Kate Hill Part 2: Cassoulet the French bean based family feast Elevate Your Game

Cassoulet is a glorious (Tarbais) bean-based dish made with gelatinous stock and an assortment of meats. Often you will find duck confit or goose, pork sausage, ham hocks, and fresh or cured pork belly.

I make this celebratory dish with game: smoked cured bear shanks or black bear bacon, confited pheasant, Mallard, Canada Goose, or hare: fresh rabbit, elk, or deer sausages. This is a good place for gizzards and hearts too. Follow Kate's guidance, give the cassoulet lots of time in a slow oven to develop the flavours and tenderize the toughest cuts of meat. Then savour the flavour with family and your closest friends. (I almost always prepare cassoulet in advance of an outfitter tenting adventure so we can enjoy cassoulet heated on the coal stove.) It is an epic meal.