Here’s the traditional recipe for pot-au-feu, also known as “bouilli” in French (boiled) made with beef, salted lard and a ton of fresh vegetables.
It’s the perfect comfort recipe for enjoying the bounty of vegetable harvests at the market or coming from your own garden.
This recipe of boiled beef and vegetables is a family recipe, one we’ve been cooking for as long as I can remember, as our grandmothers and mothers used to prepare it.
The traditional beef and vegetable stew recipe also known as pot-au-feu or French stew
Ingredients
4 or 5 pound pieces of beef (bone-in blade roast, chuck or shank) *
A little olive oil to sear the meat
1 pound streaky salted lard
1 cabbage, cut in pieces
The white of a leek, cut in pieces lengthwise
1 turnip, cut into large pieces
5 potatoes
Green beans (tied into small bundles with butcher's twine)
2 large onions
A bay leaf
A sprig of thyme
2 - 3 Tbsp beef broth concentrate (ex Bovril)
Salt pepper
Instructions
In a large casserole, heat a little olive oil.
Season the beef cuts with salt and pepper.
When the oil is hot, sear the pieces of meat (except the lard) on both sides.
When the meat is nicely colored, set aside.
Turn down the heat. Pour a little water in the casserole and scrape with a wooden utensil to remove the juices.
Put back the pieces of meat, the salted lard and cover with water.
Add 2 Tbsp of beef stock concentrate to the pot.
Bring to a boil, turn down the heat and simmer for 2 hours (see note **). During this time, skim the broth a few times.
Add the vegetables, thyme and bay leaf. Add salt and pepper. Cover and simmer for another 2 hours. After one hour, adjust the seasoning and add the remaining tablespoon of beef stock concentrate if needed.
Notes
* Choose a variety of beef cuts, some fatty and some gelatinous. A piece with a marrow bone will also add a lot of taste to the broth.
** For a healthier version, you can do this step the day before. Reserve the meat, strain the broth to remove impurities and refrigerate. The next day, degrease the broth before reheating it and putting the meat back in and continuing with step 9.
Serve with marinated beets and a loaf of bread to dip in the broth.
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The iconic French dish pot-au-feu, or "pot on the fire," is a stew composed of meat — typically an assortment of beef cuts — along with carrots, potatoes, and an array of other vegetables.
Pot-au-feu is to France what roast beef is to England. A hearty stew, flavoured with herbs and thickened with marrowbone and root vegetables, it seems to encapsulate all that is best about Gallic culture.
Bring to a simmer, then lower heat to maintain a very gentle simmer. Cook, skimming occasionally, until each cut of beef is fork-tender, at least 2 hours and up to 4 hours, depending on the cut and animal your beef is from.
This generous and extremely fragrant dish goes wonderfully with Rhône Valley tannic and expressive red wines so long as they are young but also with lighter red wines such as Beaujolais or Loire Valley wines that add a certain amount of freshness to the meat.
Its origin traces back to the Middle Ages when families would keep a pot over the fire, continuously simmering, and ingredients would be added or taken out over several days. Over time, this evolved into the refined, yet hearty dish that is now cherished across French households.
Pot-au-feu is a slowly simmered meat and vegetable dish that appears on most home tables in France. Pot au Feu, which literally translates to 'pot in the fire', started its life in working-class homes as a way to make less expensive cuts of beef more tender and palatable.
Pot au Feu, which literally translates to 'pot in the fire', started its life in working-class homes as a way to make less expensive cuts of beef more tender and palatable. Think the original crockpot. The long slow cooking resulted in 2 dishes: a clear nourishing broth and a rich meal of beef and vegetables.
* Chuck Roast: A classic choice. The long cooking time breaks down the connective tissue, yielding incredibly tender, flavorful meat. Perfect for pot roast or shredded beef dishes. * Brisket: This cut becomes meltingly tender when boiled, especially if you're making corned beef.
Various proteins in meat fibers coagulate over a range of temperatures from 105 F/40 C to 195 F /90 C‹temperatures that are far below boiling point (212 °F/100 °C). The higher the cooking temperature, the tougher the muscle fibers become, and the more they shrink in both length and width.
A beef boil could mean anything from a beef stew to a pot roast — basically, any recipe that uses a liquid to cook the beef. Many beef boil recipes will already have good acidic ingredients in the base liquid that will help tenderize the beef, such as tomatoes, vinegar, or soy sauce.
Pot-au-feu is a slowly simmered meat and vegetable dish that appears on most home tables in France. Pot au Feu, which literally translates to 'pot in the fire', started its life in working-class homes as a way to make less expensive cuts of beef more tender and palatable.
The Oxford Companion to Food calls pot-au-feu "a dish symbolic of French cuisine and a meal in itself"; the chef Raymond Blanc has called it "the quintessence of French family cuisine ... the most celebrated dish in France, [which] honours the tables of the rich and poor alike"; and the American National Geographic ...
While most historians agree that pho was invented in the late 19th and early 20th Century in northern Vietnam during French colonial times, its origins are murky. Some believe pho was an adaptation of the French one-pot beef and vegetable stew pot-au-feu, which shares a phonetic similarity to "phở".
Introduction: My name is Geoffrey Lueilwitz, I am a zealous, encouraging, sparkling, enchanting, graceful, faithful, nice person who loves writing and wants to share my knowledge and understanding with you.
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