CassouletThe star dish
The regional speciality, cassoulet from Toulouse is the unmissable feature of local cuisine. Discover its history and traditional recipe!
Eating a cassoulet from Toulouse is an obligatory step when exploring the city. It can be found on the menu of countless restaurants. Its exact recipe varies from one chef to the next, but it is always made up of flavoursome beans, duck confit and Toulouse sausage.
The recipe
A typical dish from the Ville Rose, the cassoulet of Toulouse is made up of a few essentials and other ingredients that vary depending on the cook. There is, of course, pork meat (loin, hock, cooking sausage) as well as duck confit, pork belly, local sausage, neck and breast of lamb. There are variants that include goose confit and goose fat.
As for the white beans, these tend to be regional varieties like Tarbes beans, which are long-grained, meaty and soft, with a fine skin that allows them to soak up other flavours. The secret of the success of this regional dish is in its cooking: cassoulet from Toulouse is a dish that must simmer for a long time, and is served after being finished under the grill.
The origins
There are endless arguments about the forgotten paternity of the cassoulet. Does it come from Castelnaudary, Carcassonne or Toulouse? It appears that the Romans already enjoyed a lamb stew with beans in the area near Narbonne. Historians have dated the origins of the cassoulet to the Middle Ages, but its beans only arrived in the South-West in the XVI Century after being imported from America. Every cassoulet has its local variations. The one from the Ville Rose is enhanced by the use of Toulouse sausage, the one from Castelnaudary naturally includes goose confit whilst in Carcassonne they add leg of lamb and partridge.
The Cassole
Cassoulet takes its name from the dish in which it is cooked: the Cassole. This receptacle made of terra cotta is created by the potters of Issel, a village situated 8km north of Castelnaudary.
Its insulating properties are ideal for the slow cooking required by the cassoulet and for the even distribution of heat during cooking.
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