[recipe]3 large cloves garlic, very finely minced[/recipe]

[recipe]1/2 teaspoon leaf thyme[/recipe]

[recipe]12 sprigs parsley, very finely minced[/recipe]

[recipe]16-oz. can tomatoes[/recipe]

[recipe]1 cup fresh bread crumbs[/recipe]

If goose is unobtainable, 2 4-lb. ducklings may be substituted. If possible, buy fresh goose or ducklings or order goose beforehand and ask butcher to thaw it for you. Also ask him to cut goose into 12 pieces suitable for cassoulet. The neck, back and wings should not go into the cassoulet; they can be saved for a magnificent stock for mushroom-and-barley soup or lentil soup.

Wash beans well; drain; soak overnight in enough cold water to cover with 1 in. water. Stick cloves in whole onion and place in pot with beans. Add bay leaf and 1 teaspoon salt. Bring to a boil; reduce flame and simmer slowly until beans are tender—about 1-1/4 hours. Preheat oven to 375°. Remove from beans and discard onion and bay leaf. Add salt and pepper to taste. Place pieces of goose, skin side up, in a shallow roasting pan. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Roast 1 to 1-1/4 hours or until goose is lightly browned. Remove pieces of goose from fat in pan and set aside. Save fat; some will be needed for cassoulet; balance may be used for flavoring other dishes with which the flavor of goose fat is compatible. Place salt pork in saucepan over low flame. When fat appears, add Spanish onion, garlic, thyme and parsley. Sauté slowly until onion is deep yellow but not browned. Add onion mixture to beans. Drain tomatoes, reserving juice. Chop tomatoes fine and add, together with their juice, to beans. Set aside. Set oven temperature at 300°. Cut pork loin into 1-in. squares about 1/2 in. thick. Heat in skillet 2 tablespoons rendered goose fat. Sauté pork loin until lightly browned. Spoon about a third of the bean mixture into a 5-quart deep casserole. Add half the goose, pork and kielbasa. Spoon another layer of one third of the beans on top. Add balance of goose, pork and kielbasa. Spoon balance of beans on top. There should be enough liquid in casserole so that when beans are lightly pressed with spoon, the liquid rises to top. Cover casserole and bake 1-1/2 hours. Remove lid; skim fat from surface of beans and sprinkle with bread crumbs. Sprinkle lightly with goose fat. Bake uncovered 1 hour longer, or until crumbs are lightly browned. Cassoulet may be placed under broiler flame for a few minutes to brown; watch carefully; avoid scorching.

Granted, it takes a bit of doing, but would Sir Edmund Hillary have settled for a hillock?