Showing posts with label La Varenne. Show all posts
Showing posts with label La Varenne. Show all posts

Ragoût – A Traditional French Stew. Ragoûts in French Cuisine.

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

  
A mushroom ragoût.
Photograph courtesy of My Recipes.
  
Ragoûts hold a very important place in the history of French cuisine and the word has always meant a stew. Ragoûts began as stews of mushrooms or vegetables; then meat and poultry, and fish were added. France's first printed cookbook came from the mid-1600s and it included Ragoûts. Over the next four hundred years Ragoûts have remained as important, but not heavy, stews of meat, poultry, fish and or shellfish. A Ragoût is rarely a thick and heavy stew;  heavy stews have their own descriptive names in French cuisine.  Outside of France, a Ragoût may have little connection with stews, the word sounds nice and so you may find the word Ragoût on a variety of "would-be" French menu listings.
   
Ragout of beef, potatoes, and carrots.
  
Ragoût on today’s French menus:

Ragoût d'Agneau aux Lingots du Nord -  A lamb ragoût served with France's favorite haricot blanc, white beansVery few French lamb or mutton stews are made without France ubiquitous haricots blanc, white beans, and the Lingots du Nord, the "white beans of the north"  are considered the best of the best. This particular strain of white bean is grown under the name Lingot du Nord which holds the Label Rouge, the red label for quality.  These beans are mostly grown on family-owned farms in the departments of Nord and Pas de Calais that are part of the super-region of Hauts de France.  The farmers took the name Lingot from their local dialect, to differentiate the best from the runners up.
  
Ragoût de Coquillages -  A ragoût with shellfish. This will include mussels, cockles, clams, etc.,
  
Fish and seafood ragoût.
  
Le Ragoût de Queue de Bœuf à la Bourguignonne, Racines Frites - An oxtail stew prepared in the manner of Burgundy accompanied by deep-fried root vegetables. Root vegetables include Turnips, (Navets) Parsnips (Panais) and Swedes (Chou-Navets or Rutabaga).  In the manner of Burgundy on a menu listing indicates local produce and here that includes local beef and a red Burgundian wine.

Ragoût de Ris de Veau aux Girolles A stew of veal sweetbreads and wild Chantarelle mushrooms.

Ragoût de Tomates et Fèves - A vegetable stew of tomatoes and fava beans. The fava bean is also called the Windsor, butter or broad bean. The Fève may also be on French menus as Févettes and Haricots d'Espagne,
   
Ragoût de Sanglier aux Champignons – A stew of farmed wild boar and button mushrooms. France farms wild boar and so it is available all year round.  When the menu reads Sanglier Sauvage that indicates a genuine wild boar; it will be on menus during the two-month licensed hunting season. 
   
Crab ragoût
www.flickr.com/photos/kurmanphotos/11209782144/

Ragoûts were only for the wealthy.

The original recipes for Ragoûts were either lightly stewed mushrooms, vegetables or stews with beef or mutton.  In the beginning, only those who could afford kitchen staff ate a variety of dishes at every meal, and those meals always include meat, poultry or game at every meal except on Fridays when fish was served.  Ordinary people, if they were lucky enough to eat something other than bread they ate a single course of vegetable stew, with the well-to-do adding bits of meat, poultry or fish.
    
Until the 1800s the wealthy ate in the French manner, that meant that everything from the soup to the dessert was displayed on a  display table when all the diners walked in. Unfortunately, by the time the diners sat down to eat the soup would be lukewarm and the roast meat or roast pheasant cold. Vegetable Ragoûts did not include tomatoes until the late 1700s.  Until then tomatoes were considered a decorative plant that was often given as a gift, though the fruit was considered poisonous and never eaten.
 
Following on the French revolution came France’s most famous chef Antonin Carême.  Carême made dining in the “Russian manner” popular with the aristocracy; here separate courses would be served one after the other in the manner that we dine today. Ragoûts then included delicacies like sweetbreads and were often served as an appetizer, the French Entrée.

Following on Careme came other French chefs with their cookbooks offering recipes for a Ragoût Brun, a brown ragout. That would be beef or game that was braised for color before being stewed in a meat stock and often a red wine.

At the same time came recipes for a Ragoût Blanc, a white ragout, would be veal, lamb, rabbit, hare, poultry, fish, shellfish and have cream or crème fraîche, white wine and a light stock in the recipe. A fricassee and a blanquette are different names for a ragoût blanc.

Today, many meat and game ragoûts begin with only a few vegetables;  the vegetables listed will be cooked separately and added just before serving. Cooked for too long they melt away.

The earliest recipe for Ragoût is in the first printed cookbook  Le Cuisinier  François, the French Cook,  written close to 1650 by La Varenne (François Pierre de) (1618 – 1678).
   
The book may be searched, in the original French, online on the website of the French National Library. There is no charge for reading online, and most of the works may be downloaded for a minimal fee. English translations of some early cookbooks are available at online booksellers.
  

La Varenne’s book was followed by Le Nouveau Cuisinier Royal et Bourgeois, written by François Massialot (1660 - 1733)
  
from the French National Library.
    

Page 351 from the Le Nouveau cuisinier royal et bourgeois
This page includes references to Ragoûts of celery, chicory, cucumber, and small onions.
 
The Ragoût's effect on the Italian Ragù,

Then as now a Ragoût is pronounced rag-oo, do not pronounce the T. 
The Italian Ragù, an Italian meat sauce, (pronounced rar-goo) comes, like Ragoût from the French word ragôuter meaning to restore the appetite (Dictionary.com). The Italians give the credit for the original meat sauce called Ragù to the Italian chef Alberto Alvisi in the 18th century. That was almost two-hundred years after the first published recipe for a Ragoût.
  
French-Chinese and French-Vietnamese cuisine.

French-Chinese and French-Vietnamese restaurant menus will often translate light stews on their menus into French as Ragoût. The original Asian recipe will not have changed, but the easiest way to convey the idea of a light Asian stew into French is to use the French word Ragoût. 

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Behind the French Menu
by
Bryan G. Newman 
behindthefrenchmenu@gmail.com
Copyright © 2010, 2018, 2023.

 

Duxelles on French Menus. Duxelles in French Cuisine.

from
Behind the French Menu
by
Bryan G. Newman

behindthefrenchmenu@gmail.com

 

   
With mushroom duxelles inside the puff pastry en croute casing.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/mascardo/533120584/

Duxelles is a five-hundred-year-old recipe of finely chopped wild mushrooms, shallots, and herbs cooked in butter.  Duxelles are one of the oldest French culinary creations and will still be on many menus though often the mushrooms are the farmed varieties. Duxelles, today with or without wild mushrooms, are still used as originally intended as a stuffing or as a garnish for egg, fish, and meat dishes. Duxelles may sometimes be helped along with wine and prepared with an added sauce. Other modern Duxelle variations will have the mushrooms replaced by vegetables or seafood; that is usually clearly noted on the menu listing
   

Salmon Coulibiac, Duxelles, Fine Herbs,
The traditional Coulibiac is a salmon dish prepared by layering the salmon with spinach and rice. Nevertheless, I have seen many variations on this dish, and here we have Duxelles added.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/edsel_/12312701294/
 
The originator of this simple but famous recipe was one of France’s earliest published chefs, Francois Pierre de La Varenne (1618 – 1678). The recipe was published in his first book Le Cuisinier François, the French cook.  La Varenne named the dish after his employer the Marquis d'Duxelles. (The Marquis d'Duxelles was Nicolas Chalon du Blé (1652 – 1730) The Marquis was also a French general and served as the French Foreign Minister).

Duxelles on French Menus:

Ballotine de Pintade Farcie à la Duxelle de Champignons - A deboned Guinea fowl stuffed with mushroom Duxelles and then roasted or braised.

Coeur de Filet Mignon Farci à la Duxelle de Chanterelles, Sauce Bercy – The heart of a pork fillet, the pork tenderloin stuffed with Duxelles made with wild chanterelle mushrooms and served with a Sauce Bercy made for meat. (There is a Sauce Bercy for fish and the Sauce Bercy noted above for meat; there is also a Beurre Bercy, a cold compound butter for meat). N.B. A French filet mignon, unless expressly indicating beef or veal is, like this menu listing, pork.
   

A pork chop with mushroom and black garlic Duxelles.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/edsel_/11919711456/

Filet De Bœuf Français Accompagné sur une Duxelles De Champignons, Sauce Au Foie Gras, Et Frites De Légumes Anciens.  – A cut of a French beef fillet, the tenderloin, accompanied by mushroom Duxelles served with a fattened duck's liver sauce, and French fries made using heirloom vegetables; those vegetables would probably include Jerusalem artichokes, parsnips, and  Swedes (rutabaga).
  
Filet de Sole en Duxelles de Crevettes – Filet of sole served with the Duxelles made with shrimps, not mushrooms. With a menu listing like this ask which of the many different soles is the one on the menu. It may be Dover Sole, the most expensive or Lemon Sole or another.
   
Smoked New York Strip Steak with Portobello Duxelle in a Peanut and Parsley Crust.
A New York Strip Steak in France would be a faux-filet, a cut just below the French entrecote.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/79780289@N06/6993791338/

Onglet De Bœuf Grillé Et Ses Zitoni Crème Brocolis Et Duxelles De Paris A flank steak or skirt steak. In the USA an onglet may also be called a London broil. Here the steak is accompanied by zitoni pasta, (zitoni is a large sized ziti tubular pasta) accompanied by creamed broccoli, and Duxelles made with button mushrooms.
    
Zitoni Pasta
  
Queue de Lotte Farcie à la Duxelles de Pleurotes, Sucs Déglacés au « Zibbibo » de Sicile -  Tail of monkfish stuffed with oyster mushroom Duxelles served with a sauce made with the cooking juices and the scrapings from the cooking dishes flavored with Zibibbo, a sweet Muscat wine from the Italian Island of Pantelleria.(The Zibbibo wine may only be made on the island of Pantelleria though it may be bottled on the island of Sicily).
  .
Raviole de Txangurro à la Duxelle de Champignons – Ravioli stuffed with the Basque dish of Txangurro, crab meat prepared with onions, tomatoes, hot peppers, and brandy, accompanied by mushroom Duxelles. The crab meat will probably come from the Crab Tourteau, France’s most popular local crab.

Of course, a good recipe is for adapting; today the original mushrooms may be changed for another ingredient. The new ingredients may be vegetables or seafood, but they will still be finely chopped and prepared together with shallots and herbs and fried in butter. Menus that offer the traditional duxelles will note duxelles de champignons, button mushrooms, or name a particular mushroom to avoid misunderstandings. The wild mushrooms used may include The Mousseron or St. George's Mushroom, the Pleurot, the wild oyster mushroom, the Cepe, the French wild porcini mushroom, or the Morille, the Morel mushroom, among many others.
   
Scallop, mille-feuille of cabbage and scallop brandade.
Juices of grilled red cabbage, sauerkraut and pear duxelles, lardo.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/34338566@N08/5534556809/

Duxelles, a simple recipe with so much fame.

 “ A simple recipe,” you may say;  “I could have done that;” you may say; however, the fact is that none of us were around to create the recipe in 1651. Then La Varenne published this recipe in his first French cookbook: Le Cuisinier François, the French cook.  Long before cultivated mushrooms were farmed Varenne would have sent his kitchen staff out into the woods to collect the wild mushrooms he used in his recipe.  La Varenne probably turns over in his grave as his copyright has expired and his descendants cannot receive royalties
   

The front page of the original edition of 
Le Cuisinier François.

La Varenne’s book is still going strong with a number of French editions available at Amazon France and Amazon USA with the last edition that I saw dated 2013. English adaptations are also available. La Varenne did not leave us with one book; he published at least three more. There are disputes around his ownership of all the recipes, but it is enough to say that they allow us to look inside the French kitchen in the 17th century. 


Read the French version for free.

The French national Library website http://gallica.bnf.fr/  allows the reader access to the original book free of charge and makes a small charge for downloading it.

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Behind the French Menu
by
Bryan G. Newman

behindthefrenchmenu@gmail.com

Copyright 2010,2017.


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