Pot-au-feu facts for kids
Pot-au-feu with typical accompaniments
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| Type | Main dish |
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| Place of origin | France |
| Main ingredients | Beef, vegetables (carrots, turnips, leeks, celery, onions), cartilaginous meat (oxtail, marrowbone) |
Pot-au-feu (which means "pot on the fire") is a famous French dish. It's made by boiling beef and vegetables together. People usually eat it in two parts: first, they enjoy the warm broth, and then they eat the meat and vegetables.
A famous chef named Raymond Blanc said pot-au-feu is "the best of French family cooking." He called it "the most celebrated dish in France." It is enjoyed by both rich and poor families. Many people even call it a national dish of France. It's a perfect meal for cold winter days.
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History of Pot-au-feu
It's hard to know exactly when the name pot-au-feu first appeared. It's also tricky to know when it started meaning the dish itself, instead of just the pot it was cooked in. The word pot has been used for a cooking pot since the 11th century. But the name pot-au-feu wasn't written down until 1673.
In the year 1600, King Henry IV of France had a wish for his people. He said he wanted every farmer in his kingdom to be able to have a "chicken in the pot" on Sundays. This dish, called poule au pot, was very similar to pot-au-feu.
Back then, most farmers ate a lot of bread, root vegetables, and soup. They didn't eat much meat, except for salted pork or when they hunted illegally. But people in towns could buy cheaper cuts of meat. These meats needed to be cooked for a long time to become tender.
Cooking all the food together for many hours was a common way to prepare meals. This kind of dish was sometimes called a "pot-pourri" in French. This word came into English in the early 1600s. In 1829, a dictionary said that pot-pourri was the old name for pot-au-feu.
There was even a special pot-au-feu that was kept cooking for centuries! In Perpignan, a city in France, one batch of pot-au-feu was kept as a perpetual stew from the 1400s until World War II.
What's in Pot-au-feu?
The exact ingredients for pot-au-feu can change. It depends on the region in France and what vegetables are in season. But a typical pot-au-feu usually has:
- Inexpensive cuts of beef that need to cook for a long time.
- Some kind of meat with cartilage, like oxtail or marrowbone. Cartilage is the soft, flexible part of bones.
- Vegetables like carrots, turnips, parsnips, celery, and onions. Sometimes it also includes white cabbage and leeks.
- Seasonings such as a bouquet garni (a bundle of herbs), salt, black pepper, and cloves.
When meat with cartilage cooks in the stew, it releases something called gelatin into the broth. If the stew cools down, this gelatin can make the broth turn into a jelly. Cooling the stew also helps remove extra fat. The fat floats to the top and becomes solid, making it easy to scoop off.
To give the broth a slightly smoky taste and its classic brown color, onions are cut in half. Then, they are charred (burned slightly) in a frying pan until they are black on the outside. Cloves are often stuck into the onions. This makes it easy to take out both the onions and cloves before serving the dish.
How to Serve Pot-au-feu
Usually, the broth is served first in a bowl. If a marrowbone was used, the soft marrow inside is often spread on toasted bread.
After the broth, the meat and vegetables are served. People often add coarse salt and strong Dijon mustard. Sometimes, horseradish sauce and small pickled gherkins (cucumbers) are also served with it.
The broth from pot-au-feu can be used in other ways too. It can be a soup on its own, often with rice, pasta, or toasted bread added. It can also be a base for sauces or used to cook other vegetables or pasta. You can even buy ready-to-use cubes that make a broth similar to pot-au-feu when you add water.
Different Kinds of Pot-au-feu
Many countries have dishes that are similar to pot-au-feu. They use local ingredients to create their own versions of boiled meat and vegetable stews. Even within France, the ingredients for pot-au-feu can change from one region to another. They also change depending on what vegetables are available during different seasons.
The Vietnamese dish pho is a noodle soup that some people say was inspired by French cooking. This happened when France ruled parts of Southeast Asia. One idea for the name "pho" is that it comes from the French word feu, which means "fire."
Images for kids
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Pot-au-feu with many vegetables
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Pot-au-feu
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Served with sauce
See also
In Spanish: Pot au feu para niños
