Pot au feu — boiled beef dinner

The other day I cooked a pot au feu — a boiled beef dinner. It was so good that now I wonder why I don't do it more often. It has all the advantages you could ask for: inexpensive beef that comes out tender and succulent; healthy, flavorful vegetables; and a hot, clear, nourishing broth.

Pot au feu is a very old French classic dish. The expression of course means "a pot on the fire" and must date back to the days of old when every household kept a pot of broth bubbling on the fire that people cooked on back before they had stoves, cooktops, burners, ovens, microwaves — or electricity or gas, for that matter. You could keep the stockpot going for weeks, adding and cooking more liquid, vegetables, or meat as the days passed.

Beef shank cooked in broth with onions and carrots

You can make a pot-au-feu using whatever meat you want. Usually it's beef. Old recipes include adding some chicken necks, gizzards, or hearts to the pot; if you use some chicken broth in the cooking liquid you've accomplished pretty much the same thing. But you can also make pot au feu with chicken, duck, or even lean pork.

Broth with aromatics, boiling

Actually, the chicken version of pot au feu is called poule au pot. However you do it, and whatever meat you use, you end up with several nice servings of meat and vegetables, as well as a clear broth you can have as soup, with the addition of vermicelli, other pasta, rice, and/or diced vegetables.

Start the cooking by putting a big pot of liquid — water, chicken or vegetable broth, or a combination — on to boil. You need enough liquid so that any meat you add is completely submerged. Add a peeled onion or two, or shallots; three or four garlic cloves; some celery stalks or leaves; a few allspice berries and black peppercorns; some leek leaves; salt of course; and a few bay leaves. This part is free-form; flavor the liquid to your own taste, with what you have on hand.

Here's the beef I got: shank with the bone removed,
from an old milk cow, according to the label.

When the liquid in the pot starts to boil, put in the meat. Don't use expensive meat, and stick to fairly large pieces. Short ribs, beef shank — that kind of thing —cuts of beef that need long, slow cooking. What I had was a boned, rolled and tied piece of jarret de bœuf, which is shank, and it weighed about two pounds (900 grams). It was sold with the bone included, because you want a marrow bone in the pot for flavor.

Beef shank, boned, rolled and tied, sold with the marrow bone

Cook the meat in the flavored broth for two hours at a slow boil or simmer. At that point, add a couple of big carrots, peeled and cut into two-inch pieces. They'll cook in the broth for two hours as well. If you want to add other vegetables — turnips, rutabega, cabbage, celery root, parsnips — add them to the pot about an hour from the end of the total cooking time, which is 4 to 4½ hours.

Cook potatoes in the broth, or serve the meat and
vegetables with a gratin dauphinois.

Serve the cooked meat and vegetables with a little of the broth. Put some butter on the vegetables if you want, or olive oil. In France, we eat the meat with Dijon mustard, or with cornichons, which are little sour gherkins. Also with some fleur de sel — coarse, crunchy sea salt. And good bread.

You can serve a bowl of the consommé (clear broth) as a starter course for the meal. And you'll have plenty left to make soup with. I think I'm going to make soupe à l'oignon gratinée this week. Another possibility is the Vietnamese soup called pho.