Pot-au-feu

(ˌpɒtoʊˈfɜːr; pɔt‿o fø; "pot on the fire") is a French dish of slowly boiled meat and vegetables, usually served as two courses: first the broth (bouillon) and then the meat (bouilli) and vegetables. The dish is familiar throughout France, and has many regional variations. The best-known have beef as the main meat, but pork, ham, chicken and sausage are also used. The Oxford Companion to Food calls pot-au-feu "a dish symbolic of French cuisine and a meal in itself"; the chef Raymond Blanc has called it "the quintessence of French family cuisine ... the most celebrated dish in France, [which] honours the tables of the rich and poor alike"; and the American National Geographic magazine has termed it the national dish of France. The Dictionnaire de l'Académie française dates the term pot-au-feu to the 17th century. In 1600 the king of France, Henry IV, declared, "there shall be no peasant in my kingdom who lacks the means to have a hen in his pot."refn|"N'y aura point de Laboureur en mon Royaume, qui n'ait moyen d'avoir une poule dans son pot."|group=n A one-pot stew was a staple of French cooking, and the traditional recipe for poule-au-pot – also known as pot-au-feu à la béarnaise – resembles that for pot-au-feu. One batch of pot-au-feu was maintained as a perpetual stew in Perpignan from the 15th century until World War II. The principal ingredient in most versions of pot-au-feu is beef. Many recipes specify more than one cut of beef to give both the broth and the cooked meat the required flavour and consistency. Elizabeth David writes that shin, because of its gelatinous properties, is good for the bouillon but produces a mediocre boulli, whereas a cut such as silverside cooks well for the boulli. For a large pot-au-feu it is practicable to use both those cuts or a mixture of others. Paul Bocuse calls for six different cuts: blade, brisket, entrecôte, oxtail, rib and shin. Some recipes add a marrow bone, to give marrow to spread on the bread served with the broth. Some recipes add ox liver to improve the clarity of the broth.