11 Comments
Oct 23Liked by Julia Watson

Full of informative interest as usual, Julia! I occasionally watch clips from an American influencer, who does comparisons between British and American food - he seems to prefer the less-sweet British version of just about everything, includig baked beans. And there I was, thinking Castelnaudary was famous for the Foreign Legion ... good to know it has connections with one of my favourite dishes, as well! I shall be making that cassoulet and taking it to my Regimental Association's annual camp next year. Of course, I shall have to have a trial run or two at home before then ...

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Your life isn't just full but filled with such interesting and unexpected events! A Regimental annual camp sounds challenging! I assume you won't be under canvas and rubbing sticks together to start a cooking fire. But if you do have to share a tent with anyone, cassoulet might not be too suitable...

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Oct 23Liked by Julia Watson

I’m always in awe of how you weave together so many threads — and still manage to rail on Big Food! Now that the weathers getting colder, this may be the year I finally attempt a cassoulet.

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You can't imagine how thrilled I am by your comment. It encourages me to carry on. And I hope this week's recipe encourages you to try a cassoulet. It's really just a matter of assembly - a radio-on+glass-of-wine-to-hand recipe.

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Please do keep carrying on!

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Oct 23Liked by Julia Watson

I grew up in a multi-generational household in NY. My grandmother had a bean pot & we ate her version of baked beans, often.

Navy beans, molasses, dry mustard, maple3 syrup & bacon of some sort were the main ingredients. I make that now, in fact, I have a vegetarian version on the stove with corn added. It’s the perfect autumn dish, but mine isn’t very sweet, at all.

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Living in DC, I fell for the collard greens, beans and bacon dishes you could buy by the plate at the market at RFK Stadium, made by women who had travelled many hours and miles to bring them up to tempt us. They had only a touch of sweetness. What astonishes with so much American food us that first hit of sugar. It masks the ingredients. But that may be the point since it's mostly in affordable processed food that HFCS has such a presence.

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love imagining you + sis under the covers with a plateful of beans. xo

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Everything seemed so safe...at least baked beans are still dependable. xx

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Oct 23Liked by Julia Watson

Heinz baked beans with sizzling hot cheese on top- what a delicious memory. As for beans- so agree about their versatility- so many beans that can be cooked in so many ways- including squished into soup. Do you know the idiotic ditty:

Beans beans the musical fruit

The more you eat the more you toot.

The more you toot the better you feel

So let's have beans at every meal.

Apologies for lowering the tone. Your recipe looks fabuloys!

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The first line of the bean ditty that lowers the tone is, "Beans, beans are good for the heart" and rhymes the rest with that.

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