Á la Moelle – Dishes Served With or Flavored With Bone Marrow.

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

 
Os à Moelle Pain Grillé 
Roasted marrow bones, with the marrow, served with toast.
Photograph courtesy of Pierre LANNES
www.flickr.com/photos/titounet/4528072362/

Dishes cooked with the bones in, such as slowly roasted chicken or baked fish, taste better than the same dish prepared bone-free. That special taste comes from the marrow in the bones.  In French cuisine, beef and veal marrow are behind the flavor and texture of many French dishes.       

Jarret de Veau
Osso Bucco
Photograph courtesy of stu_spivak
https://www.flickr.com/photos/stuart_spivack/2295591814/

 

Os and moelle on French Menus:

   

Á la Moelle – Dishes served or flavored with bone marrow.

 

À la Os - On the bone.

 

Moelle – Bone marrow. 

 

Os – Bone.

 

Os à Moelle - Marrow bones.

Dishes with bone marrow on French menus:

Jarret de Veau - Jarret de Veau is the dish called Osso Buco in Italian.

The jarret de veau is a cut across the bone from a veal shank. The bone in the center of this cut is a marrow bone. It is the heart of the flavor and texture in the dish.  The words for a bone with a hole in it in Italian are osso buco.

See Chapter 22 for more about the dishes made with this marrow bone.

 

Entrecôte Marchand de Vin à la Moelle – An entrecote, a rib-eye steak, prepared in the manner historically favored by a wine merchant. 

Sauce Marchand de Vin:  A sauce made with a slightly fuller-bodied red wine sauce than that used for Sauce Bordelaise. It is typically prepared with beef stock rather than veal stock and without the addition of bone marrow. Depending on where in France you order this dish, different red wines will be used. However, here the sauce has been upgraded by the addition of bone marrow. The words à la moelle note the addition of bone marrow, and that means a more decadent and velvety sauce.   In this dish, slices of bone marrow may also be placed decoratively on top of the steak.  (The same cut with the bone left in is a Côte de Bœuf in French, a bone-in rib-eye, or rib steak. The steak with the bone may look great, but the short cooking time does not permit much flavor from the bone to reach the steak. Besides, rib bones are not marrow bones. 

Entrecôte Bordelaise a la Moelle.
An entrecote, a ribeye steak, in the manner of Bordeaux with bone marrow.
Note the slices of bone marrow on the steak.
Photograph by Monkey Business through Yay Micro.com

     

Filet de Bœuf Cuit au Sautoir, Os à Moelle Rôti, Betterave Confite à la Badiane – A beef fillet, a cut from the beef tenderloin, cooked in a sautoir frying pan, served with a roast marrow bone and a beetroot jam flavored with star anise.

Sautoir: French kitchens are filled with many different pots and pans, and the sautoir is a broad, shallow pan with straight sides. French culinary tradition encourages the inclusion of the name of the equipment used in a menu listing. (Outside of the kitchen, a sautoir necklace is usually very long, often extending below the waist, and may have a tassel or pendant. I do not know why the same names are used. The word is derived from the French word "sauter," which means "to jump" or "to leap," possibly referring to the way the necklace "leaps" or "jumps" as the wearer moves. In the kitchen the sautoir may be used for stir-fried dishes and the cooking technique of sautéing—which means "to jump" involves cooking food quickly The "jumping" therefore refers to the method where a chef can "toss" the food in the pan with a flick of the wrist, making the ingredients "jump" and turning over so they are evenly cooked.

 A sautoir.
Photograph courtesy of smartkitchen.com

  

La Badiane or Anis Étoile or La Badiane -  Star Anise; the star-shaped fruit of the Chinese Anis plant.  Star Anise has been used in Chinese and other Asian cuisines for thousands of years for its aniseed flavor.  Two hundred years ago star anise came into mainstream European cuisine competing with and adding to Anis and other herbs for the best aniseed flavor.   Beginning with Absinthe Star Anis became famous in France’s and other country’s aniseed flavored drinks.  Star anise along with aniseed is an essential ingredient in France’s popular Pastis and similar alcoholic drinks.  Star Anis is also the most essential ingredient in that important Chinese spice group the Cinq Épices Chinois, the Chinese five spice powder; today, however, the Chinese five spice powder often has the Western Anis included, alongside star anise, as it allows for a more mellow flavor and Chinese tastes have changed. 

 

Os à Moelle à la Fleur de Sel, Pain Grillé – Marrow bones served with fleur de sel, and toast.  Use the spoon provided, scoop the marrow from the bones, spread it on the toast, add a few grains of fleur de sel salt and then enjoy the classic way to enjoy bone marrow. (Fleur de sel, the flower of salt, is the mineral-rich salt crystals taken from the top of dried sea-salt pans).

   

Marrow bones and toast.
Photograph courtesy of Cory Doctorow
www.flickr.com/photos/doctorow/2804793503/

    

Onglet de Bœuf, Echalotes au Vin et Os à Moelle -  A hanger steak, a UK skirt steak, prepared with a shallot, wine and bone marrow sauce.

 

Steak Haché à la Moelle – A chopped steak flavored with bone marrow. Chopped steak is prepared in a manner similar to a hamburger, but with a different texture from a simple minced patty. Here, the added flavor and texture of bone marrow will make a much more interesting dish.

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Behind the French Menu
by
Bryan G. Newman
behindthefrenchmenu@gmail.com
Copyright 2010, 2017, 2025

 

 

 

Gruyère Cheese – French or Swiss? Enjoying French Gruyere IGP.

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

Aging Gruyere cheese.

Photograph courtesy of cristiana bolli freitas

https://www.flickr.com/photos/sopramais/1815952997/

   

Both Swiss Gruyere AOP and French Gruyere IGP are fabulous cheeses. They are hard, ivory-to-yellow cow’s milk cheeses made with unpasteurized milk. The cheeses are made with the milk from cows that graze freely in the summer. In the winter, the cows are fed on fodder collected in the summer, with no silage permitted. The calves are raised with their mothers, and no antibiotics or growth hormones may be used.  The color of the cheese’s pate varies with the time of year and the grasses upon which the cows feed.  No extraneous substances may be added to the cheeses, and that includes natural food coloring.  Each country’s cheese is produced in defined geographical areas.

 

Gruyere Français  - French Gruyere

 

French Gruyere has approximately 32% fat and is aged for a minimum of four months.  The cheese is slightly nutty with a very slight salty accent and is considered to be slightly sweeter than Swiss Gruyere.  Taste a slice of French Gruyere with Swiss Gruyere with French bread, as I have done, and the difference is immediately apparent. Their tastes become more full-bodied as the cheeses age. The color of the rind varies from a pale orange to brown, darkening the longer the cheese is aged. Swiss Gruyere has no holes (the famous Swiss cheese with all the holes is Emmental), while French Gruyere has a number of small holes.  French Gruyere’s holes are officially part of the cheese, and they may vary in size from a pea to a cherry.  French Gruyere IGP is produced in the departments of Doubs, Haute-Saône, Savoie, and Haute-Savoie that border Switzerland   

   

French Gruyere cheese.

Photograph courtesy of Nutrition Table. com

    

Emmental is the cheese with many holes.

Photograph courtesy of catalog-cs.info

Gruyere cheese in the French cuisine:

 

Gruyere cheese is probably the most important French cheese in the French kitchen, though by name, it may only be on menus when part of a salad or cheese plate. Dishes with Gratin or Gratinée in their name will have been browned under the grill, often with the aid of French Gruyere cheese.

Croque Monsieur - Croque Monsieur is a simple but tasty French fast food; it is a toasted sandwich made with Pain de Mie, French sandwich bread, cooked ham, and Gruyere cheese. The sandwich is soaked in beaten egg and then fried gently or toasted until the outside is golden brown and the cheese inside melts.

   

Croque Monsieur

Photograph courtesy of Andrew Mager

www.flickr.com/photos/mager/3098810358/

  

Croque Madam – The same as a Croque Monsieur, but with a fried egg on top.

    

Escalope de Veau Cordon Bleu - A veal cutlet wrapped in ham and gruyere cheese, covered in breadcrumbs and fried.  (Escalope Cordon Bleu is a dish from the mid-20th century; however, the Cordon Bleu, the award of the blue ribbon, is much older. The Cordon Bleu was part of an award created by King Henry III of France in 1578 for outstanding service to the French Crown).  

N.B. A menu listing may offer Escalope Cordon Bleu de Dinde which is made with turkey breast, and Escalope Cordon Bleu de Poulet is made with chicken breast. Read the menu carefully.

   

Escalope de Veau Cordon Bleu

Photograph courtesy of Danone SA

   

Fondue Savoyarde – The cheese fondue from the departments of Savoie. Cheese fondues were on home menus in the region of Savoie long before skiing became fashionable.  Then one or two local cheeses, along with a small amount of garlic, were melted together with a local white wine for an enjoyable family meal. The fondue is eaten with pieces of bread that are dipped in the melted cheese on a special fork. Each diner will have been given his or her fourchette à fondue, a distinctive, long fondue fork that keeps the diner’s hand away from the communal pot of melted cheese in which the bread will be dipped.   N.B. These fondue forks become extremely hot at the tip, and they have burned many a tongue.  I speak with experience, so transfer the bread to your plate and then to an ordinary fork before eating.

   

Fondue Savoyard.

 Photograph courtesy of Pedro Cerqueira

www.flickr.com/photos/pcerqueira/5402321948/

   

Recipes for dishes similar to today’s cheese fondues date back two or three hundred years. Every fondue will include two or three cheeses from the Gruyere family chosen from among Abondance, Beaufort, Comté, French Emmental, and French Gruyere. Many cheese fondues will be made with the Savoie’s much-appreciated kirsch cherry brandy, while others will have added Madeira wine.

 

Galette Bretonne – A traditional pancake from Brittany made with buckwheat flour, its blé noir, black flour, also called the farine de sarrasin, the flour of the Saracens.  A Galette Bretonne may be served with a variety of garnishes, though the most traditional would be salted butter, fried eggs, ham, and grated French Gruyere cheese.

   

Galette Bretonne

Photograph courtesy of Jack at Wikipedia.

www.flickr.com/photos/jack_tt_lee/16101541931/

     

Gratin Dauphinois –  Baked sliced potatoes cooked in milk and cream, flavored with nutmeg, garlic, thyme, and shallots, and then browned under the grill, usually with Gruyere cheese.

   

Gratin Dauphinois

Photograph courtesy of Pierre Guinoiseau

www.flickr.com/photos/geekounet/3937031101/

  

Soupe à l’Oignon – Onion Soup. There are traditional differences between the two most famous onion soups.  The Paris recipe calls for the use of vegetable, chicken or beef stock, or bouillon, and wine or Cognac. The original Lyonnais version uses no stock, and the alcohol is Madeira wine or Port wine.  Both soups will be served with grated French Gruyere cheese browned under the grill.

Soupe à l’Oignon,  Soupe à l’Oignon à la Parisienne, Gratinée Parisienne or Gratinée des Halles  - Among the many names used for onion soup in the tradition of Paris.

Gratinée Lyonnais, Soupe à l'Oignon Lyonnaise or Soupe à l'Oignon Gratinée  - Among the many names used for onion soup in the tradition of the city of Lyon.

   

Gratinée Parisienne – Parisian Onion Soup.

Photograph courtesy of Jun Seita

www.flickr.com/photos/jseita/7137856773/

     

The Gruyère cheese family.

      

French Gruyere IGP is produced in the departments of Doubs, Haute-Saône, Savoie and Haute-Savoie that border Switzerland. Here and in adjoining departments, many kinds of cheese have been developed over the centuries, with Abondance, Beaufort, Comté, and French Emmental all considered Gruyere-type cheeses. Two hundred years ago, Brillat-Savarin, the first philosopher of food, called Beaufort cheese the Prince of the Gruyères. To confuse us all even further one of the official names for Comté cheese is Gruyère de Comté.  When you are looking for Gruyere in France, look at the label.

Buying French gruyere cheese and flying home it.
  

Few restaurants, if any, will offer different ages of Gruyere to choose from.  Restaurant clientele, understandably, expects the restaurant to use aged cheeses. To test the difference between young and aged Gruyere and find the one that suits your taste visit a good fromagerie, a cheese shop. Quite a number of the better fromageries will stock two different French Gruyeres.  The youngest may be a minimum of four months, and the older cheese may be up to a year old, occasionally even older. If you look like a serious customer, you may be offered a sliver of each to try.

  

The USA, which prohibits the import of unpasteurized milk cheese aged for less than 60 days, permits the import of Gruyere Française IGP. It has been aged for four months. However, before leaving France and arriving at the check-in counter, check your baggage weight allowance.  The average weight of a wheel of Gruyere is 42 kilos (92 lbs), and that is a good reason to take a smaller wedge of this excellent cheese home.  As Gruyere is an aged hard cheese, a wedge wrapped in plastic will travel well for three or four days. Once home, keep it in the refrigerator, still wrapped in plastic, not the freezer. To prepare the cheese for serving, take it from the refrigerator, cut off the amount you will be using, and let it rest for an hour before serving.  Return the rest of the cheese to the refrigerator for later use. Kept wrapped in plastic in a refrigerator Gruyere will keep well for five to six weeks. (For more about buying cheese in France and taking it home, click here).

 

N.B., The UK permits the import of unpasteurized cheeses from the European Union.
  

The French Gruyere association only has a French language website; however, it is easily understood with the Google and Bing translation apps.

 

http://www.gruyere-france.fr/

 

Swiss Gruyere was first.

 

The origins of Gruyere cheese are undeniably Swiss.  Though neither Switzerland nor France existed as the nation-states with today's borders when Gruyere was first made. The cheese is named after the town of Gruyères (with an s), in the Swiss Canton of Fribourg. The Swiss Gruyere cheese has a history that can be traced back  900 years, while the French cheese has only been made for 800 years. With such a long history the French and Swiss have ended up agreeing to share the name.  As the primary owner of the name, the Swiss received the prestigious Pan-European AOP.  French Gruyere has an IGP (English PGI - Protected Geographical Indication). The packaging must clearly note “Made in France.”. The town of Gruyeres is approximately 160 km (100 miles) from the nearest French border.

   

A French Gruyere label.

  Photograph courtesy of A Vos Assiettes.

  

It all goes back to Emperor Charlemagne

  

Going further back in time, the Swiss town of Gruyeres took its name from Emperor Charlemagne’s tax collectors. These tax collectors were called Gruyers and received taxes in the form of cheese. Paying your tax with wheels of cheese usually will not work today, but you can try!  Emperor Charlemagne (742 – 814) was the Holy Roman Emperor and ruled most of Europe and is considered the founder of France and Germany.  Charlemagne is buried in the town of Aachen in Germany; the town is called Aix-la-Chapelle in French. (That is the Aix in Robert Browning’s galloping poem:  "How They Brought the Good News from Ghent to Aix" is  Aix-la-Chapelle).

 

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Behind the French Menu’s links include hundreds of words, names, and phrases that are seen on French menus. There are nearly 400 articles that include over 2,000 French dishes with English translations and explanations.  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
by
Bryan G. Newman
behindthefrenchmenu@gmail.com
Copyright 2010, 2017, 2024.