from
Behind the French Menu
by
Bryan G. Newman
behindthefrenchmenu@gmail.com
Médaillon de Bœuf aux Champignons, Pommes de terre Rôties et
Tomates Grillées.
A beef médaillon
with button mushrooms, roast potatoes and grilled tomatoes.
These four terms denote a family of round and oval cuts used in French cuisine, often with
very little difference between them.
Originally the names indicated different sizes or specific
meats; however, today they may be used interchangeably in certain recipes. Médaillons
have the widest product
use, encompassing veal, beef, lamb, poultry, fish, pork and vegetables. Mignonettes
are generally the smallest cut in this family, usually referring to the end
portions of the veal or beef tenderloin (fillet), the French filet
mignon. Noisettes
and Grenadins, in contrast,
are more often associated with veal, beef or lamb, while Grenadins typically refer to a thicker, barded piece of veal
or beef.
Médaillons
Round or Oval
Cuts of Veal, Beef, Fish and More.
In French cuisine, a médaillon (a term that also means an ornamental medal) refers
to a round or oval cut of meat, poultry, fish, and even vegetables. The term
emphasizes the shape and presentation.
While a single médaillon may be large, using the term in the plural, médaillons, often indicates smaller or thinner cuts. For
chicken and other poultry, a médaillon typically comes from the breast. In the
case of fish, the cut may be a filet or a slice taken across a thick section,
such as the tail of a monkfish. Sometimes, a fish filet is sliced and molded
into a rounded shape to achieve the classic medallion presentation. Vegetable
médaillons will be cut into circular or oval shapes. There is no often
confusion with smaller cuts called Mignonnettes, Noisettes, and
Grenadins, though these are
mainly used for veal, beef and sometimes lamb.
Médaillons on French Menus:
Le Médaillon de Bœuf Bardé au Jambon
Séché, Petite Sauce au Poivre Vert de Madagascar et Vin Blanc
– A roasted or grilled medallion of beef
barded (wrapped) in air-cured ham and served with a light sauce made with green
pepper corns from Madagascar and white wine.
Bardé:
The barding or wrapping for lean cuts such as a tenderloin (fillet) or rump
steak typically requires barding to prevent dryness. In this listing, the cured
ham acts to moisturize the meat while cooking and as a flavor enhancer.
Tenderloin (fillets) and rump steak are common candidates for barding due to
their low-fat content.
Petite Sauce au Poivre Vert de Madagascar - A Petit Sauce indicates a sauce developed from one of France’s mother sauces: Béchamel, Velouté, Espagnole, Hollandaise, or Tomato sauce. So, petite sauces are created by adding ingredients like herbs, wine, cream, reductions or stock to one of those sauces to change the flavor and enhance the sauce's character as the chef chooses. This particular petite sauce features Madagascar green peppercorns (Poivre Vert de Madagascar) and white wine. Since its mother sauce isn’t specified, ask your server about its culinary lineage, it may be interesting.
Poivre Vert -
Green peppercorns are picked before they ripen, then they are pickled in brine
and gently dried, but not fermented. The result is a pepper with a light herbal
flavor, much less intense than black or white peppercorns which allows more
control over the intensity of a pepper steak.
The history of the green peppercorns from Madagascar
dates back to France’s colonial presence, which lasted from 1895until 1960. Then, the
Malagasy Republic, now the Republic of Madagascar, gained independence from
France. Still today, chefs, not only French chefs, believe that these green
peppercorns are the finest available. If the green pepper in a recipe
comes from Madagascar, it will be noted on the menu.
Les Médaillons de Filet de Veau et Leurs Brochettes
de Ris de Veau Poêlés, Jus Court au Gingembre et Radeau de
Macaroni au Reblochon - Veal
medallions cut from the
fillet, the tenderloin, served with lightly pan-fried brochettes (skewers)
of veal sweetbreads. The dish is accompanied by a light sauce made from the cooking
juices flavored with ginger and served with a
unique "raft" of macaroni topped with Reblochon cheese.
Brochettes de Ris de Veau Poêlés
- Pan-fried sweetbreads will be skewered, perhaps 2-3 pieces per skewer, and
placed alongside or slightly on top of the veal medallions. The skewers
themselves might be small, elegant wooden or metal ones. The sweetbreads here
are the thymus or pancreas of a calf and will have a creamy texture and subtle
flavor inside a beautiful, crispy, golden-brown crust from being pan-fried.
Jus Court au Gingembre:
This is a lightly reduced sauce made with the
natural cooking juices with a ginger accent. It will be drizzled over the veal
and sweetbreads before serving, as this is not a thick sauce, but rather a
flavorful accent that highlights the inherent flavors of the sweetbreads and veal,
with the ginger providing a bright, sharp contrast to the richness of the veal
and sweetbreads, allowing the delicate meats to shine on their own.
Radeau de Macaroni au Reblochon:
This is a "raft," probably a square-shaped gratin, of macaroni
flavored with Reblochon cheese.
Reblochon is a 26% fat, soft, creamy, mild, unpasteurized cow's milk cheese.
After aging for four to eight weeks, it becomes just spreadable. The cheese is
ivory-colored, lightly nutty-tasting, with a light beige edible rind. Reblochon
is always on my list of cheeses to bring home from France, since I first
enjoyed it in its home region of the Savoie, located in France's Rhône-Alpes. In
France, I can buy the green-labelled Reblochon, which is farm made and difficult
to find as an import.
Médaillons de Veau à
la Forestière.
Veal Medallions
prepared with wild mushrooms, and a cream sauce flavored with white wine.
Photograph and recipe
courtesy of Louis
Delhaize
Médaillons de Chevreuil, Sauce à
la Réduction de Vin Rouge aux Bourgeons de Sapin et Airelles
- Medallions of roe deer
(chevreuil) served with a sauce made from the reduced natural
cooking juices flavored with red wine, pine buds, and European cranberries.
Médaillon
de Lotte Cuit dans sa Bisque de Crustacés, Légumes
Automnales, Etuvée de Blancs de Poireaux au Lard – A round cut from a monkfish tail cooked in
its own shellfish bisque, served with
autumn vegetables, and steamed (stewed) leek whites cooked with bacon. (The crustaceans
in the bisque will be mainly shrimps.)
Bisques:
Began as rich fish soups, changing with the years to
pureed shellfish soups that will include white wine, fresh cream, or crème fraîche.
Shellfish bisques can be distinguished by their texture and fish and vegetable
bisques, including bisque sauces, need the right textures to be added to the
menu.
Blancs de Poireaux
– In North America and the UK, the green ends of leeks are often
discarded. However, in France, the green part of the leek is treated as a
herb and will be part of many recipes. So, on this menu listing, the chef
is clearly noting a flavor difference when only the white part of the leek is
used.
Lard and bacon,
and their meanings in English and French: These two words have
created more than a few problems for English speakers in France. The confusion
began in 1066 when William the Conqueror invaded England from Normandy, France,
and conquered it. The Norman-French cooks introduced significant changes
to the English kitchen.
The French word "bacon" meant then
what it still means today: smoked, salted, or dried meat from the back, sides,
or belly of a pig. The French word lard also meant pig fat, and it
still means pig fat in English, but in France, it's also an alternative word
for a thick cut bacon. So, many first-time visitors to France have misunderstood a
breakfast menu for Œufs et Lard as 'eggs cooked in pig fat'. (Pig fat in
modern French is saindoux.)
Médaillons de Canard au Orange – Medallions of duck breast prepared
with an orange sauce.
Canard
- Duck is served rosé, slightly pink inside. If you prefer your duck
breast cooked in a manner other than rosé, you should inform the server
when ordering, as in France, it is unlikely that you will be asked how you
would like your duck cooked. The duck breast on your menu mostly
comes from the breasts of ducks raised for fattened duck liver,fois gras. The
breasts of these ducks are also often on menus as Magret de Canard.
Orange sauce – A
Seville orange sauce. Seville oranges are not sweet and therefore the
preferred choice for the sauce, which will be made with the duck’s natural
cooking juice and the orange juice.
.
Médaillons de Foie Gras de
Canard aux Cèpes Maison, Pain aux Noix -
Round cuts from fattened duck liver served
with wild French porcini
mushrooms prepared in the restaurant's unique manner and accompanied by walnut bread made
with whole wheat flour.
Cèpes:
The Cèpe, Porcini, or Penny Bun, is one of the tastiest wild mushrooms
that grows wild in France's forests. France is blessed with many pine,
chestnut, and oak forests, and the Cèpe's favorite is pine forests. The
season varies with the weather, the region and the Cèpe's family member,
but through October, and often into November, they will grace many menus.
Pain aux Noix - Walnuts
are France's most highly rated nut and Walnut bread is made with whole wheat flour and walnuts. The French name
for a walnut is noix, which translates to "nut." All
other nuts have unique French names, mostly added to the word noix,
while the walnut is "the nut."
Médaillons de Porc Noir de Bigorre, AOP avec
Sauce aux Pommes Caramélisées - Medallions of the AOP black pig from
Bigorre served with a sauce made from caramelized apples. Here, the medallions
will be cut from the pork fillet, the pork tenderloin. The apple sauce is a
traditional accompaniment to many pork dishes, and here its caramelized sweet and tangy flavor
cuts through the fattiness of the pork.
Porc Noir de Bigorre, AOP -
This ancient breed of pigs has been raised for at least 1,000 years in the old
French Province of Bigorre, (now included in the modern departments of
Hautes-Pyrénées, Gers, and Haute-Garonne). However, with other pigs fattening faster, the
breed almost became extinct. Nevertheless, by 1992, there were enough
producers who had agreed on breeding and quality standards to begin offering
the broader public a uniquely tasting saucisson, a salami-type sausage,
and jambon sec, dry-cured ham, with a fabulous taste, along with other cuts.
The public responded, and in short order, the farmers couldn't keep up with the
demand.
The Porc Noir, however, is a slow-growing pig,
and its dry-cured ham is aged for at least 18 months, with its very best
offerings aged for twenty-four. Long aging takes up a lot of expensive,
climate-controlled storage, and so they can't compete with popular cured hams
that are only aged for seven to twelve months. Altogether, that makes for an
expensive product, but its unique taste makes it a sort after cured ham and the
proof of the pudding is in the eating.
This is the shape that gave its name to the original
French médaillons.
A Medallion with Two Warriors, One Bearded, with
Swords
and Bucklers
Date: ca. 1240–60. Made in Limoges, France
Credit Line: Gift of J. Pierpont Morgan, 1917
Photograph
courtesy of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY.
Mignonettes
The term mignon in
French refers to something small, delicate, and tender. Hence, the term filet mignon in France
only relates to the narrow end of the
filet, the tenderloin.
The word mignonette is the diminutive form of mignon and
is used in the context of small, refined portions of food, typically a small,
boneless, and lean piece of veal, often cut from the narrow end of the
tenderloin (the fillet) or the US sirloin (the UK rump).
Two or three of these small cuts can prepared as an individual portion, large enough for veal médaillon, or escalopes (see chapter 24). An average mignonette will be 3-4cm (1.2 to 1.6 inches) in diameter and 2 to 3 cm (0.8 to 1.2 inches).
Mignonettes on French Menus:
Mignonnettes de Veau
aux Morilles, Crème de Persil Tubéreux - Small Veal Fillets with Morel
mushrooms and cream sauce made with the Parsley
Root vegetable.
Morille- The morel mushrooms are a family of
tasty mushrooms that look very different from most other mushrooms.
Morels lack the gills and domed caps of many other mushrooms, but they all have
white to ivory-colored stems and a conical cap. The morels' taste and
texture make them a French favorite; they will be served fresh from early
spring through to the beginning of June. (The idea that Morel stems are not
edible is an urban legend, though they do need more cooking than the cap.)
Persil
Tubéreux – Root
or Hamburg is a root vegetable with a light, fresh parsley taste and looks like
a white, thin carrot. (Parsley root seeds are often used to make parsley salt.)
Mignonnettes de Veau Poêlées, Sauce Moutarde
à l'Ancienne, Frites Maison - Pan-seared, small veal fillets served with a traditional
grainy whole grain mustard and the restaurant’s special fries.
Moutarde
à l'Ancienne – The term à
l'Ancienne refers to the old-fashioned, traditional way of preparing
mustard with whole crushed mustard seeds, water, salt, and vinegar. The flavor of Moutarde à l'Ancienne depends
on the types and mix of the mustard seeds used, as well as the kind of vinegar,
which will change to match specific dishes. Additional favors can include added herbs or
honey.
You may buy a jar of Moutarde
à l'Ancienne today, and it will not differ greatly from the original, (though
it will include added preservatives). Unlike smooth mustards, this variety retains
visible mustard seeds, giving it a coarse, grainy texture and a rustic, robust
flavor – without being overly spicy. This mustard will be used in marinades,
dressings, or as a condiment to accompany meats, especially in traditional
dishes like pâtés or charcuterie.
Mignonettes
de Bœuf Sauce Champignons de Paris
Beef mignonettes with a button mushrooms sauce.
Noisettes
A noisette is a hazelnut
and for meat the cut is a small and round, and said to resemble shape of the
nut. The use of the term noisette
reflects the French tendency to assign terms that convey not just the size, but
the shape and delicacy of the meat rather than its size relative to the nut. (Many other French culinary terms also don’t
correspond directly to the exact size or shape of the ingredient). The term is mostly used for veau (veal),
bœuf (beef) and agneau (lamb). An average noisette is 2.5 to 3 cm
(1 to 1.2 inches) wide and abou 3 cm (about 1.2 inches), high, though there is
a lot of variation.
Noisettes
on French menus:
Noisettes
de Veau Forestière, Jus aux Champignons Sauvages, Gratin
Dauphinois - Veal Noisettes in the manner of a forester, served
with a sauce made from the cooking juices and wild mushrooms and accompanied by
Gratin
Dauphinois.
Wild
mushrooms: Ideally the garnish will
include wild Girolle
(Chanterelle), Cèpe
(Porcini), or Pleurote
(Oyster) mushrooms (though sometimes button
mushrooms are also used)
Gratin
Dauphinois – Baked, thinly 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 relatively modern, that link to 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 Dauphinés sold their land and titles to the French King,
with the title Dauphin becoming the title of the King’s eldest son.
Gratin
- Our taste
buds are activated by memories long before we visit a restaurant offering a
favorite dish. So French diners considering memorable dishes with names that
include Gratin, Au Gratin, Gratiné, or Gratinée will have their sensory
buttons pushed when they think about Gratin Dauphinois on the menu.
Recipes with Gratin
in the name have been part of French cuisine since the late 1600’s. While any
dish that is browned in an oven or under a grill may be called a Gratin,
even the simplest Gratin dishes will have a French chef adding cheese,
breadcrumbs, cream and or butter to help it along.
Noisettes de Bœuf Poêlées au Poivre Vert, Asperges
Vertes à l'Huile d'Olive - Pan-Seared Beef Noisettes with a Green
Pepper sauce Sauce and Green Asparagus
served with Olive
Oil.
Grenadins
A Grenadin is another
of the small, round and tender cuts of meat, and usually larger and thicker than
a noisette. It is a cut that is typically barded (wrapped in fat) when
cooked. Most Grenadins are 3-5 cm (1.2-2 inches), similar to a noisette
and about 2-3 cm (0.8-1.2 inches) thick, but like the other small cuts, there are
significant variations. Like a noisette these cuts are mainly used for veau
(veal), bœuf (beef) and agneau (lamb), and as seen in the
menu listing below, often served with a sauce.
Grenadines de Veau à
la Crème de Safran, Risotto aux Asperges - Veal Grenadines with a saffron
cream sauce and an asparagus risotto.
Safran – Saffron
is the most expensive spice in the world. Its color, aroma, and the taste that it
imparts to certain dishes are unique; even the few who do not appreciate
saffron’s taste will appreciate the exquisite golden hue with which saffron
infuses the dishes with which it is prepared. France has always grown saffron,
but every year more and more is imported; so, when French saffron is being used,
you may be sure that it will be indicated on the menu.
Grenadines de Bœuf Grillées, Sauce Choron, Pommes
Allumettes -Grilled Beef Grenadines, Choron sauce and
straw fries
(also
called matchstick fries).
Sauce Choron -
A Sauce
Béarnaise with added tomatoes and shallots. The disputes
over after whom the sauce is named will be eternal, but my bet is on
Alexandre-Etienne Choron, 1771-1834, a famous musician and teacher of music and
director of the Paris Opera House and his fame and the time-frame fit the
picture.
Pommes Allumettes - Matchstick fries (also called Pommes Pailles, Straw
fries), are cut approximately 2-3 mm x 2-3 mm x 7 cm long.
The misuse of the French term filet mignon in North America has led
to confusion for travelers. In the USA, the phrase is commonly used to describe
most cuts from the tenderloin. However, in France, whose language
owns the term — filet mignon refers specifically to the dainty end of the fillet, the
smallest and thinnest portion. Given that a whole tenderloin weighs between
2.25 to 2.75 kilos (about 5 to 6 pounds), labeling the entire cut as mignon
(dainty) is too much of a stretch in the French lamguage.
------------------
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Behind the French Menu
by
Bryan G. Newman
bryangnewman@gmail.com
Copyright 2010, 2022, 2023, 2025.
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