Garbure Béarnaise

As tradition built it

Serves 6. About 2.5 hours.

Ingredients

• 4 to 5 L water
• 1 small green cabbage
• 2 carrots
• 2 turnips
• 4 large potatoes
• 200 g dried beans, ideally haricot tarbais
• 2 onions
• 6 cloves garlic
• 1 branch each thyme, celery
• 4 duck confit drumsticks, or 2 thighs
• 1 ham hock, traditionally jambon de Bayonne
• 2 tbsp duck fat

Method

1. Soak the dried beans several hours ahead.
2. Melt the duck confit drumsticks gently, reserve the duck fat, sweat the onion and garlic in it, about 10 minutes.
3. Add the water, the cabbage, carrots, turnips and potatoes, beans, thyme, celery and ham hock, season lightly since the ham is already salted.
4. Simmer gently, about 2 hours, skimming fat.
5. Add the confit a few minutes before the end, return to the boil, skim again, simmer 10 more minutes.
6. The distinctly Béarnaise finish, "flamber la garbure": pour a layer of confit fat over the surface and set it alight, then place embers on the pot lid so a crust forms over several hours of slow cooking.

Notes

No source consulted for this chapter's briefs gave the flambé finish an academic or culinary-institutional citation, only a single Béarn heritage-tourism source; this chapter includes it as a genuine, if lightly sourced, regional practice rather than a fully verified one.

What a modern chef changes

The soup's body concentrated separately from its meats.

Rung 4

Method

1. Reduce a portion of the finished broth separately to a glaze, brushed over the confit before serving, concentrating the flavour without over-reducing the whole pot.
2. Deglaze the confit pan itself with a small measure of Armagnac before combining, an addition not found in any traditional garbure source consulted, held here as a considered departure rather than a claimed tradition.
3. Finish with a very brief, controlled flambé of duck fat over the surface, exactly as tradition specifies, rather than skipping this step for convenience.