French · Main
Pot-au-Feu
Three cuts of beef, marrow bones and winter vegetables in a limpid broth — France's national dish; serve the bouillon first, ritual intact
- Prep
- 30 min
- Cook
- 240 min
- Serves
- 8
Ingredients
- Beef shin, whole piece — 800 g
- Beef chuck — 800 g
- Oxtail or short rib — 600 g
- Marrow bones — 4
- Water — 4.5 L
- Onions, halved, charred — 2 (300 g)
- Cloves — 3
- Carrots — 600 g
- Leeks, tied — 500 g
- Turnips — 400 g
- Celery — 100 g
- Waxy potatoes — 600 g
- Garlic head — 1
- Thyme — 5 sprigs; bay 2; peppercorns 5 g
- Coarse salt — 25 g
- To serve: gros sel, Dijon, cornichons, toasted baguette for the marrow
Method
- Start meats (not marrow) in cold water; bring up slowly, skimming relentlessly for the first 30 min.
- Add charred onions, cloves, garlic, herbs, peppercorns and salt; simmer at 90 °C, lid ajar, 3 h.
- Add carrots, turnips and celery; simmer 30 min. Add leeks; 25 min more. Cook potatoes separately in salted water (keeps the broth clear).
- Wrap marrow bones in muslin; poach in the pot the final 20 min.
- Rest meats in broth 15 min; strain and degrease the bouillon; season.
- Serve the bouillon first, in cups.
- Carve meats; plate with vegetables, potatoes, a ladle of broth and the marrow bones.