Showing posts with label chuck steak. Show all posts
Showing posts with label chuck steak. Show all posts

Macreuse de Bœuf - One of the Tastiest Steaks on French Menus.

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

Macreuse de bœuf.

The steak called a masseuse à bifteka  in French supermarkets is nearly always called a masseuse de bœuf on French menu listings, and there is no similar cut on USA or UK menus, outside of a real French restaurant.  Back in France, chefs have to learn nearly as much as a butcher to graduate cooking school. Chefs have knowledgeable customers who expect economic but very flavorful cuts in restaurants as well as butcher's shops and supermarkets. 

This macreuse à biftek comes from the same place North American and UK chuck,  the shoulder, but the French cut it differently. Chuck steak are cut across and combine different tastes and textures which, however, if cut like the French it can provide a steak with a bigger bang for the buck.
  


The cut.

Talking to a butcher in the US showed me that better cuts, which are rarely seen, are available.  They include the chuck tender steak, the shoulder petite tender, the chuck eye steak, and the flat-iron steak. Despite his research, this helpful expert couldn’t give a name for a US cut like the macreus à bifteck in France.

Macreuse a bifteck on French menus:
 
Macreuse de Bœuf, à l'Echalote et Poivre Vert  - A macreuse pepper steak prepared with shallots and green pepper.  Controlling the taste of a dish with black pepper is not easy, so when French chefs prepare a pepper steak they prefer green pepper that allows a controllable heat.
  

Grilling macreuse de bœuf,

Macreuse de Bœuf Cuite 6 h, Bacon de Sanglier des Bois et Champignons Sauvages - A macreuse steak slowly cooked for six hours and prepared with bacon from a wild boar from the woods and wild mushrooms. A steak like this will have been seared on the outside and the allowed to cook at a low temperature for over six hours; the result will be a steak with all the flavor locked in and a texture that will almost melt in your mouth.  France farm-raises wild boar, and it is available all year round but this menu listing tells the diner that this is wild boar from the woods and real wild boar have a much stronger flavor. (For flavorful wild mushrooms in the season the cèpe, the French porcini mushroom fit the bill).

Sanglier - Wild boar populations are ever expanding in France, and they do not just stay in the woods and forests that cover over 25% of the mainland. At night the wild boar come out, and in addition to eating the crops in the fields they also tear the grapes from vines and you can't expect the French to allow them to consume the source of their wines.    Even though wild boar can be hunted nearly all year round, their populations keep on growing and they cause over 30,000 car accidents every year that include fatalities.  To ensure consumer safety every single wild boar must have its meat tested in a government approved laboratory before it can be served in a restaurant or home and this steak dish with wild boar bacon, wild mushrooms, will be making a memorable dish.
   

Watch out when you are driving in the French countryside.
Photograph courtesy of Nadine.

Macreuse de Bœuf, Légumes Racines Confits – A macreuse steak accompanied by root vegetables that have been slowly cooked with a slightly sweetened wine or balsamic vinegar.  In North America and the UK, root vegetables are often overlooked or consigned to soups with only the celebrity chefs taking them out of the heirloom vegetable cupboard.  In France from the smallest restaurant to the bistros and brassieres and up on to the three-star Michelin Guide restaurants parsnips, turnips and Swedes (rutabaga)  will be on many of their menus, these are tasty vegetables and a welcome addition to the ubiquitous peas, green beans, and carrots.
 
Macreuse de Bœuf Sauce au Poivre et Whisky, Salade Composée, Vinaigrette au Cidre et Frites A macreuse steak prepared in a pepper and Scotch whisky sauce served with a salad made with a cider vinaigrette and French fries.

Macreuse de Bœuf, Sauce Béarnaise Purée de Panais et Legumes Grillé – A macreuse chuck steak served with Sauce Béarnaise and accompanied by a parsnip puree and grilled vegetables. Sauce Béarnaise has been topping France and the world's sauce popularity polls for nearly two-hundred years. It is one of the few sauces that may be served with steaks and roasts as well as salmon and vegetables.  In 1830 the chef Louis Françoise-Collinet took the recipe for Sauce Hollandaise, omitted the lemon juice and added white wine vinegar, shallots, chervil, and tarragon and made Sauce Béarnaise. It's the tarragon and white wine vinegar that change the Hollandaise base and supply the tang that makes us Sauce Béarnaise devotees.
  


Steak Tatare is often made with the macreuse à biftek
Photograph courtesy of Hotel du Vin & Bistro
https://www.flickr.com/photos/hdv-gallery/7138285281/

Don’t waste your time looking up macreuse steaks in a dictionary because it won’t help. Macreuse in French translates as scoter and scoter is the name for a family of ducks; in today's France, the macreuse on your menus will be a steak and not a canard, a duck.   Despite that, Alexander Dumas (père) who is most well-known for his books that include the Three Musketeers and the Count of Monte Cristo was also a gourmand.  In 1870 Sumas published an over one thousand page Grand Dictionnaire de Cuisine, his grand dictionary of cuisine.  The wild scoter duck was very popular at the time and there are at least six recipes Alexander Dumas's dictionary.  Members of this duck family may be hunted during a one month season, but I've never seen one on a menu.
   
Scoter (macreuse) ducks.
www.flickr.com/photos/jmvdmaren/10316987185/

If you live in France and want this tasty and economic steak read the description in the supermarket or at the butchers carefully.  There is a second cut called a macreuse à pot-au-feu which as its name describes is for stewing.  The traditional pot-au-feu includes beef, marrow bones, carrots, turnips, leeks, celery, onions, potatoes, a clove-studded onion, garlic, and a bouquet garni and one of the cuts of beef will always be the macreuse à pot-au- feu. Pot-a- feus may be on menus as Baeckeoffes, Garbures and other local names where the ingredients are often pork based with beef added as an afterthought.

If you have a butcher, who does not only sell hunks of beef that he or she receives already packaged in cellophane ask what different steak cuts he or she can offer from the whole chuck and brisket, and not just the all-inclusive chuck steak. Who knows you may have found someone who knows how to cut steaks.

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Searching for the meaning of words, names or phrases
on
French menus?

Just add the word, words, or phrase that you are searching for to the words "Behind the French Menu" and search with Google. Behind the French Menu’s links include hundreds of words, names, and phrases that are seen on French menus. There are over 450 articles that include over 4,000 French dishes with English translations and explanations.
 

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

Paleron – A French cut from the center of a shoulder of beef or veal and occasionally pork

                                                                

from
Behind the French Menu
by
Bryan G. Newman

behindthefrenchmenu@gmail.com

 

   
The paleron, a French beef center shoulder fore cut.
     
Braised beef daub in red wine.
Crispy onions, green beans, horseradish and puree potatoes.
www.flickr.com/photos/fimbrethil/8019717298/
This cut, for beef, is often used for Provencal Daubs and other stews. Within the rules of French cuisine, it comes from the center of the shoulder.  This cut is full of flavor, a while a well-cooked steak is precisely that, a well-cooked stew, when not over spiced allows to you taste the full flavor or the meat that no grilled or fried dish can offer. The better restaurants will identify the origins of the beef, and the cuts they offer — their knowledgeable clientele will return again and again they see named and highly rated additions to the menu.

  
There is no exact UK OR USA cut that matches a paleron.

There is lots of confusion with the French, UK and USA cuts from the shoulder.  Many shoulder cuts make excellent steaks, and the whole shoulder area is often referred to in the UK and USA as chuck or chuck steaks, and the paleron is a center shoulder cut sometimes identified in the USA as the top blade or flat-iron.  Now steaks may be prepared from this cut, but there are others that are better. In France,  the paleron is nearly always used for slowly braised or stewed beef and veal dishes along with the occasional pork dish.
   
UK fore cuts.

Paleron on French Menus:
 
Ravioles de Paleron de Bœuf,  Toast de Moelle et Mousseline de Carottes à l’Orange, Émulsion Réglisse – Ravioli stuffed with meat from a daub or another stew served with toast with bone marrow and a moose of carrots flavored with orange and a thick licorice sauce.
 
Brochettes De Paleron De Bœuf Marinées – Skewers of marinated beef from the paleron.
   
Cuts from a paleron.
The USA top blade, or flat-iron.

Le Paleron De Bœuf Irlandais Aux Champignons Et Lard Gras, Pressé De Cèleris et Carottes Confites A stew of the paleron from Irish beef prepared with button mushrooms and fatty bacon and served with a jam (confit) made with celery and carrots.
                                                                       
Paleron de Bœuf Servi Avec son Jus, Risotto aux Truffes et Croûtons de Pain – A beef paleron served with its natural cooking juices, a risotto flavored with truffles and accompanied by bread croutons
   
Paleron de Bœuf à la Crème d’Échalotes
et Risotto aux Topinambours
A braised beef paleron prepared with cream of shallots
 and risotto with Jerusalem artichokes.
 
Paleron de Bœuf Charolais Braise Doucement au Four, Jus au Poivre de Java, Legumes Glaces, Galette de Patate Douce.  Paleron of Charolais beef slowly braised in the oven with a natural gravy flavored with the Balinese long pepper and served with glazed vegetables and a sweet potato crepe.
  
Poivre de Java  - Cubeb Pepper (also called Tailed Pepper), is a real pepper cultivated for its fruit and essential oil. It is mostly grown in Java and Sumatra and so it is often called Java pepper which is then confused with Long pepper that also comes from Java and is related.
  
Cubeb pepper
Paleron de Porc aux Légumes de Saison – A paleron cut from a pork shoulder and served with the season’s vegetables.
    
Salade de paleron de bœuf
   
Le Paleron De Veau Français Confit À Basse Température Jets De Houblon, Garniture Maraichère – A paleron of French veal confit (slowly cooked) at a low temperature and served with hop shoots and market garden vegetables.


-----------------------------------
 

Behind the French Menu
by
Bryan G. Newman

behindthefrenchmenu@gmail.com

Copyright 2010, 2017, 2019.

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

Searching for the meaning of words, names or phrases
on
French menus?

Just add the word, words, or phrase that you are searching for to the words "Behind the French Menu" and search with Google. Behind the French Menu’s links include hundreds of words, names, and phrases that are seen on French menus. There are over 450 articles that include over 4,000 French dishes with English translations and explanations.

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