The Magic of Bouillon

[SobaAddict70]

Making pot-au-feu is no simple matter. The bouillon is best if made by plunging meat into cold water. Brought to a boil, simmered, then skimmed and strained, the resulting liquid serves as the cooking medium for the pot-au-feu. A generous assortment of vegetables and meats, including at least one gelatinous cut for richness, is needed for optimum flavor complexity.

Exquisite Pleasures (R.W. Apple, Jr.) (from today's DIGEST update. You may have to scroll down for the relevant link.)

Boiled meat dinners are the ultimate in comfort food: a potentially austere preparation that, when made well, transforms a plain cut of meat into something luxurious, enticingly tender, and thoroughly comforting. It reminds you of home and family dinners in the dining room.

Pot-au-feu, bollito misto, tafelspitz, New England boiled dinner, corned beef and cabbage, Irish boiled dinner, cocido espanol: what are your favorite dishes in this particular culinary genre? How do you make yours, and what do you like to serve them with? Do you serve yours on any special occasions?

Ok, discuss.

Soba

[SobaAddict70]

Thought I'd bump this up since we're discussing two other staples of French comfort food: boeuf bourguignon and coq au vin.

Although Mr. Apple's article is now available via the NYTimes archive, there's no reason we can't continue the discussion in this thread.

One recipe for pot au feu calls for chicken, chicken gizzards, beef top round, veal shank, and oxtail -- and that's just for the meat! Marrow bones are optional.

Some people like to serve their pot au feu with cabbage and new potatoes, some with baguettes, some with horseradish and cornichons.

And let's not stop with just pot-au-feu. What about tafelspitz and other dishes in this genre?

Soba

[GordonD]

Does braised pork shoulder count? I'm a sucker for slow-cooked, shredded port and when it's too cold for me to be bothered with the grill, braising does a marvelous job. You wind up with a big pile of super-tender and very flavorful meat that you can find 101 uses for.

[chefzadi]

In France Pot au Feu wasn't exactly one of my favorite dishes. I enjoyed it enough, but it just wasn't one of my favorites. Flash foward to Korea. Kalbi Tang, so simple. Just short ribs and leeks (sometimes with the addition of daikon radish and garlic). My favorite version is the simplest though. Seoul is a totally 24 hour city. I would go for my Kalbi Tang fix in the middle of winter after work even at 3:00 AM.

My wife just made some. Too bad our 21 month old smashed our $500.00 digital camera. She cooked short ribs for 10 hours with some leeks, salt and a little pepper. I ate it with Maille mustard.

Kalbi Tang is Korean Pot au Feu.

Edited February 2, 2005 by chefzadi (log)

[fauxtarga]

Has anybody tried Chef Keller's Pot Au Feu from the FL book? Seemed kind of daunting when I first read it, but it looks incredible and I'm dying to try it out.

[Boris_A]

What about tafelspitz and other dishes in this genre?

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One truly great expression of this genre is the "Gran Bollito Misto Piemontese", a dish of 7 different cuts. These are of beef and veal plus chicken and cotechino, each piece around 1 pound at least and all boiled individually. As with all boiled meats, keeping simmer temperature is absolutely crucial. It's a mythical dish, usually eaten for lunch and it's impossible to prepare it for less than 8-10 persons. It's served with 3-4 different classical salsas and some boiled vegetables. Every boiled meet aficionado should once make the pilgrimage to the Piemontese towns of Carrù or Moncalvo where all restaurants are preparing this dish every day.

As for tafelspitz, I fear this is one of the most distorted recipes ever (outside Austria). I've seen so many recipes wrong on the cut AND wrong on the preparation. When prepared correctly, it makes for an excellent, relatively light dinner plate.

1) The required cut is a top round of 3-4 pounds with the fat layer outside. Everything else is not a tafelspitz.

2) You need an amount of water just enough to cover the tafelspitz and 3-4 chopped red beef bones. After boiling, skim carefully. After that, add the tafelspitz , two or three garlic cloves, some pepper grains and a bit salt to the vividly boiling water and reduce heat the get a slow simmer after 10 minutes. Skim again. Now boil for 1 hour, but never with more than simmer temperature.

3) Now add more salt, a celery root, 2-4 carrots, a parsley root, some green celery and parsley stems and simmer carefully for another 1-2 hours. After that, let it cool down for another hour. Never ever boil!

That's the core of a true tafelspitz dish and can be served with some boiled potatoes and the cooked vegetables and horseradish.

Some bones with marrow, condiments with hoesradish, mixed pickles, salad of string beans and many others can be added to complete the serving to a "boiled beef with garnish".

Edited February 3, 2005 by Boris_A (log)

[chefzadi]

Has anybody tried Chef Keller's Pot Au Feu from the FL book? Seemed kind of daunting when I first read it, but it looks incredible and I'm dying to try it out.

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Before you try the recipe I suggest that you take a look at Mabellines experience with his boeuf bourguignon recipe.

[ludja]

...

That's the core of a true tafelspitz dish and can be served with some boiled potatoes and the cooked vegetables and horseradish.

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Thanks for the detailed guidelines Boris, especially re: the cut of meat.

Confusion on that point is one of the reasons I have balked at finally trying this at home! (Sometimes having relatives in other countries doesn't help, once case being the translation of meat cuts!)