Napoleon's Lament - PT 1 OF TADPPPP
I would like to preface this recipe, that you can, of course, substitute any of the homemade pieces with store bought items, but, if you choose to do so, you are strictly, and absolutely, prohibited from calling the dish by it's name...
NAPOLEON’S LAMENT
PART ONE OF THE ANDY DALY PODCAST PILOT PROJECT PROJECT
BEANS UNDER TOAST
A DUCK CASSOULET TO RULE ALL DUCK CASSOULET
The most infamous of the Beans Under Toast recipes from Dalton Wilcox's "You Must Buy Your Wife At Least As Much Jewelry As You Buy Your Horse and Other Poems and Observations, Humorous and Otherwise, From a Life on The Range," is not one to approach without an appropriate amount of hesitation and fear. Unlike the others, this recipe asks that you prepare each element from scratch, follow a rigorous timeline, and ultimately finish the dish only to package it all up and throw it in the fridge to really marinate, while you write a poem of your own describing your feelings post almost completion, before you actually get to enjoy the fruits of all of your labor.
fine china also not optional
The preparation of this meal is not one that should bring you joy. It should be arduous, redundant, frustrating, and then, in the end, totally fucking worth it. I don't claim to be a Napoleon historian or even expert, but I do know he was French, and I'm sure that's probably how he felt about everything when all was said and done.. *shrug emoji*
Your timeline begins 31 days before you plan to actually serve it, with the start of curing your pancetta. (The first time I made this pancetta, it aged in our basement in Knoxville, (which, if I haven't already talked about it elsewhere, you're hearing it here now, had PERFECT aging temperature and humidity, and it was so fucking rad, but here we are now, no basement, but whatever) hence the name "Basement Bacon.") If you want, you can go on to make the pancetta into bacon by smoking it, but for this we're leaving just lightly aged.
You'll then make your sausage sometime during the month that your pancetta is aging. We're doing a Toulouse sausage, which is traditional, and a sweet reprise from what I had initially planned for this portion. Don’t ask anymore questions, just be happy your sausage only has four ingredients.
Then, about a week before, you're going out and getting a whole duck to break down yourself to make duck confit, because you should, we should, and we are. (If you’re having trouble sourcing, try your local Asian market - we had one in Knoxville, TN, so surely you have somewhere you can go, but if you somehow don’t, you can substitute a whole chicken.)
Next, you're baking your own bread from scratch three days before only to use to make 1 cup of breadcrumbs *smiley face with hands emoji*
One day before, you're soaking your dry heirloom beans.
And then, at long last you're cooking and assembling.
BUT WAIT.
As I mentioned previously, after you've done all of this, and it's baked for three and a half goddamn hours, you're letting it cool for another hour and a half, then putting it in the fridge, untouched by your hungry, hungry lips, for 24 full ass hours, THEN taking it out, reheating it for, yes, ANOTHER hour and a half, before finally sinking your teeth into the sweet, sweet, bliss that is this Beans Under Toast recipe, Napoleon's Lament.
Godspeed my friends.