Duck and goose in every form, cooked and kept in their own fat, with white beans, garlic, walnuts, prunes and a glass of Armagnac.
Where it comes from
Gascony is the old country between the Garonne and the Pyrenees, and its cooking runs into its neighbours' — the Périgord and Quercy to the north, Toulouse to the east, Bordeaux on the Atlantic. Fattening geese is very old here, and once maize arrived from the Americas it became the grain that fed the birds, so ducks and geese were raised on farms all over.
The fat of those birds is the cooking fat, where the north uses butter and Provence olive oil. Before fridges, meat was salted, cooked slowly in fat and sealed under it in stoneware pots to last the year, and a great deal of the cooking still grows out of that store cupboard.
Where in it
ToulouseThe pink-brick city on the Garonne, known for its coarse pork sausage, which goes into its own version of cassoulet, and for violets candied as sweets.Cassoulet
CastelnaudaryA small town on the Canal du Midi that calls itself the home of cassoulet, cooked in clay pots from nearby Issel — strictly in Languedoc, but cassoulet belongs to the whole south-west.Cassoulet
Périgord and SarlatOak woods, walnut orchards and black truffles around the old stone town of Sarlat, with foie gras and potatoes fried in duck fat with garlic and parsley.Foie gras mi-cuitConfit de canard
The LandesPine forest and farmland behind the Atlantic dunes, raising ducks, geese and free-range chickens, with foie gras, garbure and a flaky apple pastry of its own.GarbureFoie gras mi-cuit
The Gers and ArmagnacRolling farm country around Auch, the heart of Gascony: Armagnac brandy, fattened ducks, and the grilled duck breast that a local chef is often credited with making famous.Magret de canardConfit de canardPastis gascon
BordeauxThe wine port on the Garonne: steaks grilled over vine cuttings with a shallot and red wine sauce, oysters from the Arcachon basin, and small caramelised canelés.Canelé
How it cooks
Confit
Salted overnight, cooked very slowly in its own fat, then kept under it — duck, goose, pork, even gizzards.
Persillade
Garlic and parsley chopped together and thrown in at the end, as over potatoes fried in duck fat.
Slow in earthenware
Beans and meat cooked for hours in a glazed clay cassole, the crust broken and pushed back in as it forms.
Over vine cuttings
Around Bordeaux, steaks and lamb grilled over dried vine prunings, then finished with shallots and red wine.