Whilst I have gone by a
few
Boucherie in my times in France and looked through the windows
eager to see the difference between the French style of butchery and
display but alas I have never been inside one of these meat
emporiums. There are a couple of reasons why not and those are 'lack
of French language skills' and 'lack of anywhere to cook the meat'
due to staying in a hotel whilst in France. In my travels over the
years I have passed by Halal butchers, traditional French butchers,
witnessed pre-packed meats in the
Intermarché
and
Monoprix supermarkets and have been intrigued by whole massive
freezer cabinets stuffed to the brim with duck products. The nearest
I ever got to going into a butchers was in Paris (2006) when I asked
permission to take a photo of a rotisserie of cooking chickens
cooking in thyme. The smell was to die for! So, cher readers I
recently phoned my friends, Jean and Nick who have a property in
Le
Grand Pressigny and are regular visitors to France and, like me, are
big Francophiles. I thought that if anyone would know it would be
them.
We had a lovely
conversation and the outcome was that their experience of going to a
French butcher was based on visits to a village butchers and they
both said that it was like going back to the 1950s. I spoke mostly to
Nick and Jean has forwarded me some links to
HER BLOG that have proved very good in writing this blogpost. Many thanks for your encouragement Jean and Nick. I hope that you like what I have written.
So here is a slice of Nick and Jean's experience of shopping at the village butcher owned by M & Mme Poupeau.
Jean: "One thing I do like about the French butchers there is the way they give old fashioned personal attention to each customer regardless of how many people are waiting in the queue. And those waiting always seem perfectly happy to wait their turn. They exchange pleasantries, wrap meat beautifully, often in two layers of paper tied with string, almost as if the person they are serving is the only one in the shop! The couple in LGP never rush a customer because people are waiting, so different to over here."
image supplied by Jean
Nick: "Well, this is how it is Phil, one day we plucked up courage to enter the village butchers. I say this because, even now, a trip to the butcher is a slightly unnerving experience. Personally I find it makes a huge difference how many people are in the shop already when I enter. Look at it this way, let's say there are just one or two customers waiting therefore I have enough time to scan the produce on offer, decide what to have, configure actually how to ask for it in French, buy it and leave before I lose my nerve. If there are too many people in front of me I lose track of what I want because I'm busy listening to the locals who buy all kinds of scary looking stuff and know exactly what to do with it. Then I realise that it is finally my turn and I'm forced to speak French. I try not to appear nervous and the reality is that the proprietors, M. and Mme. Poupeau are immensely patient, helpful and kind to us and have never ever said a single word that was intended to make us feel uncomfortable or inadequate in any way."
image supplied by Jean
Jean: " One day we were in luck. There was just one person in front of us Phil, so we checked out the meat in the display and also spotted some quiche and taboulé we would have for lunch plus some paté we could serve as a starter for our little dinner party. This was quite an order and we were feeling confident. Nick was at the helm and he asked Mme for "un pièce de boeuf à rôtir pour quatre personnes" (in his best Crabtree accent). Lydie Poupeau smiled, disappeared in the back and re-emerged with the biggest and most fabulous piece of meat I have ever seen in my life. She sliced a piece off and took the rest back to the fridge, re-emerging with a large parcel. This turned out to be thin slices of fat, some of which she wrapped around the meat and tied in place with string from a ball nailed to the ceiling. We marvelled at the whole performance. Next our joint was wrapped and weighed, hitting the mark at 800 grams exactly! With a sweet smile, she lifted it up and as she was about to hand it to Nick she seemed to have second thoughts and quickly drew it back towards her, just out of his grasp! Then she said, in a stern voice. "quinze minutes, Monsieur". About two seconds passed as their eyes met and she said, leaning forwards ever so slightly, "quinze minutes......vingt minutes, maximum !"
Quick thinking as ever, Nick replied "Mais oui Madame, vignt minutes, bien sûr !" Satisfied that we were going to treat her beef with the respect it deserved, she allowed us to pay for it and we left the shop with our purchases, stunned but happy."
Nick:" That's right - the thing about the French butchers is that they are extremely passionate about giving you the very precise piece of meat that you want and really keen to know how you are going to cook it and want to offer their sage advice into the shopping bargain to make absolutely sure you go away and the correct thing and the very best correct thing at that. Plus the provenance of the produce is key to the French people's enjoyment of food. "
Jean:"At Easter the French (mainly Catholic) eat lamb and lamb in France is very expensive. They won't touch New Zealand lamb - it has to be French almost down to knowing what field the lamb grazed in! So what they tend to do is buy a small piece and really enjoy the taste rather than spend a fortune. Saying that, there was a queue right round the block last Easter for M. Poupeau's delicious lamb!
Nick:" What is interesting is that if you want something actually chopped with the cleaver the lady owner will hand the cleaving job to her husband Laurent as the huge cleaver is too heavy for this tiny woman to use. Also, there is not so much constant hand washing as in the butchery shops in the UK and the displays are fantastic even for a small village butcher and the choices of cuts are very different to those in British shops. They'll have stuffed meats on offer and steaks and chops all done in fantastic herbs and of course the French aren't shy about putting all the offal out for sale including brains. Like I said, it is like going back to the 1950s and '60s and nothing - nothing at all is wrapped in plastic! You might get a plastic bag to carry all your goodies home in, that's it. All is carefully wrapped in paper and done with such pleasure and pride. My particular favourite from their shop is the Morteau boiling sausage - Saucisse de Morteau smoked to perfection."
Nick also mentioned the layout in the meat cabinet wasn't sectioned as in the UK, all the trays of raw meat were sitting happily alongside, beautiful chickens and rabbit portions, fresh salads, pates, sausages fresh and cured and terrines. He also said that the shop they go to had very pretty rustic tiles with images of rural life on them and the whole shop was spotlessly clean.
Le Grand Pressigny is situated in the Touraine region of the Loire Valley and the region specialises in andouillette de la Touraine in which calves and pigs cauls and the pluck are used to combine the taste advantages of both and give a satisfactorily balanced taste. Even across this region there have been two factions that swear that one way is better than the other in the meat content. Troyes prefer the pork and the folk of the area around Lyon have a preference for veal. Andouillettes must conform to a decree which dates from 1912 and the Association Amicale des Amateurs d'Andouillette Authentique (yes the AAAAA!) awards diplomas on which the customers can rely.
This region is also well known for the famous rillons, a speciality from Touraine, large pieces of cut pork shoulder and belly pork with milky fat running through them. These are browned with caramel added into the mix. The pieces are put into a large larded pot, sea salt added and allowed to soak. Towards the end of the soak a bottle of Vouvray wine is added and the meat is fried in the mixture and when cool, bottled up for future enjoyment.
classy butcher's shop frontage in Paris
The French have something called Variety Meats and this practice of butchery and tripe dealing distinguish between what they call white meats and red meats. The white meats cover the various stomachs, intestines, trotters, ears and heads. The second group represents organs like the heart, the livers and the testicles, the brain, the tongue, the cheek and the tail and the origins go back to usage of the cuts in pre-historic times when the parts were eaten in ritual to gain the traits of the animal associated with them. As you may imagine Variety Meats are not to everyone's taste but the French certainly like to use every part of the animal in their Boucherie.
Here are some unfamiliar names that you may be confronted with in the beautiful butchery displays in France.
Animelles - Ram's testicles.
Caillette - Rennet stomach.
Joue de boeuf - Bull's cheek
Langues de beouf, agneau et veau - Bull's, lamb's or calf tongues.
Ris de veau et agneau - Calf and lambs sweetbreads.
Cervelle de veau - Calf's brain.
Gras double - Tripe.
Tetine - Cooked udder.
Panse - Paunch.
Now I've scared you with the names above I've put together a collection of French words for products and cooking styles you might find in a traditional French butcher's establishment.
La viande et la
volaille – meat and poultry.
L'agneau – lamb
le boucher – butcher
l'allonge – meat hook
la balance – scales
le fusil – knife
steel
le bacon – bacon
les saucisses –
sausages
le foie – liver
le porc – porc
la venaison – venison
le boeuf – beef
le veau – veal
la langue de boeuf –
ox tongue
les abats – offal
salé
– cured
fumé
– smoked
de
ferme – free range
naturel
– organic
la
viande blanche – white meat
la
viande rouge – red meat
la
viande maigre – lean meat
la
viande cuite – cooked meat
les
morceaux de viande – cuts of meat
le
jambon – ham
la
couenne – rind
la
tranche – slice
la
viande hachée – mince
le
filet – fillet
le
rumsteck – rump steak
le
bifteck d'aloyau – sirloin steak
la
côte de boeuf – rib
le
gigot – joint
le
coeur – heart
la
peau – skin
le
blanc – breast (as in chicken)
la
cuisse – thigh
le
poulet – chicken
le
poulet préparé – dressed chicken
la
cuisse – leg
la
caille – quail
le
canard – duck
l'oie
– goose
la
charcuterie – delicatessen
le
comptoir – counter
en
saumure – in brine
mariné
– marinated.
les
pâtés en croûte – pies
les
saucisson piquant – spicy sausage
le
salami – salami
la
tourte – pie
le
rôti – roast
le
ragoût – stew
le
chiche kebab – kebab
les
boulettes de viande – meatballs
farci
– stuffed
grillé
– grilled
cuit
à la vapeur - steamed
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