Name: Mourtayrol
Yield: [For eight]
Cuisine: French
Ingredients: salt; 300 g (10½ oz) celeriac; 300 g (10½ oz) leeks; 300 g (10½ oz) carrots; 300 g (10½ oz) turnips; 2 g (30 grains) saffron; 8 slices slightly stale rye bread; freshly ground pepper; 1 kg (2 lb 3 oz) beef (plat de côtes or culotte); 1 boiling hen of about 1.8 kg (4 lb); 2 onions; 4 cloves; 400 g (14 oz) raw ham, if possible with bone

Preparation info

[For
eight
]

Difficulty
Easy

Appears in

Mourjou

By Peter Graham

Published 1999

About

Mourtayrol is a sumptuous saffron-flavoured concoction of several different boiled meats which, like pot-au-feu or potée, is served in two instalments, one liquid, the other solid. It is something of a mystery dish. It almost never appears on restaurant menus or family tables nowadays, not even at banquets. This is not easily explained. The reason can hardly be that saffron is no longer cultivated in the Rouergue, the home of the dish, as the spice is widely available t