Behind the French Menu: fried eggs

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Bacon in France. Bacon and Salted Pork on French Menus. Lard in French Means Bacon in English.

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Behind the French Menu
by
Bryan G. Newman

behindthefrenchmenu@gmail.com

Many types of bacon.

Photograph courtesy of Mighty June

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Bacon in France

The words bacon and lard in French have created more than a few problems when encountered by English speakers in France. First-time visitors to France trying to read French menus may easily become confused with the French usage of bacon and lard.

The confusion began in 1066 when William the Conqueror came over from Normandy in France and conquered England. William then divided the land among the Norman-French Barons who had fought alongside him. The Barons brought to their new estates Norman-French cooks who made enormous changes in the language used in the English kitchen. Among the changes, the French word bacon was introduced and it 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 was also introduced, and then it meant pig fat and it still means pig fat in English.

A few hundred years later, within France, the French changed the meaning of their word lard. They made the word lard mean bacon and now the French have two words for bacon, both bacon, and lard. At that time they changed the word for pig fat in French to saindoux (pronounced sane-doo).

Saindoux

Pork fat, lard in modern French.

That change has, however, caused quite a few first-time English-speaking visitors to France who seeing the word lard on a French menu to grab the wrong end of the stick. Lard on a French menu does not indicate a dish cooked in pig fat, it only means bacon.

N.B. In the Alsace and Lorraine Norther French German based dialects bacon is Speck.

Bacon and Lard on the French Menu:

Oeufs au Plat, Toasts, Lard Grillé, Salade Verte - Two fried eggs, toast, grilled bacon and a green salad.

Fried eggs and with American style bacon (and spinach).

Photograph courtesy of Jason Young

https://www.flickr.com/photos/jsnyng/8993312627/ FF

Oeufs au Plat, Bacon, Pain Grillé, Café et Jus d'Orange – Two fried eggs, grilled bacon, toast, coffee and orange juice. N.B. Both toast and pain grillé in French mean toast in English.

Fried eggs with UK style bacon.

Photograph courtesy of Katherine Lim

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The French types of bacon most often seen in the supermarkets.

Every country and region has its favorite cuts of meat, and that is true for France and French bacon. The names that will most often be seen on menus or in the supermarkets are noted below.

Bacon de Dos (Longe de Porc) Fumé, Bacon Canadien - Canadian bacon. A lean, brined bacon that comes from a loin cut further back on the pig. Americans gave this type of bacon the name Canadian bacon because they believed, incorrectly, that this was the most popular bacon style in Canada. However, when you ask the Canadians, you find the origins relate to a type of bacon from southern Ontario, known as peameal bacon. This bacon was popularized in the early 20th century in Toronto by an immigrant from England called William Davis. Davies' legacy continues to live today with thousands of people flocking to St Lawrence Market, Toronto, where peameal bacon sandwiches are served on a crispy bun.

Bacon Fumé - Smoked bacon.

Chips de lard - Crispy pieces of bacon.

Filet de Saxe - A salted pork fillet, the tenderloin, wrapped or not, wrapped it has a taste close to bacon though it is very tender. Similar cuts are also smoked.

Lard Fumé – Smoked bacon.

Lard de Poitrine Fumé or - Smoked bacon from the chest or belly. In the USA, I was told that this is called slab bacon and in the UK streaky bacon.

Lard de Poitrine Frais – Fresh streaky bacon.

Lard Maigre Frais – Fresh, lean, bacon.

Lard Maigre Fume – Smoked, lean, bacon.

Lard Maigre Salé – Salted, lean, bacon.

Lard Nantais - Not a type of bacon, rather a dish of pork chops and pork rinds cooked in the oven. As its name implies this dish is traditional in and around the City of Nantes. Nantes is in the department of the Loire-Atlantique and is the regional capital of the Pays de la Loire region.

Lard Ventrèche – Streaky bacon. In France, streaky bacon will be used fresh and salted or smoked. Fresh streaky bacon is often used to bard other meats while they are being cooked. Barding a steak requires tying a steak all around with fat to prevent the meat drying out while it is being cooked. Sometimes barding is also done for the added flavor; streaky bacon is also the bacon most often used to make lardons, bacon cubes. (see Lardons).

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 flavor 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.

Uncooked Lardons

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Salad with lardons

Photograph courtesy of Gnusam

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Lardon Fumé - Smoked cubes of bacon.

Lardon Fumé en Tranche Fine – Thin rashers of smoked bacon.

Tranches de Lard or Tranches de Bacon– Bacon rashers/slices. French bacon rashers are closer to the UK cut having more meat than fat and come from the back of the pig.

There are many more styles of bacon available, but those listed above include those I could identify with bacon sold in the USA and or the UK.

Petit Salé – Salted pork

Salted pork entered the French and British kitchens among the foods that could be stored for long sea voyages. The pork would be cured in water and salt for anything from four to six weeks and then air-dried. Both air-dried salt pork and smoked salt pork could be stored for months. Recipes made with salted pork have become part of the traditional dishes of many countries, not only Britain and France. (For more about the French Connection and the English Kitchen click here).

Salted pork

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Petit Salé aux Lentilles – Salted pork with lentils; a traditional bistro dish. Lentils are a dried vegetable and so were the perfect accompaniment to salted pork as both could be stored for long ocean voyages. Salt pork and lentils is a French comfort food.

Petit Salé de Canard aux Lentilles Vertes du Berry – This is not smoked pork, this is smoked duck. Smoked duck’s taste is somewhat similar to smoked ham/pork, and here it is served with the Red Label green lentils from the old province of Berry. Berry is now mostly the departments of Cher and Indre in the region of Centre-Val de Loire.

Petit Salé Fume – Smoked salted pork.

Poitrine Fumé - the same as Lard de Poitrine Fumé.

Poitrine Demi-sel - The meat from the belly of a pig, cured and lightly salted but not smoked. I believe this would be called slab bacon or pork belly in the USA. In the UK, streaky bacon is smoked, which would not taste the same though the cut is from the same place.

Connected Posts:

Jus – Fruit or Vegetable Juice and/or a cooked dish’s natural juices on French Menus.

Nantes. The French City and its Cuisine. A Wonderful Place to Visit and a Wonderful Place to Dine.

Ordering Coffee in France, The A - Z of Ordering Coffee in France.

The French Connection and The English Kitchen .

The Names of France’s Mainland Regions and Their Borders are Changing. Keep this list with your maps

Visit Berry; One of France’s historic Provinces, Enjoy its excellent Berrichonne Cuisine. Savor its wines, taste its outstanding cheeses and much more.

What Happened When I Ordered Eggs for Breakfast in France .

Behind the French Menu
by
Bryan G. Newman

behindthefrenchmenu@gmail.com

Ordering Eggs for Breakfast in France . My Personal Trials and Tribulations.

from
Behind the French Menu
by
Bryan G. Newman

behindthefrenchmenu@gmail.com

Eggs for breakfast

Photograph courtesy of Kai Hendry

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Because of an egg, or rather because I was served six fried eggs for breakfast, I decided to take my notes that I hoped would one day become a book on French food and use it as a source for this blog’s posts. In these posts, I try to show the enjoyment that goes with authentic French cuisine, along with some of its history and the people involved. Of course, I have included translations and commentary for relevant French menu listings. In my posts, I also make occasional suggestions so that others may avoid similar distractions to those I occasionally encounter.

N.B. If you are looking at this post for tips on ordering breakfast in France, there is another post that is more to the point: Ordering Breakfast in France; the French Breakfast Menu.

As long as I can remember I have loved French cuisine and for even longer I have had a terrible memory for names; unfortunately, that includes the names of some outstanding French dishes. I partly solved that problem years ago by keeping notes with the names and translations of dishes that I had truly enjoyed. Later I would add comments on the way a dish was served along with any revelations encountered when ordering the dish a second time. I also kept notes on my experiences in the USA, Italy, Japan, China, and elsewhere. However, there was more than enough input for a book on my first love, French cuisine. A small part of that unpublished book is now accessible as posts in this blog.

A memorable, though less than world transforming confusion at breakfast, in a French café, brought about this blog on French foods, and specifically this post. I had ordered fried eggs many times in France. Now I learned, the hard way, that there is, in France, a right way and a wrong way to order two fried eggs.

Now to the story of what actually happened at breakfast:

Œuf au plat - One fried egg.

Photograph courtesy of Devika

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My French may be lacking, I may have ordered my breakfast incorrectly, but tell me what purpose does serving anyone six fried eggs for breakfast make? To read about my experience in ordering two fried eggs read on. Those six fried eggs were the raison d’être, the reason for, or the reason behind, this blog's existence.

Two fried eggs for breakfast in Paris.

Œufs au plat - Two fried eggs.

Photograph courtesy of JPC24M

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I entered a small and seemingly charming Parisian side-street café while preparing myself mentally for my first breakfast on this trip to Paris. I knew that I would enjoy a mouthwatering breakfast of perfectly fried eggs accompanied by a fresh baguette and butter. All would be followed by a perfect croissant and a café au lait. I chose a table, sat down and without waiting a seemingly pleasant waitress appeared, said bonjour and presented a breakfast menu, with an English translation. What could go wrong? In many French cafés, I have ordered two fried eggs, they are almost always on French menus as Œufs au Plat, and, so they were in this café. Five minutes later the waitress reappeared, and without too much thought I ordered deux œufs au plat. I have made that same order many many times in France and have always been served two fried eggs. Now, however, was the time for my educational update on the correct usage of the French language. Within five, minutes I was served with two plates, each with three fried eggs?

Querying the serving of six fried eggs when I had ordered deux œufs au plat resulted in the following explanation from a suddenly stern waitress. Minutes before she had greeted me pleasantly enough; but now I realized that she had obviously got out of the wrong side of the bed that day: She said, in French:

Remember the waitress.

Photograph courtesy of Alex Wohlhueter

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"Œufs au plat translates as fried eggs, that is the plural, and everyone knows that. Œufs are the plural, œuf is the singular! Therefore, when you ordered deux œufs au plat that clearly showed me that you wanted two portions, four eggs in all. If all you had wanted was one portion, then you should have ordered the exact menu item, specifically Œufs au Plat, omitting the word deux which means two.”

Trois œufs au plat - Three fried eggs.

Photograph courtesy of Antti T. Nissinen

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What could I say? I said: " !&*#^#”," though I did say it under my breath. The stern waitress continued: “Everyone in Paris also knows that in this café when you order two fried eggs you will be served three eggs: that is three for the price of two. You have received two portions of three fried eggs, exactly as ordered.”

Here, I was in the center of Paris, in a small café that seemingly everyone in Paris, except me, knew? This café is obviously popular as it serves three fried eggs when two are ordered. However, here the waitress thinks an order for one person consisting of six fried eggs is normal and not to be questioned. That is as maybe, nevertheless, in this small café with maybe ten tables, at breakfast time only two other tables were occupied. Apparently, all the other citizens of Paris had early morning appointments elsewhere. There, at 8:30 in the morning, I was faced with the absolute clarity of the French language, and a decidedly stern waitress. I made the necessary mental adjustment and ate the six excellently fried eggs. She, the waitress, stood across the room with arms crossed. She was clearly ready to bring up the hundred year’s war, the martyrdom of Joan of Arc and several hundred other historical French-English grievances if I did not eat my eggs.

Maybe it was this café?

It is obviously popular and well known to all Parisians.

Photograph by courtesy of Let Ideas compete.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/question_everything/2301946648/

On the up side, the eggs did come as I had expected, perfectly fried with two portions of freshly sliced baguette and butter on the side. The moral of this story is that if you are in France and watching your cholesterol.....be careful, learn better French, and think about counting your eggs before they are fried.

Eggs being fried for those who order their eggs in bad French.

Photograph courtesy of Rev Stan.

www.flickr.com/photos/revstan/7473621870/

My notes on menu translations and dining experiences had long been used to jog my memory when I recognized a dish but could not remember its translation. With my notes at the ready, I could translate any dish's name and note how it was served. I could offer my knowledge to friends, business colleagues, and family, or with whomever, I was dining. After this experience and a few others, I realized that out there in the world there may be others who might end up with six fried eggs for breakfast. I decided to make sure the news got out and so the process of writing a book began along with a blog on French cuisine.

A few examples of eggs on a French breakfast menu:

Œufs au Plat – Two fried eggs.

Œufs au Plat au Bacon – Two fried eggs with bacon.

Œuf au Plat Accompagnée de ses Frites Maison – A single fried egg accompanied by the house’s special French fries, chips.

Œufs Brouillés – Scrambled eggs.

Œufs Pochés, Lard Grillé – Two poached eggs and grilled bacon. (In French lard and bacon are used interchangeably and both mean bacon).

Œufs Sur le Plat – Two fried eggs; the same as œufs au plat.

Œufs au Plat au Bacon or Œufs au Plat au Lard

Two fried eggs with bacon.

Photograph courtesy of Katherine Lim

www.flickr.com/photos/ultrakml/8563902658/

For the full breakfast menu see the post: Ordering Breakfast in France; the French Breakfast Menu.

Connected Posts:

Bacon in France. Bacon and Salted Pork on French Menus. Lard in French Means Bacon in English.

Beurre - Butter in French. Butter in French Cuisine.

Frites or Pomme Frites - French Fries in the USA and Chips in the UK. French Fries on French Menus.

Ordering Breakfast in France; the French Breakfast Menu.

Ordering Coffee in France, The A - Z of Ordering Coffee in France.

The Croissant and its History. The Croissant is France's Most Famous Pastry, but its Origins Come From Outside France.

The Types of French Bread and a Glossary for Buying French Bread. (Pain is pronounced pan).

Visiting a Cafe in France and the Story Behind Coffee.

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