Duck or Chicken Sausage

I am making a cassoulet for dinner tomorrow night and just found out I need to make it without pork. Where can I get good duck or chicken sausage late Saturday or early Sunday? Preferably in the San Fernando Valley.

Try Whole Foods, they do a fairly decent job with sausage. You can also give Jim’s Fallbrook Market a call, 818-347-5525. They make their own sausage. Its a bit of a schlep, but they have an excellent butcher’s shop. Normally I would recommend sampling the weekend bbq in their parking lot, but its supposed to rain quite hard tomorrow so they probably won’t have it.

A last ditch move would be to use Aidells artichoke and garlic sausage. According to their website Vons and Pavillions sell it, http://www.aidells.com/storeLocator. It is a chicken sausage. I am not a huge fan of Aidells products even though I love his cookbooks, but its better than nothing.

McCall’s.

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Hardy’s meat market

Costco carried Aidells in bulk packs for around $13. Also I do like the fresh sausages at Bristol Farms.

Thanks for all the responses. I got the chicken sausage at Jim’s Fallbrook Market. They were perfect for the dish.

Coinkydink. I’m not actually making it at the moment, just flirting with the idea while waiting for my new oven to arrive. Also, this might be a pork sausage question but since this thread is 4 yrs old I doubt I’m derailing it by asking - does anyone know where to get Garlic Sausage?

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Found it! Guess where @attran99 & @ebethsdad? You’re right! :grin: Epicurus Gourmet sells a classic French Cassoulet Sausage called Saucisse de Toulouse (toulouse sausage).

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They also sell Bistro sausage, a second option. I usually combine the two. Their cannellini beans are really excellent as well.
I’m sure yours will turn out beautifully. One of my favorite dishes!

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Thanks @ebethsdad!

It will be my second time making it but this time I’m sticking to the recipe as closely as possible, including cooking beans instead of using canned. Rancho Gordo was out of Cassoulet Beans when I ordered but they said the Alubia Blanca will work well.

Wish me luck!

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Whose recipe are you using? I’m partial to J. Kenji Lopez-Alt’s, Traditional French Cassoulet Recipe. I do include some confited duck legs as well as the chicken he recommends.
I hope you have a nice bottle or two of good red peasant wine to accompany it. My best to your lovely husband!

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Monsieur Marcels always have a good selection of Rancho Gordo and Cassoulet beans.

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Hi @ebethsdad -

Yep, that’s it! It’s delicious and I like Kenji’s rationale about using chicken legs & thighs slathered in duck fat instead of duck confit. He explains that it was traditionally a peasant dish made from bits and parts of preserved meats that were already on-hand. Duck was inexpensive, readily available and preserved & stored because of a lack of refrigeration. The way it’s made now has turned it into an expensive, time consuming, luxury dish which is delicious but actually not traditional in that sense. Plus he says confit and slow cooking makes for dry, stringy meat. @CiaoBob will probably call it Spa Cassoulet. :smile:

Anyway, I’m thinking of trying to find a proper cassole or something suitable at the Le Creuset sale next month and go for this luscious action, not achieved in my dutch oven.

Thanks for the tip @Dommy! I cooked the Alubia Blanca last night and I know the beans in Cassoulet are supposed to get super soft & creamy, but imo these cooked way too fast for a slow cook dish.

Happy Cassoulet-ing!

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For the record, Aidells sold the company to Del Monte Meat Company in 2002, and so far as I know none of the current products has any similarity to what he made back in the day or the sausage recipes in his cookbooks. Certainly the andouille is nothing like it was, and they don’t even make duck sausage any more.

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That explains a lot.