Behind the French Menu: Bœuf Bourguignon, Bœuf à la Mode, Fondue Bourguignonne and Hachis Parmentier. Four of France’s greatest beef dishes

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

Bœuf Bourguignon
Photograph courtesy of Yun Huang Yong
https://www.flickr.com/photos/goosmurf/5253343296/

Bœuf à la Bourguignonne, Bœuf Bourguignon - Beef Burgundy is probably the most well-known of French beef stews. It is so much a part of French cuisine that it will, in the winter, be on menus all over France. As the dish’s name indicates, it requires local ingredients, the most important of which is a red wine from Burgundy,

The key to an authentic and well-made Bœuf à la Bourguignonne lies in the preparation. The beef will be marinated for 24 hours, and that is the secret, along with the red Burgundy wine. After marinating, the meat will be allowed to cook slowly with added wine and veal stock and local vegetables that may change with the season. Still, it will always include onions, carrots and mushrooms. Bacon, in the form of lardons, small bacon pieces, may be added for flavoring, and the dish will, traditionally, be served with boiled potatoes. However, mashed potatoes are also a fairly common offering today.

The cut used for this stew will be the Paleron (the Flat Iron or top blade from the chuck, see chapter 16), the Macreuse à Pot-au-feu (a cut from the chuck, specifically recommended for stews), or the Basses Côtes, another French cut from the chuck (see chapter 8).

In Burgundy, the beef is often a cross of the local Charolais with Angus or Hereford cattle, though the best restaurants may offer the Bœuf Charolais, the Bœuf de Charolles AOP , which is one of the four top French breeds (see chapter 35).

Lardons - Small cubes of fatty Bacon and very much a French kitchen essential. Lardons may be salted or smoked, depending on the taste required and will be used to add flavor to many different dishes. Lardons may be stuffed inside a roast chicken or may be added to a stew for flavor. (Lardons may also be fried until they are crispy and then added cold to a salad.)

Bœuf à la Mode - Beef à la Mode is a traditional French dish (and from my experience today is more often seen on menus outside of France than inside). However, this dish is 100% French and the original recipe appeared in one of the first professional cookbooks, Le Cuisinier François, written by the chef François Pierre de la Varenne (1615–1678). The book was first published in 1651, and you can read or download the recipe online through the Bnf, the French National Library.

There are many modern versions of Bœuf à la Mode, though they may all seem similar to a pot roast (which is not too far from La Varenne's original). The cut most often used is the Gîte à la Noix the US round, the UK topside) or the Paleron, a cut from the chuck (see chapter 15).

Fondue Bourguignonne –The original beef fondue is claimed as its own by Burgundy (Bourgogne). It's a really social dish that's all about sharing a fun culinary experience; a dish for all the diners at the same table. To start, cubes of raw beef are prepared for each diner, and a pot of hot oil is placed in the center of the table. Each diner will have been given their own fourchette à fondue, a distinctive, long, fondue fork that keeps the diner's hand away from the hot oil in which the cubes of beef will be dipped. Each diner dips and cooks their cubes of beef in the communal pot. When the meat is cooked to the diner's satisfaction, you dip the fried beef into a variety of sauces before eating.

The dipping sauces allow the diner a wide range of tastes; they will include Classic Mayonnaise, garlicky Aïoli, the lightly spicy pink cocktail called Sauce Rosé, Sauce Marie Rosé or Calypso sauce, Sauce Bearnaise and, if requested, ketchup. The cut will be from the filet, the fillet in the UK, the tenderloin in the US (see chapter 20) or the Romsteck, the US sirloin and the UK rump (see chapter 19). Other cuts may be used, and the choice will affect the texture and the price.

N.B. Fondue forks become extremely hot at the tip, and they have burned many a tongue, I speak with experience! So, look after your tongue, and enjoy the meal; transfer the meat to your plate, and then to an ordinary fork before dipping into one of the sauces and eating.

Fondue Bourguignonne
Beef fondue
Photograph and recipe courtesy of Papilles et Pupilles.

Hachis Parmentier – The dish is named after the man who brought the potato to French menus (they initially were thought to be poisonous).

It's ground beef and chopped onions fried in butter, flavored with nutmeg and a light touch of garlic. When the beef and onions are ready, they are placed in a casserole that has been prepared with mashed potatoes on the bottom. Finally, all will be covered with more mashed potatoes and breadcrumbs, or Gruyere cheese will be sprinkled on top. The dish is placed under the grill, and when the top turns a golden brown, the dish is ready to be served. This particular dish would become the English cottage pie (and when made with lamb, shepherd's pie).

Hachis Parmentier may not have been the earliest recipe named after Antoine Parmentier, but it was already on French restaurant menus by the 1830s. The same dish made with lamb is Hachis Parmentier d'Agneau,

The traditional British cottage pie and Shepherd’s pie appeared on British menus 50 years after the first English tourists began visiting France and enjoying Hachis Parmentier. The British shepherd's pie and cottage pie will be made without the garlic or the grilled cheese on top and with the addition of Worcester sauce. (For more about the French connection and the British kitchen click here).

Parmentier died in 1813, aged 76 and is buried in Père Lachaise Cemetery in Paris. France honored him with a Metro Station in the 11th arrondissement in Paris and the Avenue Parmentier that runs through the 10th and 11th arrondissements.

Hachis Parmentier Façon Grand-Mère indicates a Hachis Parmentier prepared as Grandma did. Foods made like grand-mère did are French comfort foods.

Hachis Parmentier with a cheese topping

Photograph courtesy of elPadawan

https://www.flickr.com/photos/elpadawan/2353134601/

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