Coq au Vin, the Traditional Version is Much More Than Just a Chicken Stewed in Wine.

from
Behind the French Menu
by
Bryan G. Newman
behindthefrenchmenu@gmail.com



Coq au Vin
Photograph courtesy of jeffreyw
https://www.flickr.com/photos/jeffreyww/7847026330/

Coq au Vin began as a large meal prepared on holidays or for family celebrations, and it would have been enough for ten or more diners. The cockerel used for the traditional Coq Au Vin was a big, old cockerel that's a rooster in North America, a cockerel that has ceased to make the ladies happy weighing at least five kilos (11 lbs).. A French restaurant serving Coq au Vin Traditionnel today may have to settle for a somewhat smaller bird, but it will still be enough for eight or more diners. When considering ordering Coq Au Vin, look for a restaurant offering a "Coq au Vin Traditionnel, " the traditional Coq Au Vin.

Out of work cockerels headed for the pot are large birds. Even today, most mature French cockerels weigh over two and a half kilos, over five pounds, with some up to 50% more. These will be free-range birds, so they will be tasty, but need a lot of cooking, or they will be stringy. Preparing a cockerel for the pot requires marinating the bird in red wine, often with an added Eau-de-vie, for a particular flavor for at least 24 hours. When the marinade has done its work, the dish will be allowed to cook very slowly, along with more red wine, herbs, and extra chicken broth. When the meat is nearly hanging off the bones, vegetables, mushrooms, and bacon for flavor will be added, and twenty minutes later, the dish may be served.

      

Coq au Vin  comes with many distinctive tastes: 

Coq à la Bière A cockerel marinated in beer, not wine; usually, this dish is made with a bière brune, a brown beer. To the beer marinade will be adding a local Eau de vie and often crème fraiche. The use of beer makes this dish sound as if it originated in Belgium, but it will also be on the menu in the old regions of Alsace and Lorraine, which supply over 50% of France's beers.

 

Coq au Champagne – Here in the  Champagne growing region, the local restaurants will bring their version of Coq Au Vin to the table. If an eau-de-vie is used in the marinade along with Champagne, theirs will be Marc de Champagne (French Marcs are the French take on the Italian Grappa brandies). Outside of Champagne, similar dishes will be on menus with a local Crémant sparkling wine. Locally, the only wine to accompany this dish is Champagne. 

 

Coq au Riesling - This is coq au vin from the Alsace. The crisp, dry, and fruity Alsatian white Riesling AOP white wine will make this dish a tasty and different experience.

 

Coq au Vin de Bourgogne – The region of Burgundy with so many great wines and so many excellent dishes a la bourguignonne always had a local version of Coq Au Vin for family festivities and festivals. When the dish came to the restaurants, the chefs had many excellent red wines for the diners to choose from. The wine you choose to accompany your traditional Coq au Vin de Bourgogne should also be red. However, If you prefer white wine, consider the Crémant de Bourgogne, Burgundy's wonderful sparkling white wine. 



Coq au Vin
Photograph courtesy of Neeta Lind
https://www.flickr.com/photos/neeta_lind/2048138042/

   

Coq au Vin de Chanturgue or Coq au Vin, Auvergnat - Coq au Vin de Chanturgue is almost universally accepted by French chefs as the first restaurant version of Coq Au Vin. 

     Every wine-growing area of France will claim that they invented Coq Au Vin, and despite the paragraph above, they are all probably correct. Long before the first restaurant came to Paris experienced French farmer's wives would have arrived at tasty solutions for old and out-of-work cockerels. They would use the marinating powers and flavor of red wine. The region of the Auvergne, in the center of France, produced the earliest restaurant version of Coq Au Vin, and that was in the mid-19th century. Visit a restaurant in the Auvergne today that offers Coq au Vin de Chanturgue, and you should have a meal close to the original.

     Today, the Auvergne is not well-known for its wines. Nevertheless, until the late 1800s, the Auvergne was France's third most prestigious wine-growing region after the wines of Bordeaux and Burgundy. Then came phylloxera, a root-eating aphid that attacked and destroyed untold numbers of the best vines all over France and destroyed the Auvergne wine industry. Much of the French wine industry was saved by importing from the USA and the Middle East phylloxera-resistant rootstock; however, in the Auvergne, many vintners gave up. A few carried on, and you can visit and try their traditional wines, including the Vin de Chanturgue, and review wines added in the last fifty years.

 


      If you are planning a trip to the Auvergne view their English language website:

https://www.france-voyage.com/travel-guide/auvergne-territoire.htm


    Also, download copies of the maps for the Route de Vins d’Auvergne, the wine road of the Auvergne and the Route de Fromages de Auvergne, the cheese trails of the five famous cheeses of the Auvergne.  These maps are in French but easily understood using the Google and Microsoft translate apps.

 

Coq au Vin Jaune Coq au vin made with the famous Vin Jaune, the yellow wine, from the Jura.  Jura is a department in the region of Bourgogne-Franche-Comté and borders Switzerland to the east.   Vin Jaune is made using the Savagnin grape and aged for a minimum of six years and three months in oak barrels. The wine tastes somewhat like a dry sherry, though it is not fortified by added alcohol as sherry is.


Vin Jaune  from the Jura.
Photograph courtesy of Dominic Lockyer   
https://www.flickr.com/photos/farehamwine/14874763437/
 

The requirements for a genuine Coq au vin.

With Coq Au Vin so much in demand, that has created problems keeping to the original recipe. One hundred and fifty years ago, all chickens were raised free-range for both meat and eggs. The chickens raised as free-range hens were supplied a cockerel to maintain order in the flock. Today, there are far fewer free-range hens, creating a collateral shortage of suitable old cockerels.

The meat of a free-range cockerel has a much stronger flavor than any chicken. That, along with the wine chosen, is the secret behind the taste of a real Coq Au Vin. When coq au vin left the farms and began to be served in restaurants, it quickly became a popular dish and has remained so for over 150 years.

          


A cockerel strutting his stuff to impress the ladies.
Photograph courtesy of svklimkin
https://www.flickr.com/photos/svklimkin/35655283910/

  

     With Coq Au Vin so much in demand, that has created problems keeping to the original recipe. One hundred and fifty years ago, all chickens were raised free-range for both meat and eggs. The chickens raised as free-range hens were supplied a cockerel to maintain order in the flock. Today, there are far fewer free-range hens, creating a collateral shortage of suitable old cockerels.

      The meat of a free-range cockerel has a much stronger flavor than any chicken. That, along with the wine chosen, is the secret behind the taste of a real Coq Au Vin. When coq au vin left the farms and began to be served in restaurants, it quickly became a popular dish and has remained so for over 150 years.

  


Recipe for a large chicken in the style of Coq au Vin.
Photograph courtesy of Cookipedia 

Ordering Coq Au Vin or chicken stew.

     If you order coq au vin and are served a bowl with a small chicken, about enough for a meal for four, then I am sorry, but that is not Coq Au Vin, modern or traditional. It may be an excellent stew, but it will just be a small and tasty chicken stewed in wine! In France, there are self-confident chefs who keep to the traditions and offer a large chicken as a Fricassée de Poulet, Façon Coq au Vin, a chicken stew prepared in the manner of Coq Au Vin. These chefs are not embarrassed to tell it like it is, and the price charged will be that of a well-prepared chicken stew but not a traditional Coq Au Vin.

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