Instructions: Carefully pick over and wash the beans; soak for 2 hours, drain and place in a saucepan with 4 quarts cold water and the fresh pork fat. heat slowly to the boiling point, skim, and boil for 5 minutes; drain.

Rinse the saucepan and return the beans to the saucepan with 2 quarts cold water, the salt, the pork fat, the pork rinds (tied), the carrot, the onion, and the bouquet garni.

Cook on a very low flame; the beans should remain whole and be perfectly cooked without being mushy.

In a skillet brown the spareribs on all sides, basting generously with the fat from the confit doie, then season with salt and pepper. When the pork is golden, set aside on a plate and, in the same fat, slowly cook and brown the onions. When the onions are cooked, add the garlic cloves; heat for 2 seconds, then add the tomato puree and 1/4 cup of the cooking liquid from the beans. Simmer slowly for 5 minutes.

When the beans are nearly cooked, remove the carrot, the onion, and the bouquet garni. Leaving enough liquid to cover them, add the spareribs, the sausage, the confit doie, and the chopped onions.

Simmer, covered, on a low flame for 1 hour. The dish should barely bubble.

Remove the meat from the beans. Cut the spareribs and the pork fat into slices, the confit doie into pieces, the pork rinds into julienne, the sausage into thick slices, and remove the skin.

Correct the seasoning of the beans.

Fill a shallow ovenproof earthenware pot first with a layer of beans and a ladleful of their cooking liquid, a couple of tablespoons of pork rinds, then several slices of spareribs and pork fat, pieces of confit doie, and slices of sausage. Cover with beans, and continue alternating the meats and the beans. Grind some fresh pepper on each layer.

Cover the top layer of the beans with slices of pork fat and sausage.

Sprinkle with the bread crumbs and baste with melted goose fat from the confit doie. Cover.

Cook in a 300F oven for 2 hours. Remove the cover 15 minutes before serving to brown the top. At this point, the juices from the cooking should be quite reduced and slightly thickened by the starch from the beans.

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