Behind the French Menu: France unique cuts of beef from the rump (or close to). They are also called the Butcher’s Choice.

Araignée, (the spider).

Merlan, Merlan de Rumsteck, (Whiting, the fish).

Poire, Poire de Bœuf, (the pear).

Langue de Chat, (the cat's tongue).

from
Behind the French Menu
by
Bryan G. Newman

behindthefrenchmenu@gmail.com

Grilled Araignée e Bœuf
The spider cut

These four unique cuts —Araignée, Merlan, Poire, and Langue de Chat — are among the best and tenderest cuts of beef, yet they remain relatively inexpensive. Unfortunately, they have no equivalent English or North American names, as their preparation requires a patient and dedicated artisanal butcher; consequently, these cuts are rarely, if ever, offered in the USA or UK. Since there are no accepted English names for these four cuts, most translated French menus refer to them as rump steaks.

The Piece de Boucher or Morceaux du Boucher

In France, these cuts may also be on the menu as the Piece de Boucher, or the Morceaux du Boucher, the butcher’s choice. The Butcher’s Choice suggests a butcher who knows the true value of these cuts, with any unsold pieces being taken home by the butcher for their family.

Fortunately, French chefs who graduate from the best cooking schools will have learned to identify, grade and name all the significant cuts of meat, with skills nearly matching that of trained butchers.

Araignée de Bœuf - The Spider Steak

The Butcher's Secret and a Steak Lover's Delight

An Araignée de Bœuf
When grilled or fried the marbling (fat) that looks like a spider’s legs will disappear.

Araignée is French for a spider and it is a uniquely shaped steak with distinctive marbling and nerves reminiscent of a spider's legs. This marbling is the secret to its exceptional flavor and tenderness, with the visible "spider legs" disappearing when cooked. French butchers prize this cut for its tenderness and flavor, approaching it with extra patience, as it's intricately nestled among other muscles. With the additional work involved, it is usually overlooked in American and UK butchery. However, it's so tender and flavorful that the Araignée is often used for Fondue Bourguignon (the Burgundian meat fondue).

Don't Get Your Spiders Confused!

The Araignée steak is aptly named; however, a word of caution for diners in France: the country's favorite local crab is also called Araignée, or Crabe Araignée de Mer (spider crab). During the crabbing season, you might find the steak and the crab on the same menu! To ensure you're ordering the steak and not the crab, look for Araignée de Bœuf.

Due to its scarcity—with only about one kilogram (2.2 pounds) per bullock or heifer, depending on the animal's size—this cut is truly a hidden gem.

The spider crab
Photograph courtesy of Frédérique Voisin-Demery
https://www.flickr.com/photos/vialbost/5999032749/

Araignée de Bœuf on French Menus:

Araignée de Bœuf Grillée, Beurre Maître d'Hôtel – The Araignée, the spider cut steak, grilled and served with Maître d'Hôtel compound butter.

Beurre Maître d'Hôtel – This is a traditional cold compound butter (Beurre Composé) flavored with lemon juice and parsley. While the precise origins of this butter have been lost its name indicates that the Maître d'Hôtel, the head waiter would have prepared this butter in front of the diners.

(Compound butters are served as cold condiments and allowed to melt over and flavor the dishes they are served with).

A grilled steak with Beurre Maître d'Hôtel
Photograph courtesy of Mike Fleming
https://www.flickr.com/photos/flem007_uk/3022598785/

Araignée de Boeuf Poêlée, Sauce Poivre Flambée au Cognac - The Araignée, the spider cut, lightly fried and prepared with a pepper sauce, flavored with Cognac and flambéed at the table. The pepper used here will usually be green peppercorns, as they add a herbal flavor to the pepper and their heat is more easily controlled than with black peppercorns.

Flambée - The practice of flambéing a dish in front of diners began with a dish that would be called Crêpes Suzette. The year was 1896, and the setting was the Café de Paris in Monte Carlo. Then, a group of diners was hosted by the Prince of Wales, the future King Edward VII of the UK, the son of Queen Victoria. Before that time, dishes that required some of the alcohol to be removed would be flambéed in the kitchen, out of sight of the diners.

A steak being flambéed

L'Araignée de Boeuf, Sauce aux Morilles et Gratin Dauphinois – The Araignée, the spider cut, grilled and served with a morel mushroom sauce, accompanied by a Gratin Dauphinois.

Morilles – Morel mushrooms have begun to be cultivated; so the absence of the word sauvage (wild) in a menu listing typically suggests these are cultivated morels. In the wild, one or more varieties of the morel family would normally be in season between March and early June.

Gratin Dauphinois – Baked, sliced potatoes cooked in milk and cream, flavored with nutmeg, garlic, thyme, and shallots, and then browned under the grill, typically with Gruyere or Parmesan cheese. On French menus, the names Dauphiné or Dauphinois indicate recipes, mostly fairly modern, from the area of the ancient and quasi-independent principality called Dauphiné (in the Southeast of modern France). There, historically, the ruling Counts, under the banner of the Holy Roman Empire, ruled using the title Dauphiné. At the end of the 14th century, the Dauphins sold their land and titles to the French King, with the title Dauphiné becoming the title of the King’s eldest son.

Merlan de Boeuf
The Whiting cut for beef.

A whiting is a fish, but in France it's also the name for a long, narrow cut of beef aptly named for its resemblance to a fish. xzHowever, the name is all that connects this tender and tasty cut of beef to the sea. While most English menus will call it a cut from the rump, it's located in the inner thigh area, close to the hip socket.

Like the Araignée, the Merlan is a lesser-known cut with only a few kilograms available from the round/topside. It is valued for its leanness and excellent flavor.

Now, ordering a steak with a name that sounds like a fish may not seem attractive, but if you are considering which steak to order, this is one of the best cuts. Once again, read your menu carefully, as merlan, the fish (a whiting), may be on the same menu.

The Merlan cut
It does look like a fish, doesn't it?

The Merlan de Bœuf on French Menus:

Merlan de Boeuf Charolais, Echalote Confit, Carottes des Créances - A merlan steak from the Charolais AOP cattle served with a shallot confit (jam) and the label rouge, red label, carrots from the Créances in Normandy.

Bœuf Charolais AOP - Charolais Beef are AOP-certified cattle highly prized for the excellence of their meat. They were the third French breed to be awarded an AOC (now an AOP) for their consistent superior quality. Charolais herds are free-range for most of the year, grazing on grasses, wildflowers, and herbs in the summer. In winter, when moved to sheltering barns they are fed grasses and cereals collected and stored from their summer grazing areas. The conditions for all AOP cattle dictate they must be completely free of growth hormones and antibiotics and their calves must be raised by their mothers until they are weaned.

Carottes des Sables - Properly called the Carottes des Sables de Créances AOP, are France's most highly rated carrots, holding the Label Rouge, the red label, for outstanding quality. They are grown in the sables (sandy soil) near the town of Créances close to the Atlantic coast in the department of Manche of Normandy. Créances are also the name of the local dunes, where the salt air, sandy soil, and seaweed mulch used by the farmers are responsible for the excellent taste of the many vegetables cultivated there since the 11th century. Today, independent farmers in Créances also produce the Label Rouge, red label leeks, known as the Poireaux de Créances.

If you love carrots, plan a visit on the second Saturday in August for the Fête de la Carotte à Créances, the Créances Carrot Festival!

Although the fair's website is in French, it can be easily understood with the help of Google and Microsoft translation apps.

https://ville-creances.fr/vie-pratique/fete-de-carotte/

Merlan de Bœuf Accompagné de Pommes de Terres au Thym – A merlan steak accompanied by potatoes flavored with thyme, the herb.

Pavé de Rumsteck De Merlan Grillé Sauce Bordelaise – A thick cut of a merlan steak served with Sauce Bordelaise.

Sauce Bordelaise is made with a meat stock, Bordeaux red wine, butter, shallots, mushrooms, and herbs with bone marrow a frequent addition.

A steak with Sauce Bordelaise

Cœur de Rumsteck de Merlan de Bœuf Grillé, Sauce au Poivre Gris, Pomme de Terre - A center cut of a grilled Merlan rump steak served with a gray pepper sauce and potatoes.

Poivre Gris - Gray pepper is the term used for certain ground black peppercorns that still have white centers and when ground produce a gray-colored ground pepper.

Poire de Bœuf - The Pear.

The Poire, the pear, is a pear-shaped muscle from the inner part of the thigh that is rarely used so it is well marbled and tender. The Poire de Bœuf comes, located above the araignée (spider steak). If the butcher is lucky the whole cut will weigh 750 grams (1.6 lbs), enough for three good sized steaks.

A whole Poire, the Pear Muscle.

The Poire de Bœuf on French Menus:

Poire de Bœuf aux Girolles, sa Confiture d'Oignons Blanc au Verjus Du Périgord Sauce Lie de Vin À La Moutarde Violette de Brive – A grilled Poire steak with Girolle Chanterelle mushrooms served with a confiture (jam) of white onions flavored with Verjus from Perigord and a Sauce Lie de Vin flavored with the Violette Mustard of Brive.

Chanterelle Girolle - The Chanterelle Mushrooms. The chanterelle or girolle chanterelle is the best-known member of the chanterelle mushroom family in France. In the chanterelle season, (from late May through October) most menus will include at least one dish with fresh chanterelles.

The Girolle Chanterelle
Photograph courtesy of Biodiversity Heritage Library
www.flickr.com/photos/biodivlibrary/8510517024/

Verjus – Meaning “green juice in old French, verjus is the juice extracted from unripe grapes. Unripe grapes are not sweet, and while verjus does not taste like vinegar, it was used in the Middle Ages in much the same way as vinegar is used today. Over time, vinegar gradually surpassed verjus in popularity polls, but now, knowledgeable chefs are rediscovering the distinct flavor profiles offered by different types of verjus. By reintroducing these unique flavors, chefs are not only reviving long-lost tastes but also incorporating them into exciting new culinary creations.

Moutarde Violette de Brive – The purple mustard of Brive. It is produced in a single factory in the town of Brive la Gaillarde, in the department of Corrèze, in Nouvelle-Aquitaine. According to the manufacturer, Moutarde Violette de Brive is made without changes to its 500-year-old recipe; just fresh grape juice and the skin and seeds from the grape, along with mustard seeds, water, wine, and vinegar. The resulting mustard has a natural violet color. (For complete transparency, the label also notes the addition of sulfites as a preservative).

Sauce Lie de Vin - A red wine sauce made with veal stock, fish fumet, shallots, button mushrooms, crème fraiche and butter. Herbs, pepper, and salt will be added as the chef prefers..

Lie de vin refers to wine lees, the sediment that settles at the bottom of a wine bottle or barrel after fermentation. In some recipes, the lie de vin is used to add a unique flavor and depth to dishes; in this case the mustard from Grive adds flavor to the Sauce Lie de Vin.

Poire de Bœuf, Sauce Béarnaise – A grilled pear steak served with Sauce Béarnaise.

Sauce Béarnaise - A “child” of Sauce Hollandaise. In the 1830s, the chef and restaurateur Jean-Louis Françoise-Collinet in his restaurant Pavillon Henry IV, (20 km (12.5 miles) from Paris), adapted the recipe for Sauce Hollandaise, omitting the lemon juice and adding white wine vinegar, shallots, chervil, and tarragon, thereby creating Sauce Béarnaise. It's the tarragon and white wine vinegar that supply the tang that makes so many of us Sauce Béarnaise devotees.

Poire de Boeuf et Son Jus au Porto, Purée de Panais à la Vanille, Poêlée de Shitakés en Persillade - A pan-fried merlan steak prepared with a Port wine sauce and served with a creamy parsnip puree flavored with vanilla, and lightly fried, farmed, shitake mushrooms cooked in a persillade (a sauce made with parsley and garlic).

Porto - Port wine originated in the Douro Valley in the northern provinces of Portugal. It is a fortified wine, meaning it is a wine that has had eau-de-vie (a young grape brandy) added to the fermenting wine in the barrel. This addition halts the fermentation process, creating a new wine with a higher alcohol content, typically around 20% alcohol.

Ruby port is known for its bright, fruity flavors and red color, and it is the most commonly used type of Port wine in sauces, which complement dishes like lamb and steak. Tawny Port is used in sauces where its richer, more complex flavors are desired.

Langue de Chat de Bœuf – The Cat’s Tongue (Beef)

A cut from the heart of the rump rather than a separate muscle. While tender, it is not quite as exceptional as the other special cuts mentioned above, but is certainly better than a regular rump steak.

Langue de Chat de Bœuf – The Cat’s Tongue (Beef)

Langue de Chat de Bœuf on French Menus:

Pièce de Bœuf Poêlé "Langue De Chat," au Thyme et Laurier - The butcher’s choice of the cut called the cat’s tongue cut prepared with thyme and bay leaves.

Laurier and its history - The bay leaf, also known as the laurel leaf, is one of the most used spices in French cuisine. Bay leaves are aromatic and are used in recipes for soups, stews, sauces, roasted and baked dishes, pickling brines, and different kinds of vinegar. The leaves are also an original component of the classic bouquet garni.

Beyond the kitchen, the laurel leaf holds deep historical significance. In ancient Greece, a crown of laurel leaves was famously awarded to winners at the Olympic Games, symbolizing victory and honor. (In the first games, the winners received a crown of olive leaves). Later, the Romans began to award laurel leaf (bay leaf) crowns to their leaders, and they were famously worn by Julius Caesar as a symbol of his supremacy.

The Latin name for the bay leaf, Laurus Nobilis, hence laurel leaves. This tradition was revived when Napoléon I crowned himself emperor with a gold laurel leaf crown.

Following on came a new tradition where winners and leaders were awarded the title of laureate, although they received no physical crown. Today, this legacy continues: the French high school diploma is known as the baccalauréat, Nobel Prize winners are referred to as Nobel Laureates, and in the UK, the country’s appointed poet holds the title of Poet Laureate.

Tartare Maison de Langue De Chat de Bœuf Périgourdine - The restaurant’s own version of a Beef Tartar prepared with the meat from the cat’s tongue steak with beef from Périgourd.

Cuisine Périgourdine – The cuisine of Périgourd (today the department of the Dordogne) is one of France's most significant regional cuisines, and Périgourdine dishes will be on menus all over France.

During the French revolution, the old province of Périgord was renamed the department of the Dordogne. Despite the two-hundred years that have passed since the name was changed, Dordogne's residents still call the area Périgord and call themselves Périgourdins.

Long after the department of Dordogne was established, local promoters divided the province into four regions, using colors to describe the geography of each region.

The four regions of Périgord-Dordogne are divided by color
on local maps.

Périgord Blanc -White Périgord

Périgord Blanc took its name from its exposed limestone cliffs and home to the city of Périgueux and the heart of Cuisine Périgourdine.

Périgord Vert - Green Périgord

Périgord Vert is covered with chestnut forests and green valleys in an area crisscrossed by many streams and rivers.

Périgord Noir - Black Périgord.

Périgord Noir is famous for its dense forests with Sarlat the most important town. Pommes Salardaises are potatoes baked in duck fat and flavored with garlic and parsley. Périgord Noir is internationally famous for its prehistoric wall paintings, including the Lascaux cave that is a UNESCO World Heritage site.

Périgord Pourpre - Purple Périgord

Périgord Pourpre is the wine-growing center of Périgord and its most important town is Bergerac. Around the town are the Bergerac vineyards, and just over the Dordogne River are the Monbazillac vineyards.

Langue De Chat (Pièce De Bœuf), Pommes De Terre, Chérie Confites Au Thym Et Ses Petits Légumes Du Marché, Sauce Aux Girolle - The butcher’s choice, the cat’s tongue, potatoes, cherry tomatoes confit (a cherry tomato jam) prepared with thyme and young vegetables from the market and served with a sauce from Girolle Chanterelle mushrooms.

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