I've never eaten cassoulet before, which perhaps makes me unqualified to make it, but I'm going to try anyway. Cassoulet is the signature dish of a broad swath of southwestern France, and has inspired fierce opinions, grand celebrations, and even macabre violence. For all this, nobody can say for sure what it really is. Julia Child offers at least four different variations for the dish. Escoffier can't even give a definitive answer -- ESCOFFIER, for crissakes -- he offers two completely different versions under the category of mutton entrees, one of which does not include mutton. The États Généraux de la Gastronomie Française says that in order to be called cassoulet, a dish must contain 30% meat -- they don't care whether you use pork, sausage, lamb, or confit of duck or goose -- and 70% "other" ingredients -- white beans, herbs, aromatics like garlic and onion, pork rind, and broth. Thanks a lot guys. You've been a big help.

Just about every city, town, village, hamlet, and household from the Pyrenees to Provence will claim the secret to "authentic" cassoulet, with Toulouse and Castelnaudary vying for top honors. Typically of the French, these endless and intense rivalries for worldwide gastronomic bragging rights all circulate over what is, at its essence, a peasant dish. Cassoulet generally includes the most unwanted scraps of meat (besides the offal) available; it is a hodgepodge of odds and ends. The confit of goose is the shell within which was once housed foie gras, perhaps the most famous product of the Medi-Pyrénées. The mutton is likely taken from a sheep that can no longer produce milk for the region's famous cheeses. The casserole is studded with the pink garlic that grows everywhere around Lautrec. And the whole is held together with the ultimate peasant staple, the white bean.

Of course, the French will tell you that only special varieties of lignot beans will do for a proper cassoulet, but that's just them getting all snooty about what is ultimately just leftover casserole. Julia says that the good old American Great Northern Bean is just fine -- and who am I to argue with Julia? I've assembled duck legs for confit, pork, lamb, and pork belly, as well as a couple pounds of beans. I even splurged on some ail rose de Lautrec at Fairway. I couldn't find a decent pork and garlic sausage, although I do have some merguez, the garlicky, gamey lamb sausage. I haven't decided yet whether to use it, or to try making my own pork sausage. Nor have I decided how many times I'll crack the gratinated crust that will (hopefully) form over my cassoulet while it cooks - seven or eight (the question has divided frenchmen for centuries). But that's all for tomorrow. Tonight, I've got to soak my beans and cook my meats. I'll also need to make a stock - I have some bones set aside for just this purpose. And I haven't even mentioned the four other courses I have planned. It's going to be a long haul to dinner tomorrow night. And miles to go before I sleep...