Name: French Boiled Beef and Vegetables (Pot-au-Feu)
Yield: Makes 8 Main-Course Servings
Cuisine: France
Ingredients: 8 marrow bones, wrapped together in cheesecloth; salt; sour gherkins (cornichons); 1 2-pound beef brisket or chuck roast, tied up with string; Dijon mustard; 2 cloves, stuck into one of the onions; 1 large bouquet garni; 2 pounds beef short ribs, cut into 3-inch lengths, at least 1 per serving; 3 large carrots, halved lengthwise and cut into 2-inch lengths; 2 pounds beef shank, cut into 2 1-½-inch-thick slices; slices of French bread, toasted; 4 leeks, white part and 1 inch of green, split in half lengthwise and washed; coarse salt; 2 celery ribs, cut into 2-inch lengths; 1 large turnip, peeled and cut into 8 wedges; 16 golf-ball-size white onions, peeled

Preparation info

Makes
8
Main-Course Servings

Difficulty
Easy

Appears in

Splendid Soups

By James Peterson

Published 2000

About

If the glory of French cooking can be summed up with one dish, it is a simple pot of simmered beef and vegetables—the pot-au-feu—(pronounced poe toe fuh) left on the corner of the farmhouse stove or, better yet, over the coals in the hearth. This dish is often a surprise to Americans, who usually think of French dishes as laden with butter and cream. Pot-au-feu is almost completely lean and contains no dairy products.

Although the French have romanticized pot-au-feu