Haricot de Mouton

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •4 to 5-quart heavy cocotte or Dutch oven with lid
• •2 to 3-quart saucepan for half-cooking the beans
• •Fine-mesh sieve
• •4-cup heatproof bowl or measuring jug
• •Slotted spoon

Instructions

1. 1

   Ready beans and bacon

   Cover the soaked dried haricot beans generously with fresh water and bring them slowly to a simmer. Cook until they have swollen and begun to soften but still resist the teeth at their centers, about 25 to 40 minutes depending on age; they must be only half-cooked because another hour awaits them in the stew. Drain and measure 2 cups (475 ml / 350 g). Have the diced bacon prepared through Blanchings (No. 273), then drain and dry it thoroughly. Heat the oven to 325°F (165°C).

   Do not salt the bean water. The bacon and measured salt will season the finished pot, while unsalted water lets older beans soften more predictably.
2. 2

   Frizzle bacon and onions

   Melt the lard in a heavy cocotte over medium heat. Add the dry bacon and pearl onions, then cook for 8 to 12 minutes, turning often, until the bacon has frizzled at the edges and the onions wear an even chestnut color. Regulate the heat so the lard bubbles actively without smoking. Lift both onto a plate with a slotted spoon, leaving the fat in the cocotte.

3. 3

   Brown the mutton

   Dry the mutton carefully. Raise the heat to medium-high and brown the pieces in two batches, leaving room between them, until every side carries a deep frizzled coat. Give each surface time to release naturally before turning it. If the meat sheds liquid and begins to stew, lift it out, boil away the moisture, let the fat become properly hot again, and resume with fewer pieces. Ça se rattrape. Transfer the browned mutton to the plate, then pour off roughly half the free grease while preserving every browned mark on the pot floor.

4. 4

   Build the sauce

   Lower the heat to medium. Add the crushed garlic to the retained fat and stir for 20 seconds, just until fragrant. Dust in the flour and cook for 1 to 2 minutes, stirring continuously, to make a pale roux, flour cooked into fat. Pour in the water gradually while scraping the fond from the floor and corners of the cocotte. If the roux seizes into small lumps, keep whisking as the water goes in; the later straining is the built-in rescue. Add the salt, pepper, and bouquet garni, bring the sauce to a boil while stirring, then return the mutton. Cover and braise in the oven for 30 minutes.

5. 5

   Strain and reunite

   Lift the mutton into a heatproof bowl. Pour the sauce through a fine-mesh sieve into a second bowl, pressing only enough to recover the liquid, then discard the bouquet garni, garlic fibers, and any coarse fragments. Wipe the cocotte if necessary and return the mutton to it. Add the frizzled bacon, browned onions, and half-cooked beans, distributing them gently so the onions remain whole. Pour the strained sauce over everything.

6. 6

   Complete the braise

   Cover the cocotte and return it to the 325°F (165°C) oven for about 1 hour. The sauce should barely tremble, never boil hard. Check after 45 minutes: if the sauce has tightened before the meat is tender, loosen it with hot water, 1 tablespoon (15 ml) at a time. If the beans become tender before the mutton yields, lift the beans, bacon, and onions out with a slotted spoon, continue the meat for 15-minute intervals, then return the garnish for the final 10 minutes. The stew is ready when the mutton gives easily at a fork, the beans are creamy within but still hold their skins, and the sauce coats a spoon.

7. 7

   Settle and serve

   Rest the Haricot de Mouton uncovered for 10 minutes so the sauce settles around the meat and beans. Taste before adjusting anything, because the bacon will have given up more salt during the braise. Spoon it generously into a deep timbale-style serving bowl or individual cocottes, keeping the pieces of mutton visible among the onions and beans. Bring bread for the sauce. À table!

Chef Tips

• •Ask an independent or halal butcher for mature mutton and request breast, neck, and shoulder in roughly equal weights. The bones and connective tissue give the water-based sauce its body. Young lamb will cook sooner and taste gentler, which makes a good stew but an honestly different one.
• •Choose small dried white haricots with intact skins. Fully cooked canned beans cannot endure the source method's final hour without collapsing, so they are not the right shortcut here. Half-cooking dried beans is scaffolding worth doing because it lets meat and beans reach tenderness together.
• •Use ordinary lard, not oil or butter. The source builds its fond with lard and bacon fat, and that clean pork richness belongs beneath the mutton. Pouring off half the free grease keeps the sauce glossy rather than oily.
• •A fresh, medium-bodied red with firm acidity suits the bacon and mutton, such as Beaujolais-Villages or a modest red from the Loire. Save heavy, heavily oaked wine for another table.

Advance Preparation

• •Soak the dried haricot beans in plenty of cold water for 8 to 12 hours. They may be simmered to the half-cooked stage up to 24 hours ahead, cooled in their cooking liquid, and refrigerated; drain and measure them before beginning the stew.
• •The complete Haricot de Mouton can be made 1 day ahead. Cool it within 2 hours, cover, and refrigerate for up to 3 days. Reheat it covered in a 300°F (150°C) oven, loosening the sauce with a spoonful of water if the beans have absorbed too much.
• •For service later the same day, finish the stew, let it settle, and hold it covered in a low oven for no more than 30 minutes. Longer holding softens the beans and dulls the onions.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 325g)