French beef stew
 (, ; lit. 'pot on the fire') is a French dish of slowly boiled meat and vegetables, usually served as two courses: first the broth ("bouillon") and then the meat ("bouilli") and vegetables. The dish is familiar throughout France and has many regional variations. The best-known have beef as the main meat, but pork, chicken, and sausage are also used.
Background.
"The Oxford Companion to Food" calls "pot-au-feu" "a dish symbolic of French cuisine and a meal in itself"; the chef Raymond Blanc has called it "the quintessence of French family cuisine ... the most celebrated dish in France, [which] honours the tables of the rich and poor alike"; and the American "National Geographic" magazine has termed it the national dish of France.
The "Dictionnaire de l'Académie française" dates the term "pot-au-feu" to the 17th century. In 1600, the king of France, Henry IV, declared, "there shall be no peasant in my kingdom who lacks the means to have a hen in his pot." A one-pot stew was a staple of French cooking, and the traditional recipe for "poule-au-pot" – also known as "pot-au-feu à la béarnaise" – resembles that for "pot-au-feu".
One batch of "pot-au-feu" was maintained as a perpetual stew in Perpignan from the 15th century until World War II.
Ingredients.
The main ingredient in most versions of "pot-au-feu" is meat. Many recipes specify more than one cut of beef to give both the broth and the cooked meat the required flavour and consistency. Elizabeth David writes that shin, because of its gelatinous properties, is good for the "bouillon" but produces a mediocre "bouilli", whereas a cut such as silverside cooks well for the "bouilli". For a large "pot-au-feu," it is practicable to use both those cuts or a mixture of others. Paul Bocuse calls for six different cuts: blade, brisket, entrecôte, oxtail, rib, and shin. Some recipes add a marrow bone, to give marrow to spread on the bread served with the broth. Some recipes add ox liver to improve the clarity of the broth.
The inclusion of cabbage divides opinion; David comments that it is frequently encountered in France, but in her view, it "utterly wrecks" a "pot-au-feu"; Madame Saint-Ange takes a similar view. Blanc, Édouard de Pomiane, and Auguste Escoffier include it; Bocuse, Alain Ducasse, and Joël Robuchon omit it, as do Simone Beck, Louisette Bertholle, and Julia Child, authors of "Mastering the Art of French Cooking". As well as a bouquet garni – traditionally made of parsley, thyme and bay – an onion studded with cloves may be added to the pot.
Regional variations include:
Serving.
Generally, the broth ("bouillon") is served first. It is often enriched with rice or pasta, and croutons and grated cheese may be added, before it is served with French bread. The meat ("bouilli") and the vegetables are served next. Condiments may include, among other options, coarse salt, mustard, capers, pickled gherkins, pickled samphire and horseradish – grated or in a sauce.
Sauces served with the "bouilli" may include tomato sauce, Sauce gribiche, an Alsacienne sauce (hard-boiled egg mayonnaise with herbs, capers and some of the bouillon), sauce Nénette (cream reduced by simmering and flavoured with mustard and tomato), or sauce Suprême (a velouté made with some of the bouillon and enriched with cream).
"Pot-au-feu" broth may also be used for cooking vegetables or pasta. Ready-to-use concentrated cubes are available to make what purports to be "pot-au-feu" broth when water is added.
Similar dishes.
Other countries have similar dishes with local ingredients. The Vietnamese dish pho has been said to be inspired by French cuisine in former French Indochina, with a possible etymology for the name being a phonetic respelling of the French "feu".
See also.
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Notes.
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References.
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