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Cassoulet is my nemesis. I long to try this classicly famous slow-cooked French country dish. In the winter, nothing sounds more satisfying and delectably fattening than a cassoulet. But more than the time to cook (between three and six hours, depending on your recipe) is the list of ingredients: 1/2 pound unsmoked bacon, fresh pork rind or fatback, confit duck legs, veal demi-glace, duck and Armagnac sausages, rendered duck fat.

Most of it has to do with my general fear of duck. It was only last month - and only for the good of the slashforce - that I had the guts to roast that fearfully fatty poultry. And I never had the cojones to use the duck fat (despite your encouragement and wonderful words). It was partly Jeffrey Steingarten's fault, with his exhaustive search for the perfect interpretation of the dish. How could something accessible be such a pinnacle of one of Steingarten's epic quests?

So I'm considering staring down my demons, and attempting the fearful dish, with all its duck parts and renderings and demi-glaces before you even get started on putting the dish together. Do you have any kind words as I approach my doppelganger? Do you have any tales of facing your own culinary fears?

[Photo Butter Pig]