Behind the French Menu: Pot-au-Feu or Pot Bouilli – Pot on the Fire

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

Pot-au-feu
Photograph and recipe Le Journal des Femmes.

The pot-au-feu rose to fame just after the French Revolution along with the rise of a robust middle class; simultaneously it was elevated to the status of a gastronomic masterpiece. Today, this iconic dish holds an enduring place in the nation's culinary heritage, and chefs who remembered their mothers' and grandmothers' mouth-watering recipes have brought the pot-au-feu to their bistros, country restaurants and Michelin-starred establishments.

The traditional pot-au-feu is three different cuts of beef, slowly simmered for hours alongside marrow bones, carrots, turnips, leeks, celery, onions, potatoes, a clove-studded onion, garlic and a bouquet garni. The fragrant steam of a bubbling pot will reveal its secrets.

Some restaurants will make the serving of pot-au-feu into a two-part event with the broth served first as a soup course, followed by the tender beef and vegetables as the main course. But whether enjoyed in one serving or two, the experience will be accompanied by the dish's classic accompaniments, fresh country bread, mustard , cornichons and France's small white pickled onions—essential elements that cut through the richness and complete this quintessential taste of France.

Dishes like this along with other meat or poultry stews were never part of the French peasant's food; the peasants lived on bread and vegetable soups with the occasional piece of meat or poultry added on religious holidays.

Pot-au-feu
Photograph courtesy of Times of India

The most famous chef from the era of Haute Cuisine was Antonin (Marie-Antoine) Carême, (1784-1833), and his greatest published work was L'art de la Cuisine Française au XIXe Siècle, the art of French cuisine in the 19^th century published in 1833 (the last two volumes were published posthumously). In the first volume on the first page of recipes he begins with pot-au-feu where Carême refers to it (just years after the French Revolution) as the dish of the middle classes, a pot-au-feu bourgeoise; he adds the in detail how it is served in restaurants and addresses its many variations. This list of variations reflects Carême’s approach to cuisine, where even a simple broth could be adapted to suit the needs of every condition and class. It's both a culinary and sociomedical snapshot of 19th-century France.

The art of French cuisine in the 19^th century by Antonin Carême.
Chapter one, page 1
Photograph courtesy of Gallica, the digital library of the French National Library.

Today, the recipe on the menu will depend on the region. The chef may include the traditional beef, or it may be veal or lamb with other versions including chicken, duck, pork or sausages. Many fish restaurant menus will offer a pot au feu de la mer, a stew of sea fish and seafood.

The name Pot-au-Feu.

The pot-au-feu only reached French dictionaries in 1785-1795, according to Dictionary.com. Then the French Revolution had begun, and France’s first restaurants were opening. The words pot-au-feu translate as a pot on the fire, and apart from the stew indicate the traditional earthenware casserole in which the ingredients were cooked. In French homes of the period, these casseroles would have been left to cook slowly on a heated stove all day and night, with ingredients added to and taken out as needed.

Pot-au-feu on French menus:

Pot-au-feu, Sauce Ravigote – A beef pot–au–feu served with a Sauce Ravigote.

Sauce Ravigote is a thick vinaigrette sauce made with mustard, eggs, olive oil, shallots, spring onions, tarragon, chives, capers, cornichons, parsley, and chervil. This sauce is served with many meat, fish, shellfish and poultry dishes.

Sauce Ravigote.
Photograph and recipe courtesy of Chef Simon.

Boeuf en Hochepot de Légumes Printaniers – Oxtail stew with spring vegetables. Here, a meaty oxtail will be added to or replace the beef in the pot-au-feu.

Oxtail stew is a traditional dish in Normandy and parts of the region of Hauts de France, as well as Belgium, where it will be on the menu as a Hochepot Flamand. William the Conqueror came to England in 1066 and brought the French connection to the English (kitchen including the hochepot. A hochepot includes all the leftovers in the kitchen and gave its name to odds and ends called a hodgepodge in the English language.

Hochepot.

Photograph and recipe courtesy of Bourse aux Recettes.

Pot-au-feu Albigeois - A pot-au-feu from Albi, the capital of the department of Tarn in Occitanie. Here, the recipe is made with added goose or duck confit. There are many regional versions of pot-au-feu, and the name of the region will point to the difference in the recipes.

Albi is a UNESCO World Heritage Site famous for its well-preserved medieval layout that includes the Old Bridge (Pont-Vieux) and the Saint-Salvi quarter, which showcase the city's evolution from the 10th century.

Also, in Albi is the Toulouse-Lautrec Museum, his birthplace, where it houses the world's largest collection of work by Toulouse-Lautrec, including paintings, lithographs, posters, and drawings.

The museum is located in the magnificent Berbie Palace, a 13th-century fortified bishop's palace.

AU MOULIN-ROUGE ; PORTRAIT DE MR WARNER 1892

Photograph courtesy of the Albi Office de Tourisme

Pot-au-feu de Canard et Légumes Anciens – A duck stew with heirloom vegetables. The heirloom vegetables may include Jerusalem artichokes, multi-colored carrots, turnips, parsnips, and kohlrabi.

Pot-au-feu de Fruits de Mer au Bouillon Safrané – A seafood stew made with a saffron-flavored broth.

Pot-au-feu de Lapin– A rabbit stew.

Pot-au-feu de la mer
A fish and seafood pot-au-feu.
Photograph and recipe courtesy of Femme Actuelle.

Similar dishes with local names:

Azinat Ariégeois - A pot-au-feu from the department of Ariège. Ariège is the region of Occitanie.

Ariège is a very lightly populated department with only around 10,000 people in its capital Foix. Nevertheless, it's a well-known department with a long and interesting history including the caves of Niaux and its famous Prehistoric Park with some of the world’s earliest cave paintings.

The menus of Ariège's restaurants offer the best local ingredients, including duck confit, duck foie gras and local cheeses. If you are lucky, your restaurant's menu may also offer wild trout or écrivisse, crayfish from one of the local rivers or streams. Apart from the Azinat Ariégeois, another famous local stew is their Garbure Ariégeois, a thick duck and cabbage stew.

Baeckeoffe or Potée Alsacienne - A favorite dish from the Alsace, part of the region of the Grand Est. This dish includes cuts of beef and pork or lamb, and possibly goose and Alsatian sausages. The vegetables will include France's ubiquitous white haricot beans, onions, carrots, leeks, and potatoes.

Baeckeoffe and similar-sounding names all mean a Baker's Oven in the Alsatian dialect. For hundreds of years, when a baker had finished baking that day's bread, the villagers' cooking pots would be placed in the baker's oven, where their contents cooked while the oven slowly cooled. Each family's cooking pot contained whatever they had available, and when taken home, they would be kept hot on the family hearth. The slow cooking allowed all the tastes to mingle and produce wonderful stews, even with limited ingredients.

Garbure Gasconne - A stew from the old province of Guyenne and Gascony, now included in the regions of Nouvelle Aquitaine and Occitanie.

Garbures began as thick vegetable soups but now include ham, bacon, and duck, or goose confit. Gascony was home to the semi-fictional figures of D'Artagnan from the Three Musketeers (born in the department of Gers) and Cyrano de Bergerac (born in the Dordogne).

Potée Auvergnate - From the Auvergne, now part of the new super-region Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes. These potées will include duck, ham, salt pork, and pork sausages.

-----------------------------

Searching for the meaning of words, names or phrases

French menus?

Just add the word, words, or phrase you are searching for to the phrase "Behind the French Menu" enclosed in inverted commas (quotation marks) and search using Google, Bing, or another search engine. Behind the French Menu's links include hundreds of words, names, and phrases commonly seen on French menus. There are over 450 posts featuring more than 4,000 French dishes, all accompanied by English translations and explanations.

Connected Posts:

Á la Moelle – Dishes Served With or Flavored With Bone Marrow. Á la Moelle on French Menus.

Ail - Garlic. Garlic in French Cuisine.

Alsacienne (à l’) - Cuisine à l'Alsacienne - Dining in the manner of the Alsace.

Armagnac one of France’s two fabulous AOP grape brandies.

Artichaut de Jérusalem or Topinambour - The Jerusalem Artichoke or Sunchoke on French Menus.

Baeckeoffe – A Traditional Alsatian Peasant Stew That Made the Big Time.

Canard – Duck. Duck on French Menus.

Carottes - Carrots in French Cuisine.

Céleri - Celery. The Joys of Celery on French Menus.

Cerfeuil – Chervil, the Herb, in French Cuisine.

Ciboulette – Chives, the herb, in French Cuisine.