Ordering a Steak Rare, Medium-Rare, Medium or Well-Done in France.

from
Behind the French Menu
by
Bryan G. Newman

behindthefrenchmenu@gmail.com

 


All the French you need to order a perfectly cooked steak.
   

Steak and French fries (chips).
www.flickr.com/photos/dongkwan/2943140653/


The short version
for ordering a steak in France.
  
Very, very rare Bleu
(Pronounced ble).

Rare -  Saignant
(Pronounced say-nyon, do not pronounce the T).

Medium Rare with the accent on the rare -  À Point
(Pronounced ah pwa).
  
À Point
Medium-rare.with the accent on the rare.
www.flickr.com/photos/bokchoi-snowpea/4454588117/

Medium rare,  closer to medium  -    Entre à Point et Bien Cuit.
(Pronounced awntr a pwan ay bien kwee).

Medium to well done -   Bien Cuit
(Pronounced bien kwee).

Well done - Très Bien Cuit
(Pronounced tray bien kwee).
N.B. An exceptionally well-done steak; however, “très bien cuit” is not in any French chef’s dictionary though it will be clearly understood.  Be careful when ordering!,  Do not order France's popular steak frites very well-done; you will be served cooked cardboard or leather, that is if the server agrees to take your order.         

For an in-depth answer on ordering steak in France click on this post:

More detail in this post.

To begin with there is no direct translation
 for medium or medium-rare.
Read on.

North American and UK steakhouse terms such as medium, medium-rare, or well-done do NOT translate, conceptually, into traditional restaurant French. Your English-French travel dictionary may offer the word Moyen as the translation of the word medium, and that is correct.  Unfortunately, in French Moyen is not used as a cooking term.

Ordering a steak requires little French. It does not matter whether you order a steak in English, or in perfect or poorly accented French.  Every French waiter understands an order for a steak.  Problems only appear when the waiter asks:  Quelle cuisson, votre steak?  How would you like your steak cooked?  
      
Check these pictures.

A lexicon of French terms for ordering a steak or cuts of beef

Bleu – Bleu is also the French word for the color blue, and for a steak, it means very, very rare; leaking onto the plate when cut.  When you feel the need for an almost raw steak, then a steak bleu will fill that need. A steak bleu indicates that the chef will have allowed the steak to take a quick peek at the grill or frying pan, in passing, on its way to your plate. A steak bleu is just sealed on the outside; when cut that steak will leak copiously onto your plate; it will have been cooked, maybe, for one to two minutes on each side.    (Bleu is pronounced ble).  
   
Saignant – French for a rare steak.  The direct translation into English of the word saignant would be bloody, or bleeding; despite that, a steak saignant will have been cooked a little more than a steak bleu. A steak saignant will also leak, when you cut into it, though less copiously than a steak bleu.   In North America and the UK, a steak saignant will still be considered a rare steak. (Pronounced say-nyon, do not pronounce the T).
   
Saignant
A rare steak.
www.flickr.com/photos/bhamsandwich/5520541126/
   
À point - Perfectly cooked, just ready or just right. À point is the term used, in France, for all perfectly cooked foods, and not for steaks alone. Unfortunately, many guidebooks give the term à point as the way to order a medium-rare steak. A perfectly cooked steak, for most French men and women, is NOT medium-rare; rather, it is a rare-to-medium-rare, a lot closer to rare than the US or UK medium. (Pronounced ah pwa).

À point
Medium-rare.with the accent on the rare.

  
I prefer my steaks cooked à point, (medium-rare with the accent on the rare), but that is my choice. French servers with experience with English-speaking tourists will agree, generally with a smile, to take your à point steak back into the kitchen for a few more minutes on the grill, or the frying pan when à point is too rare for your tastes.
       
 When English speaking diners, in France, wish to order their steaks medium-rare, I suggest they order steaks cooked entre à point et bien cuit.  That translates as “between well cooked and à point” the result will be a US or UK medium-rare steak, closer to medium than rare. For a medium-rare steak just ask for your steak entre à point et bien cuit. See the following paragraph.
       
Entre à Point et Bien Cuit  –  In France, entre à point et bien cuit has worked well for me when ordering a steak cooked to medium  for friends.  All French servers will understand it. A French diner sitting near you, and observing you order a steak cooked entre à point et bien cuit may consider your steak as overcooked; however, you are paying the piper. (Pronounced awntr a pwan ay bien kwee).
   
Entre à Point et Bien Cuit - Medium
www.flickr.com/photos/140547216@N04/42441238032/
   
Moyen   Average or the middle. In the French kitchen, the word moyen has nothing to do with steaks.  Look to the two previous paragraphs and the terms À point or Entre à Point et Bien Cuit to order a medium-rare or medium steak.
    
Bien Cuit  Bien cuit translates into English as well done; however, an order for a steak bien cuit, in France, generally produces a medium-to-well-done steak.  A steak bien cuit will not run at all; however, its center will still be slightly rosé, pink. (Pronounced bien kwee).
  
Bien Cuit
Very slightly rose in the center.
www.flickr.com/photos/suburbanadventure/6855666864/
          
Très Bien Cuit   Very well cooked; an extremely well-done steak.  Unfortunately, très bien cuit is not used for steaks in French kitchens; I made it up.  Despite that, all servers with some experience with overseas visitors will understand the request. For the French très bien cuit means a very overcooked steak, and the server may ask you to repeat that instruction. If you have ordered steak frites, an experienced server may advise you re-consider, or order something else.  The cuts used for France’s relatively inexpensive steak frites are usually flank steaks or hanger steaks, and a well-done flank or hanger steak will be tough and tasteless, practically inedible. For an enjoyable meal with a well-done steak, I suggest that you look through the menu again.  Consider ordering a more expensive entrecôte, or change your request for your steak très bien cuit to just bien cuit. (Pronounced tray bien kwee for very, very well-done).
    
The French view of a steak cooked très bien cuit, very well done.

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

Behind the French Menu
by
Bryan G. Newman

 

behindthefrenchmenu@gmail.com

 

Copyright 2010, 2012, 2013, 2018, 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" (best when including the inverted commas), and search with Google, Bing, or DuckDuckGO.   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.


Steaks and cuts of beef on French menus:



  
  


  







When ordering your steak remember the French
also make great French fries, chips.
   
Photograph by MonkeyBusiness/YayMicro.com
  

Madère, Vin de Madère - Madeira Wine. Madeira Wine in French Cuisine.

from
Behind the French Menu
by
Bryan G. Newman

behindthefrenchmenu@gmail.com


 

Madeira Wines
https://www.flickr.com/photos/pbarry/4928215119/sizes/l/
   
Vin de Madère  - Madeira wine.
   
Madeira is a smooth, fragrant, and opulent fortified wine with an alcohol content of between 18-21 percent. The wine comes from the Portuguese Madeira Islands in the North Atlantic.  

There are four grades of sweetness for Madeira wines and they are: seco-dry, meio seco- medium dry, meio doce-medium sweet and doce-sweet.

(A fortified wine is made by ending the fermentation that takes place in the barrels by adding an eau-de-vie, a grape alcohol, to the wine.  Ending the fermentation before it is naturally completed controls and raises the amount of alcohol in the wine and the level of sweetness).  


The place to go and taste.
  
Madeira wine is a longtime favorite in French cuisine and your menu may offer:
  
Soupe à l'Oignon et au Madère Gratinée  French onion soup served with toasted bread and cheese on top, browned under the grill before serving.  This menu listing has Madeira wine added to the soup and that identifies it as a recipe from the city of Lyon, France.  According to tradition, the city of Lyon uses Madeira or Port for flavoring and the city of Paris uses wine.  
  
Rognons de Veau Poêlés, Sauce Madère et Gratin de Pommes Charlotte – Lightly fried veal kidneys prepared in a Madeira sauce and served with mashed Charlotte potatoes browned under the grill before serving. Charlotte is a very popular and tasty French potato; it is not a name for a potato dish. The Charlotte is the potato most often used in France for steamed or mashed potatoes. Sauce Madeira is made with veal stock or veal bouillon, butter, shallots and, of course, Madeira wine.


Milk-fed veal sweetbreads with a Madère wine sauce

   
Foie de Veau Sauté au Madère - Veal liver  sautéed in  a Madeira wine sauce.
 
Langue de Boeuf aux Petits Légumes, Sauce Madère. – Beef tongue served with baby vegetables and prepared with a Madeira sauce.  Beef tongue with a Madeira wine sauce will be on quite a number of French menus; it is a dish that has remained popular for over one hundred years. Baby vegetables are miniature versions of regular vegetables and were first developed in Italy; since then French creations have been added.

Melon Cavaillon au Jambon de Bayonne ou Madère - Cavaillon melon served with Bayonne cured ham and flavored with Madeira wine.  The Cavaillon melon comes from the beautiful, small Provencal town of the same name, 20 km (13 miles) from Avignon.   The Cavaillon melon is,  I believe, the tastiest melon in France. If you are in France anywhere from mid-June through September when it is in season do not miss out on this melon.  The melon is green on the outside with dark-green ribs; inside a ripe Cavaillon melon, the flesh is sweet and orange colored with a heady and memorable scent.  Bayonne ham's name comes from the city of Bayonne; the capital of the Pays Basques, the French Basque Country. Bayonne is in the department of the Pyrenees-Atlantiques and its ham is the most popular cured ham in France.
   
Cavaillon melon and Bayonne ham.
www.flickr.com/photos/99123936@N00/5972833974/
    
Ris de Veau aux Morilles, Sauce Madère – Veal Sweetbreads served with morel mushrooms and Madeira wine sauce.
   
Tournedos Rossini The most famous of all steak dishes made with Madeira wine; it is named after the Italian composer Gioachino Rossini. Rossini composed the operas, the Barber of Seville and William Tell, along with many others and was loved in France where he lived for many years. Rossini was also a gourmet and considered great chefs as maestros, like himself they were masters of their art.  The cut for a tournedos comes from the cœur de filet de bœuf, the heart, the center, of a fillet of beef; this is the most expensive of all beef cuts.  The same cut is used for a Chateaubriand.  The recipe named after Rossini includes goose foie gras, fattened goose liver, the black Perigord truffle, and a Madeira wine sauce.  To see the link on Tournedos Rossini click here.
  
A Tournedos Rossini
Photograph by Monkey Business through YayMicro.co   
    
The different types of Madeira wine:
   
Madeira wines made with a single type of grape are considered the finest, but they are also the most expensive. Historically, there were over eleven types of Madeira wines, but only seven or eight were truly single grape wines. Today only four white grapes and one red grape made be used for single grape Madeira wines. These wines are aged and their date of bottling is on the label. A single grape Madeira wine means that at least 85% of the wine comes from a single type of grape and that grape gives the wine its name. However, the most popular Madeira wines are the less expensive, but often excellent blends. The blends also improve with age and may be purchased with different degrees of sweetness. 
   
Madeira Wine Barrel, 2002 vintage.
Photograph courtesy of Alexander Baxevanis
.
The single grape Madeira wines: 
  
Sercial
   
Sercial is a white wine grape and the driest of all single grape vintage Madeira wines.  Sercial is aged for at least five years before being sold, and as it ages it darkens and mellows. Sercial is the Madeira wine most often served cold as an aperitif.
  
Five-year-old Madeira
www.flickr.com/photos/grilledahi/558163482/
     
Verdelho
    
Verdelho, a white wine grape makes a golden, semi-dry wine and in France, this wine and the slightly sweeter Bual Madeira wine are the Madeira wines most chefs choose for Sauce Madeira. 
   
Note the interesting label on the first barrel
Bastardo?
www.flickr.com/photos/136359789@N02/38005456794/
    
Bual
   
Bual comes from the Boal Cachud white grape. This Madeira wine varies in color from golden to a deep brown as it ages. It is a medium-sweet wine and either this wine or Verdelho will be chosen for Madeira Sauce. Bual may also be served as a digestif, a dessert wine, as an alternative to port.
   
A  5-year-old Bual Madeira.
www.flickr.com/photos/jovamp/5632704416/
   
Malmsey

Malmsey comes from a white grape called the Malvasia Candida and makes one of the sweetest Madeira wines. Malmsey is a full-bodied wine and is used both as a dessert wine and in sweet desserts, pastries, and sweet sauces.
   
Tinto Negra also called Tinta Negra Mole
  
Tinto Negra is the most abundant of all Madeira’s wine grapes. This is a red wine grape and the most popular wine used for adding the 15% permitted to the single grape Madeira wines.  Tinta Negra Madeira wine comes in dry, semi-dry, semi-sweet and sweet wines and accounts for 80%  of all Madeira wine sales. When you see a bottle of Madeira wine without any other name, the chances are that it is Tinto Negra or a blended wine consisting mainly of Tinta Negra.
  
Learning about Madeira wines in France:
   
My introduction to the story of Madeira in France was in the home of a French family.  My hosts, in honor of three overseas visitors,  invited a friend who was the cellar master in a Medoc Château to join us all for dinner. The cellar master surprised us all with two great bottles of Medoc from different years.  These were seriously select vintage wines that I could not have justified buying myself.  However, the real surprise that evening was the wine the cellar master brought as the digestif; he had brought a wine from outside France!  That wine was a Bual Vintage Madeira that had spent 20 years in an oak barrel before bottling.  With all these wines, our dinner discussions were about nothing else, and I was introduced to the history of Madeira wine in France. 
  
Madeira wine tasting
Photograph courtesy of PortoBay Experiences
www.flickr.com/photos/portobayevents/21136995889/
  
The French suffered from the English control of Madeira wine.

The English controlled most of the Madeira wine trade, and as we all know for hundreds of years, England and France were at war. During their constant wars, the British were always attempting to blockade France. As a result of these blockades, Madeira only seriously entered the French market with the exile of Napoleon I from France in 1815.  Then with the wars with England ended, Madeira became a success story in French cuisine.  The most famous dish from that period using Madeira wine, and still on many menus, is Tournedos Rossini. The dish was created for Rossini by the legendary French Chef Casimir Moissons in 1822 or 1823.

Like Sherry and Port the British were the driving force behind the development of Madeira.
   
From the 16th century, Madeira wine was developed and imported by the English. The English had already made Port and Sherry a staple in the homes of the aristocracy and merchant classes, and after Madeira, they added Marsala wine from Sicily.  At that time, all wine was sold in barrels, and most wines did not travel well on long sea voyages. Fortified wine, wines whose fermentation in the barrel had been stopped also traveled much better.  Madeira’s ability to travel well had also made it a favorite in the American colonies. However, in the North American colonies, the laws on shipping the wine only on British-owned ships pushed the price of Madeira, their favorite wine, up. That shipping law helped drive the movement for independence to the tipping point.
   
Swordfish cooked in Madeira wine
www.flickr.com/photos/prestige/3731270092/

The treatment of Madeira wines:
  
Madeira, sherry, and port wines were transported to the British Empire and others in India, and the effect of long sea voyages through the tropics was uniquely beneficial to Madeira. Those long sea voyages naturally slowly cooked and oxidized Madeira.  That tropical exposure, in barrels, improved the wine's taste, and in the kitchen, the cooks found they had a wine that could be used without the taste changing. Back on the Islands of Madeira, two systems were created to emulate the process without sailing through the tropics, and the rest is history.
 

Madeira quickly became the most famous fortified wine in French and other kitchens and has remained there. Despite its popularity in the kitchen, most Madeira is consumed as wine.  Madeira wines' use in cooking remains a small part of the market.  
Madeira labels:
                                                    
Colheita - Single grape Madeira wines aged and marked with a vintage date; these are often young wines

Reserva - Reserve- A  Madeira single grape wine that has spent at least 5 years in an oak barrel before bottling

Reserva Velha - Special reserve – A  Madeira single grape wine that has spent at least 10 years in an oak barrel before bottling
   
Reserva Extra - Extra Reserve – A  Madeira single grape wine that has spent at least 15 years in an oak barrel before bottling

Frasqueira – A  Madeira single grape wine that has spent at least 20 years in an oak barrel before bottling.
  
The words used to describe Madeira wines:

The wines’ color:
 
Muito Pálido – very pale; Pálido – Pale; Dourado – Golden; Meio Escuro – Medium Dark; Escuro – Dark.

The wine’s texture:

Leve – Light or pale, Mencão – full Bodied or full,  Fino – Fine or rich; Macio – Soft;  Aveludado – Velvety; Amadurecido – Mellow.
  
The Madeira Islands:

Madeira is an archipelago, a group of islands. There are two inhabited islands, Madeira and Porto Santo where the Madeira wine grapes grow with  another six small islands that are uninhabited nature reserves. The Madeira Islands are in the North Atlantic with the nearest land being the Spanish Canary Island of Tenerife  490 km  (300 mi) away.  The nearest landmass is Africa with Morocco  788 km, (490 miles) distant and Lisbon, the capital of Portugal, is 967 km, (604 miles) away.    

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

Behind the French Menu
by
Bryan G. Newman

 

behindthefrenchmenu@gmail.com

 

Copyright 2010, 2014, 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" (best when including the inverted commas), and search with Google, Bing, or another browser.  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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