Name: Cabbage Soup with Preserved Goose (Garbure du Béarn)
Yield: Servings: 4
Cuisine: French
Ingredients: 1 medium cabbage (about 2 pounds), preferably of a green, crinkly-leafed variety; Salt; Bouquet garni: celery branch, leek greens, bay leaf, parsley (plus root), large bouquet of thyme (or 1 teaspoon dried, tied in sachet); 1 pound (unshelled) fresh white beans (or 1 cup dried “Great Northern” beans: If the beans are fresh, add them directly, freshly shelled; dried beans should be washed, immersed largely in cold water, brought slowly to a boil, drained, covered again in cold water, brought again to a boil, and simmered, unsalted, covered, with carrot, onion, thyme, and bay leaf until tender, but intact—1½ to 2 hours); The legs and the split breast of a preserved goose (or, for a family dinner, neck, feet, back pieces, etc.); 1 large leek (6 to 7 ounces), white part finely sliced crosswise, greens added to bouquet; 3 tablespoons goose fat (from the preserved goose); Slices of dried bread; A scant 2 quarts of water; Pinch of cayenne; 12 ounces potatoes, peeled, cut into ½-inch cubes; 12 ounces pumpkin or other “winter” squash, seeded, peeled, cut into ½-inch cubes; 1 large, sweet onion, halved and finely sliced; 10 ounces carrots, peeled, split (if core is woody, pry it out and discard it), finely sliced; 10 ounces tender, crisp turnips, thickly peeled and finely sliced

Preparation info

Servings:
4

Difficulty
Medium

Appears in

Simple French Food

By Richard Olney

Published 1974

About

In cookbooks of the ninteenth century, garbures are panades; thick soups, the body of which is often but not necessarily that of cabbage, baked with alternating layers of dried bread, producing something akin to a moist pudding containing no remainder of loose liquid. The only garbures retained in today’s kitchens are those of the southwest; thick cabbage soups (to underline the importance of their consistency, it is said that a wooden spoon or a ladle thrust into the s