Behind the French Menu

from
Behind the French Menu
by
Bryan G. Newman

behindthefrenchmenu@gmail.com

Veal fillet wrapped in Serrano cured ham

with Jerusalem artichokes, black truffles, and porcini mushrooms.

www.flickr.com/photos/loustejskal/15425936620/

Filet de Veau is the fillet, the tenderloin; it is the most expensive and tenderest of all veal cuts. However, the fillet is not the tastiest in France and elsewhere cuts from a fillet of veal will be served with a sauce; it’s the texture that makes a filet de veau a so special. As with a beef fillet never order this cut well-done as it has little natural fat and would otherwise quickly dry out; bacon is often wrapped around grilled fillets. The French terms for how veal will be cooked are the same as for beef.

Veal fillets on French menus:

Filet de Veau Poêlé et sa Fondue de Champignons - A fillet of veal lightly fried and served with button mushrooms that have been so well cooked so that they are practically a sauce.

Ris et Filet de Veau au Raifort, Minute de Pousses d’Épinards - A dual serving of veal sweetbreads and veal fillet flavored with horseradish, accompanied by lightly fried spinach shoots. The sweetbreads are very tender and light tasting meat.

Ris et Filet de Veau, Sauce Bearnaise.

Photograph courtesy of Inspirational Food

www.flickr.com/photos/food-porn/36259352675/

Filet de Veau aux Herbes Fraîches Sauce Balsamique – A veal fillet cooked in fresh herbs and a balsamic vinegar sauce.

Filet de Veau de Nos Alpages, Sauce à l'Ail Noir et Échalotes Confites – A filler of veal from the herbs in our high pastures served with a black garlic sauce and a shallot Confit, a jam. (The term alpage is used for the high pastures anywhere in France and not just near the Alps).

Veal fillet, the tenderloin, wrapped in ham.

Photograph courtesy of stu_spivack

www.flickr.com/photos/stuart_spivack/445549684/

Filet de Veau de Lait Grillé, Jus aux Morillons Légèrement Crémé, Garniture – A grilled fillet of milk-fed veal served with a lightly creamy sauce prepared with the “half-free morel” mushrooms accompanied by vegetables. The half-free morel mushroom looks and tastes like the regular morel mushroom, but with a smaller cap and a longer and edible stem.

The half-free morel mushroom

Photograph courtesy of terry priest

www.flickr.com/photos/artfarmer/5617844058/

Filet Mignon De Veau Charolaise, Son Jus Aux Escargots Du Brionnais Et Porto Rouge – A cut from a tenderloin of Charolais veal served with a sauce made from the natural cooking juices and farmed petit gris snails, from the Brionnaise area of the Saône and the Loire in South Burgundy, and a red Port wine sauce. The AOP Charolaise cattle were the third breed to receive an AOC to protect their provenance and unique qualities. The smallest part at the end of the fillet is the French Filet Mignon, the dainty fillet. Nevertheless, cuts taken from here will, in France, only rarely be called Filet Mignon as the name is mostly associated with pork fillets.

Charolais cattle in the high pastures.

Photograph courtesy of Hailé F

www.flickr.com/photos/hailemichaelfiseha/14894844210/

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Behind the French Menu
by
Bryan G. Newman

behindthefrenchmenu@gmail.com

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Searching for the meaning of words, names or phrases

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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Connected Posts:

Ail Noir - Black garlic. Black Garlic in French Cuisine.

Artichaut de Jérusalem or Topinambour - The Jerusalem Artichoke or Sunchoke on French Menus.

Bœuf Charolais - The Charolais Beef. Le Bœuf Charolais du Bourbonnais AOP - The Charolais Beef is Considered Among the Best France.

Champignons on French Menus. The Champignon de Paris, the Button Mushroom in French Cuisine.

Confit? All About That Confit on Your French Menu. Confit in French Cuisin

Échalotes - Shallots. Shallots on French Menus. Shallots are One of the Most Important Herbs in the French Kitchen

Escargots - Snails. Snails in French Cuisine. How to Order Snails in France.

Morille, the Morel Mushroom. Morel mushrooms on French Menus.

Port or Porto - Port Wine in French Cuisine. Port on French Menus

Raifort – Horseradish. Horseradish on French Menus.

Ris de Veau (d'Agneau) - Sweetbreads on French Menus. When sweetbreads are on the menu in France do not pass them by.

The Cèpe - The French Porcini Mushroom. The Cepe in French Cuisine.

Vinegar, Vinaigrette and Verjus in French Cuisine.

from
Behind the French Menu
by
Bryan G. Newman

behindthefrenchmenu@gmail.com

Cloves, fresh and dried.

Photograph courtesy of National Gardening Association.

Cloves are one of the world’s oldest recorded spices; we know the Chinese were using cloves in their cuisine over 4,000 years ago. Cloves are strongly aromatic and can have an intense and fiery taste. When cloves reached, the West is uncertain, but both Greek and Roman cuisine used cloves. Either one of those two usual suspects brought cloves to France, or possibly they arrived even earlier through those early Mediterranean wholesalers, the Phoenicians. Then cloves were immediately incorporated into French cuisine.

Baked pears with honeyed cinnamon and Cognac

Photograph courtesy of Chris Gehlen

https://www.flickr.com/photos/rumble1973/4201477332/

Cloves will be in both French savory and sweet dishes; cloves will also be used in alcoholic and alcohol-free punches to add a little fire, and for the same reason cloves will be in many marinades and pickling solutions.

Cloves drying before being sent to market in the Pemba Island.

Photograph courtesy of Community Forests International

In French cuisine, cloves are part of the oldest French spice group still in use, the Quatre Épices, the four spices, or the Épice Parisienne, the Parisian spice. This French spice group goes back at least four hundred years. Many chefs now use five spices rather than the original four, though they will still be on the menu as the quatre épices, the four spices. The Quatre Épices includes more or less, the original four spices: poivre, pepper, noix de muscade, nutmeg, and clous de girofle, cloves. The disputed fourth was initially gingembre, ginger or cassia, Chinese cinnamon. Today the Chinese cinnamon will be replaced by the Cannelle de Ceylan, Ceylonese cinnamon. French cuisine uses many spice groups with the most famous being Les Fine Herbes.

Cloves are also often used in cocktails.
These are sidecars.

A sidecar is Cointreau, Cognac, Lemon Juice, and in this example, there are added cloves.
(To read how seafood cocktails reached French menus from North America click here).

Photograph courtesy of Jax House.

www.flickr.com/photos/jaxhouse/7125636331/

The name clou in French originates from the old French word for a nail; if you look at the picture at the top of this post a single clove does somewhat resemble a nail. They look somewhat like the rather wonky nails of 2,000 years ago. The name clou arrived in England with the French-Norman conquerors in 1066, and a clou later became a clove in English.

Cloves on French Menus:

Compote de Chocolat Blanc, Poires Infusées aux Clous de Girofle – A compote of white chocolate and pears infused with cloves.

Gibier Confit Pommes de Terre; Assaisonnez de Cannelle, de Clou de Girofle – Wild game prepared confit, cooked in its own fat, and then served a few days later with potatoes and seasoned with cinnamon and cloves.

Infusion de Clous de Girofle et Cannelle – An infusion, a tisane, a herbal tea, made with cloves and cinnamon. Cloves, in small quantities, are considered an aid in speeding recovery from indigestion in French homeopathic medicine.

La Soupe de Cerise est Composée d’un Bouillon Froid avec un Fort Goût de Cannelle et de Clous de Girofle et des Cerises Entières - A cold cherry bouillon with a strong flavoring of cinnamon and cloves and served with whole cherries.

Magret de Canard Sauce Quatre Épices et Miel – Duck breast prepared with a sauce made of the four spices spice group and honey.

Oil of Cloves

Oil of Cloves, in both Chinese and Western medicine, has long been used as an antiseptic and pain reliever. The picture above is an old bottle of an oil of clove pain killer; this one was probably sold for toothaches. The bottle pictured above probably came at the latest from the 1950s or 1960s, though oil of cloves is still used as a homeopathic painkiller.

Photograph courtesy of Amanda Slater.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/pikerslanefarm/3515226366/

Chefs must be careful with the quantities, as too many cloves will numb your mouth and then you will not be able to taste anything. Cloves are also an essential ingredient in that partly Indian, partly British sauce; Worcestershire Sauce. Cloves are also critical to the Cinq Épices Chinois, the Chinese five-spice powder.

Serious cultivation of cloves, as usual, began with Dutch who had a practical monopoly until the 18th century. Cloves grow on an evergreen tree that can reach over 3 meters in height; the tree flowers twice a year, and the cloves are the unopened buds.

Clove trees, up to three meters tall.

Photograph courtesy of National Gardening Association.

The world’s largest producer of clove is a single island, the island of Pemba; part of Tanzania, on the East coast of Africa. Nearly the whole island of Pemba is covered with clove gardens. According to travelers who have visited Pemba by ship, the cloves from the island can be smelled over the horizon before the passengers on the ship approaching the island can see it. Madagascar and Indonesia are also large producers.

Cloves in the languages of France's neighbors:

(Catalan - clavell, clau d'espècia), (Dutch - kruidnagel ), (German – nelke, gewürznelke). (Italian - chiodo di garofano), (Spanish – clavo), (Latin - syzygium aromaticum).

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