Castelnaudary cassoulet

The day before, cover the beans generously with cold water and soak for 12 hours. Drain and discard the water. Put the beans in fresh water in a saucepan, bring to the boil and cook for 5 minutes. Drain and discard this water too; it is not part of the stock.

Peel and roughly chop the onion and carrot. Put the carcass, all the rind, vegetables and listed litres of water in a stockpot. Bring to a simmer and cook for 1 hour. Strain, reserving the rind; discard the carcass and stock vegetables.

Peel the garlic. Cook the beans in the stock for about 1 hour until soft but intact. Meanwhile, gently heat the confit legs in a frying pan to melt their fat; reserve legs and fat. Brown the sausage and pork in some of this fat. Divide the legs and sausage into serving pieces. Crush the peeled garlic with the salted pork fatback.

Drain the beans, reserving the stock. Mix with the crushed garlic and fatback. Line a deep baking dish with half the cooked rind (125 g before cooking); reserve the other half (125 g before cooking) for another use. Layer beans, duck and pork, then remaining beans. Partly press the sausage into the top. Add stock just to bean level, pepper and a little reserved duck fat.

Heat the oven to 160 °C. Bake for about 3 hours. Whenever a brown crust forms, gently press it into the beans with a spoon and continue baking; repeat several times. Add reserved stock if the beans dry out. The finished cassoulet should remain moist beneath its crust, with fully cooked, tender meat. Serve in the dish.