Cassoulet only beans, tomato sauce, sausages, and bacon. More expensive versions are likely to be cooked with goose fat and to include Toulouse sausages, lamb, goose, or duck confit. Haute cuisine versions require mixing pre-cooked roasted meats with beans that have been simmered separately with aromatic vegetables, but this runs counter to cassoulet's peasant origins. In the process of preparing the dish it is traditional to deglaze the pot from the previous cassoulet in order to give a base for the next one. This has led to stories, such as the one given by Elizabeth David, citing Anatole France, of a
Toad in the hole Toad in the hole Toad in the hole or Sausage Toad is a traditional English and Scottish dish consisting of sausages in Yorkshire pudding batter, usually served with onion gravy and vegetables. Historically, the dish has also been prepared using other meats, such as rump steak and lamb's kidney. Batter puddings became popular in the early 18th century. Jennifer Stead has drawn attention to a description of a recipe identical to 'toad in the hole' from the middle of the century. At this time, Northerners tended to use drippings to make their puddings crispier, whereas Southerners made softer Yorkshire puddings.