Pot Au Feu | The French Chef Season 8 | Julia Child

Julia Child prepares Pot Au Feu, or French Boiled Beef Dinner.

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JULIA CHILD: A mountain of meat and a garden of fresh vegetables and great big bones– they’re all going to go into pot au feu, French boiled beef dinner, today on "The French Chef." [music playing] NARRATOR: "The French Chef" from the Polaroid Corporation. JULIA CHILD: Welcome to "The French Chef." I’m Julia Child. Today we’re doing pot-au-feu, which is French boiled beef dinner. And it’s a marvelous recipe, because it’s delicious to eat, yet it uses the cheapest cuts of meat. And as a matter of fact, the cheap cuts of meat are what’s the best for boiling. And you don’t have to have steak meat, and rumps, and top rounds and all that expensive stuff. You can have shin, which is the back leg. And that’s what it looks like. And the French name for that is plat cote. Well, that’s a great boiling piece. [coughs] And you can also have short ribs. I gave you the wrong name. [laughs] Those are– those are plat cote. The shin is the gite. And you can also use brisket. And that’s this. That’s the breast, comes from up– up here. And this is the kind of meat that you use for corned beef, but it’s very good also for boiling beef. And let’s see what else we have. You need to have bones and you need to have– but the main– the important thing is that it’s not expensive meat. Because if you’ve get expensive meat, it’s grainy. And another very good part is chuck. The chuck is the shoulder, which is up in here. And this is a boneless chick, which includes the flunken, which is here, and then the undercut of the chuck. And this makes a very, very nice piece of boiling beef. Rather an elegant one, but not a very expensive one. And, because this beef is going to have to boil in an aromatic broth, you need bones. And there’s a bunch of bones and some cut carrots and onions. And you can buy bones in a– in your supermarket. Be sure that you get some– some knuckle bones, because they give gelatin to the broth. And then some bones like this, which have a little bit of meat on them. Because that will also give flavor. You can, of course, use canned beef broth and substitutes, but you’re just not going to get the flavor that you will if you cook it yourself starting from scratch. And these have to be browned because that’s going to give them flavor. And you put them in the upper third of a 450-degree oven and let them brown for about half an hour. And you baste them. And here’s how they look. And they render quite a bit of fat as they brown. And you just take a spoon, and you baste all the vegetables, and you turn the bones until they get– until everything is as brown as you think it should be. And that is usually about half an hour. And then you’re ready to cook them and boil them up into a stock. And you take all the– take the bones out of the dish and put them into a nice big pot. I’ve got– I’ve got an awful lot of bones here. But my butcher gave them to me. So I just decided I would use everything. So in they go. And then you have to get the– pour the fat out of the pan. I must have about– heaven– four quarts of bones here. And then in go the vegetables. And then you want to take– pour the fat out of the pan. And then you want to deglaze the pan. So have a little– have a little saucepan. And you pour the fat into it. I don’t think that fat is good for much. You might use it for something. And then you want to deglaze the pan by pouring in some water. And I’m going to pour the rest of this over me bones. And then deglazing the pan, you put it over heat and scrape it out with a wooden spoon. And this is to get– you have a lot of the color and flavor that is in– that is in the bottom of the pan. And this is what the French always call your– your kitchen treasure. Because this is where a great deal of the flavor lies. And that goes into your pan. And then you want to have some aromatic vegetables, which are onions and carrots. And we also want to have– these are– these just chopped up roughly. Onions and carrots and a leek and a celery. And then another trick you will very often find is an onion stuck with three cloves. So I shall do an onion stuck with three cloves. And the reason you put the cloves in this so that when you skin the stick, the cloves won’t be skimmed off, that they will stay there. So there you are. That’s really very pretty. And in that goes. I think I’ve got so many bones there’s not gonna be room for it. I’m gonna take out– I’ll take out three and save them And maybe the onion will fit in. There. And you should have enough liquid so that your bones are covered. I’ve really got too many bones just because it was fun. But when you do it, have enough liquid so that they will be covered by about two or three inches. And then about a good tablespoon of salt. I use coarse salt there. And it’s going to put in a bit of garlic, too. You don’t even need to peel them. Take two or three cloves of garlic and plop right in. And you have to have herbs in also to give flavor. And you always have parsley. This is going to be a bouquet garni. Parsley and a bay leaf. And if you have fresh thyme, you’d add the first thyme and just wrap it all up. But I only have some dried thyme, so I’ll use a piece of well-washed cheesecloth and lay all that in. And put in about a good teaspoon of fresh thyme. And it just gets wrapped up and tied up. And this, again, is so that when you are skimming your soup– I don’t think that’s as– is not as neat a bouquet garni as I have seen. But everything is going to hold together. And that goes in. And then you want– this is to simmer. I’m going to put this over here on the heat. And this is– when this comes up to the simmer, you will have a lot of scum. And you just take your little– well, I did have my fat then. It’s now– I put it away. But you keep skimming it with your spoon. And you skim off all these dark scum that comes up. And the scum will keep coming up for about five minutes or so. And you keep skimming it. And then you dig down around to see if there’s any more scum that’s going to come in. And then as soon as the scum has ceased to rise, you cover the pan partially. And that’s all you have to do. But it takes eight hours. That’s a long time. Eight hours to get the best out of your soup bones. And that doesn’t mean that you have to sit and watch this pot for eight hours. You could go out and play a snappy game of croquet and go to the movies and come back again. As long as you have regulated it to the very slow simmer. But it would– it– it’s– it would– it’s silly to even make a stock unless you’re gonna cook it long enough. And the reason that you want these bones is because it gives an absolutely wonderful texture and quality to your stock. So this is how to make a soup. The official name is a beef stock. And when it’s done, when you feel you’ve gotten all of the– all of the character of your bones, you strain it, and you degrease it. And then you can– and then you can freeze it, or you can just refrigerate it. But for– it has to cook at least for four hours when you’re going to do it for the pot-au-feu. But every time that you see a recipe calling for beef stock, this is it. And it makes so much difference in the recipe that you’re going to have, like a Beef Bourguignon. If you use your own beef stock, it’s just marvelous. While it can be just so-so otherwise. And for this we are using– this beef is going to have to boil in this stock. And I’m going to use this piece of– of boneless chuck. And it already has been tied up. And if the– if the meat that you have hasn’t been tied, no matter what kind it is, even if it is a shank, tie it up, because it’s going to come apart a bit as it cooks. It has to cook quite a long time. And there’s this– you can see is parting in two pieces. There are two flaps here. And if you didn’t tie it up, it could all separate. And then another reason that you want to tie it is that if you cook several pieces of meat together in the same pot, they take different times to cook. Like, say, your chuck might take three hours, and you’d have a piece of– of shin, and that might take four hours. But what you can do , you can take the piece of meat out when it’s ready. So make a long piece of string here that you can tie on to the edge of your pot. And then you can pull the meat out and check it and see if it’s done. And it– it looks rather cute that way anyway. But the important thing is to remember, if you’re going to do boiled beef, is to get the kind of meat that has fat and lean in it and bit of gelatin in it. And you want your bones also so that you can have an interesting soup as well as lovely meat. And here is ready beef stock. This is all cooked and it still has the bones and everything else in it. And in goes this nice piece of chuck. And I’m gonna tie– tie it to the handle. And this piece of meat– this happens to be of a very good quality. And I think– and it’s about a five-pound piece, that would be about two and a half to three hours. But it makes a great deal of difference what the quality of the meat is, whether it is, um, whether it’s Prime or Choice and also where it comes from. I think this will take about two– two hours, two and a half hours. And something else might take four hours. But you can get it all done ahead, and you can keep it warm so that you don’t have to worry how long it takes, really. Now, the– our boiled beef dinner also has a bouquet of fresh vegetables. it has carrots and onions and boiled potatoes. And we’ve done those so much I thought that I would concentrate more on the little less usual ones. We’re going to have turnips and parsnips. And the traditional thing is to cook all the vegetables along with the pot-au-feu in the same kettle. You add them according to how long you think they’ll take to cook. And in my experience, this ends up in mushy vegetables, and I don’t like them. I like to have the vegetables absolutely perfect. And– and delicious in every way. So I prefer to cook them in separate pots. I like– here are the turnips– and these are nice white turnips. And they’ve got to be carefully peeled. The height of the white turnip season is in the wintertime. And I must say I’m– I’m a great turnip fancier, and I just think they’re delicious. And one reason, also, for cooking the vegetables separately, particularly turnips, is that if you want to use this beautiful beef stock for something else, you don’t want too much turnip flavor in them. That’s– I’m going to cut this into quarters. I want them– or they could be cut in half. I guess that’s– half is about right. And there’s another one that’s whole. It’s rather hard return with turnips to get them the right size. I mean all the same size. I think some half and some whole. I’m going to put these into a pot. And then parsnips, which is a nice vegetable not appreciated by many. But I think it has an interesting taste. And I like using vegetables you don’t see all the time. And this parsnip is just being– I’m just peeling it with a vegetable peeler. They have a– have a very particular taste. They’re quite aromatic. I like them very much. And that one I’m going to cut into several pieces. That part I’ll just cut in half. And that one in quarters. And that great big end– it has a– it has a particularly aromatic taste and even a smell. I like them very much. These can cook along with the turnips because they both take about the same time. And then another thing I think is very nice to have, because it’s pretty and it’s fresh, is cabbage, And there’s a nice big savoy cabbage. I’m just gonna cut it in half. It’s so pretty. And then I’m going to cut it in two. First I’ll take the core out here. And then I’m gonna cut it into three wedges. Now another reason for cooking things separately is that if you cook the cabbage along in your big stock pot, it’s going really make too strong a taste for you to use to the stock for something else. And this is going– I’m gonna steam this. I’m gonna put it into a sieve. Or into a vegetable steamer, whichever you prefer, in its wedges. And those big leaves I can save for soup. I think some people think, oh, I don’t like cabbage. It smells up the house, and so on and so forth. But I think the reason you might have that impression is because cabbage– if you cook cabbage too long, then it does begin to smell. The thing to do is to cook it, steam it and cook it until it’s just done. And then you don’t have that very unpleasant cabbage-y smell, which you sometimes find in like in in old apartment houses. Now, where are– [inaudible] a few little more parsnips in there, which I shall add. Then I’m not going to do– do the carrots and onions because we’ve done them so much. And they’re really done exactly the way the turnips and parsnips are done. Now the cabbage, for steaming it, it’s gonna steam in some of this beautiful meat stock. This is when you hear of old peasants having pots of stock on the stove. It’s very much like that. Because you can use it for absolutely everything. Gonna heat that up. And then the cabbage goes in. And then pour a little bit of your stock over the cabbage. And that’s one reason you leave it with its– with its curved side down so that it can hold on to this– hold on to this little stock flavoring. And then it has a little salt. That’s a little bit of kosher salt I’m putting in there. And a little bit of pepper. And then it gets its cover on. And it just steams. I’m going to put it over on this burner. And it only takes about 10 minutes. But keep looking at it, because quickly cabbage cooks quicker. Now we have, again, the– these are the turnips and parsnips. And, again, they get cooked in this delicious stock. And they don’t need a great deal, about, say, a cup. Enough to come about 2/3 the way up. And they should have a little bit of salt in also. [coughs] And they get covered. Then they cook only about 10 minutes. But you want to be very sure that they don’t get overcooked. And here’s what they look like when they get done. And as soon as they’re cooked, you take the cover and let them cool off. And then you can reheat them when you need them again. And these are all cooked now, so I’m going to reheat them so that they’ll be ready when the dish is assembled. And we also have–I’m gonna move these over here– the carrots and onions. And these are done exactly the same way, with a little bit of stock. And they’re simmered quietly, covered, until they’re done. And with this– doing the vegetable this way, you have complete control over them. They’re not– you’re not going to have vegetables that are overcooked and mushy old things, which I– I think they’re just horrible. So I much prefer this method of doing it. Now, I’m going to take out the meat. I’ve got two pieces. I have ones that just went in and then one that’s just done with those beautiful bits of leek on it I shall remove. And then you want to test it. And it is done when you can put– poke a little knife into it and it just goes in. And you want to be very careful not to overcook it. And if you have any question as to whether it’s done, cut a little piece off and eat it. And if you see that it– it still needs a little more cooking, let it cook some more. But it should rest for about 20 minutes before you carve it. Because then– the meat re-composes itself and it makes it easier to carve. And that’s particularly true when you’re doing, say, brisket. Because brisket can sometimes be rather– rather springy. But if you let it rest, it comes back. And I want to show you some of these pieces of meat and how they look when you carve it, because sometimes that’s a bit of a problem. Now here’s our– here’s our shin meat, our gite-gite. There’s that big bone. And you just cut the bone off, or cut the meat off the bone. And the shin I think is not pretty to look at, but it has– it has very, very nice meat. I think that’s often the problem that you have here, that in these good pieces for boiling, the meat is not pretty. But it’s very good. Now I’m gonna put two of those pieces– put on the wrong– I’m not doing as neat a job here as I could. But I’ll put these underneath. I just wanted you to see how these pieces looked so that you wouldn’t be surprised if you’ve got a piece of shin and then it looked like this, because that’s the way it’s supposed to look. And now we have brisket. And then this brisket, you see there’s a top piece and a bottom piece. And you should separate the two, because the grain goes in different ways. There’s the heavy part of the brisket. And you cut that on the slant that like. And you always cut across the grain. So for each one of those pieces, you cut across the grain. But you have to separate them. And that is going on to the dish. And then I’m going to get to the– to our– our piece of chuck, our boneless chuck, which includes the– which includes the flunken. I’m gonna have to cut these pieces of string off. This is very typical boiled beef, all kinds of string and hanging bits of– hanging bits of vegetables. Now, this one, you have your two pieces. Now if I can see which– you can see there that there is a separation. I think it’s usually a good idea to separate these. In this case, I think I won’t separate it. So I’ll just carve it right down and you’ll how that will work. But often in some pieces, if they separate, you should– you should do so. I think that, now that I’ve carved off that first piece– there. And if there’s fat on this part here, take it off. And then also for carving it, cut it on the slant like that, because the pieces of meat look better and look bigger. In other words, use your own good judgment, but give the meat the best benefit you can, making it look well, making the slices look very large, whether or not they are. Because that is what will make your– will make your dinner look sumptuous. Now here’s the cabbage. You see by the steaming it that way, it’s retained all of its lovely color. And the cabbage, again, if you had to do it ahead of– ahead of time, let it– you could let it cool off and then reheat it again. But for heaven’s sake, don’t overcook it. And here we have the onions and carrots. And you may very well find that you don’t have a dish that’s big enough to hold all the vegetables, but use enough vegetables to garnish the dish. And then have another dish to put the rest of them on. And there are the turnips and parsnips. And I can see very definitely I should have another dish here for the rest of the vegetables. And then I have some boiled potatoes over here. You could almost serve the potatoes on a separate dish. I think I should have a few little carrots in there to brighten that– up that corner. And then you have all of your juices, which should be reunited together. So you pour all the juices together. I’m not gonna pour them all, but you get the idea there. Then you have an absolutely delicious stock to serve with the meat. Then you want to put a little bit of– a little bit of juice over everything. And then you can add more stock. Well then you can use the– after you have well degreased the stock in your pan and added it at all to this, you can serve the soup as a first course if you want. Or you can serve it another day. But you can usually always have a bowl of it that you pass along with the meal. Well that’s really very pretty. And there’s a little bit of parsley then around it. And it is all ready to serve. And here we go. What’s nice about– I think what’s nice about this, it always smells very good. It smells good when it’s cooking. And it smells good when you come into the house. And there’s a nice piece of meat on there. And there’s some carrots and onions and turnips and a parsnip, cabbage. Yeah. Awfully good. I’ll give it another and a potato and then a little bit of sauce on. And you’d serve some French bread. You could serve another sauce along with it, like a tomato sauce or a cream sauce. And with some wine, a nice red wine. Now, every– every culture has a boiled dinner, from Irish corned beef to Italian bollito misto. And this is– I think this is the most famous French version, this pot-au-feu. So that’s all for today on "The French Chef." This is Julia Child. Bon appetit. [music playing] NARRATOR: This program was made possible by a grant from Polaroid Corporation. [music playing] NARRATOR: Julia Child is the author of "From Julia Child’s Kitchen," which includes the recipes from this program.