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Meat Balls Cassoulet

A hearty cassoulet featuring meatballs, beans, sausage, vegetables, and rice.

From the Recipes Wiki (Fandom) · 15 ingredients
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Why it works: Onion and garlic match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 29,058 recipes. Both carry furaneol, which smells caramel, strawberry. The science ↓

Meat Balls Cassoulet

Time1 to 1½ hours

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the beans

  1. Rinse the beans.

  2. Soak the beans overnight in 4 cups water and 1 teaspoon salt.

  3. Drain the beans and set aside.

Shape and brown the meatballs

  1. Combine the lean ground beef and spicy pork sausage.

  2. Form the mixture into 36 one‑inch meat balls.

  3. Brown the meat balls in a large skillet; drain.

Simmer and serve

  1. Combine the beans, meat balls, chopped onion, chopped celery, minced garlic, Worcestershire sauce, basil leaves, oregano leaves, paprika, the remaining 3 cups water, and salt.

  2. Bring the mixture to a boil.

  3. Reduce heat, cover, and simmer 1 to 1½ hours or until the beans are tender.

  4. Stir in the tomatoes and sliced carrot.

  5. Simmer for 10 minutes longer.

  6. Ladle the cassoulet into soup bowls.

  7. Top each bowl with a mound of fluffy rice.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

814Calories
62 gProtein
30 gFat
70 gCarbs

Counts 12 of 15 ingredients. The other 3 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 12 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Beef100g cooked250
Pork100g cooked242
Rice1 cup cooked (158g) white206
Onion1 medium (110g)44
Carrot1 medium (61g)25
Tomato1 medium (123g)22
Soy Sauce1 tbsp (15ml)9
Celery1 stalk (40g)6
Oregano1 tsp dried (1.8g)5
Garlic1 clove (3g)4
Basil5 leaves fresh (2.5g)1
Salt1 tsp (6g)0
Beannot in our table0
Waternot in our table0
Meatnot in our table0

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

Recipe from the Recipes Wiki (Fandom).

Steps grouped into stages for easier reading; the method is the source's own.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Onion + garlictop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together29,058 recipes

    Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

  2. Beef + porktop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,690 recipes

    Shared aroma: 12-methyltridecanal (tallowy, beefy).

  3. Beans + garlictop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,935 recipes

    Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

  4. Beans + celerytop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,159 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methoxy-4-vinylphenol (clove, smoky).

  5. Celery + clovetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together4,668 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-decalactone (peach, creamy).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Dry small white beans
Provide the main body and bulk, becoming tender and creamy as they simmer.
Lean ground beef
Adds savory meaty flavor and structure to the meatballs.
Spicy pork sausage meat
Adds fat and spiced flavor that enrich the meatballs and the broth.
Tomatoes
Add acidity and body to the broth, balancing the rich meat and beans.
Chopped onion
Adds aromatic sweetness and depth to the simmering liquid.

The step that matters

Simmer until the beans are tender. Dry beans need long, gentle simmering to soften fully. Adding acidic tomatoes too early can toughen the skins, so the tomatoes are stirred in only near the end.

Swap the clove

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beans, beef, pork, meat, onion, celery, garlic):

  1. Cuminfits better
  2. Thymefits better
  3. Oreganofits better
  4. Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beans, beef, pork, meat, onion, celery, garlic. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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