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Baeckeoffe
This recipe comes to us from the authors of several fascinating books on food philosophy, John Thorne and Matt Lewis Thorne. You can subscribe to their bimonthly food newsletter called 'Simple Cooking'. Visit them online at Outlaw Cook
Submitted by: John Thorne from Northhampton, MA
Yield: Serves 8
Preparation Instructions:
The day before:
- Cut the meat into bite-sized pieces and put them in large nonreactive container with the pig’s feet.
- Toss with the salt, pepper, herbs, garlic, celery leaves, and parsley.
- Moisten with the wine.
- Cover and refrigerate overnight.
Assembling and cooking:
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Select a large ovenproof casserole with a lid. Grease the bottom and sides with the butter lard. Lay the pig’s feet on the bottom and cover with half the potatoes, onions, leeks, and carrots. Remove the meat from the marinade and add, covering it with the remaining vegetables, ending with the potatoes. Strain the marinade through a sieve and pour the liquid over the contents of the pot. If necessary, add some extra wine or water to bring the liquid barely to the top of the vegetables.
- Work the sealing paste ingredients into a dough and roll this out into a rope long enough to wrap around the casserole. Press it firmly against the join between the lid and the casserole. Put the sealed pot intro the oven and cook for 1 hour. At this point, reduce the heat to 350 degrees F and continue cooking for 1 1/2 hours more.
- For the most dramatic presentation, bring the casserole to the table, set it on a trivet, and break away the seal with the edge of a table knife. Otherwise, of course, this can be done in the kitchen and servings of the baeckeoffe brought to the table in shallow bowls. Serve with green salad, a loaf of crusty bread, and some of the same white wine used for making the marinade.
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More About This Recipe
The pig’s feet provide a gelatinous cast to the baeckeoffe’s juices. Oxtail is another traditional option, as is nothing at all. The luting paste is meant as much as it is to keep the wine’s vaporous aroma’s from escaping as it is to keep the cooking liquid from evaporating. A band of heavy aluminum foil will work almost as well.
If you enjoyed this recipe, check out more French recipes here.
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Baeckeoffe- wonderful stuff, and a wonderful recipe that was originally published in Andre Soltner’s classic, The Lutece Cookbook (1995). Then there is a lucid on-line vid of Soltner in about 2013 explaining the history and cooking Baeckeoffe for the on-line audience [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DvpZxTAVEF8], and the Soltner recipe also appeared in Saveur (2014) – http://saveur.cc/RjuceX. Those interested in this dish should utilize these resources. It is very, very good. Five stars for Soltner’s recipes.
Surely John and Matt Lewis Thorne knew/know of Andre Soltner’s work as a chef and food writer, and perhaps the recipes I mention above. But it is not clear to me why John Thorne did not credit the origin of this recipe- perhaps it came from and even older source. Is this an oversight, or simply bad scholarship? One star (or less) for shoddy reporting.
The traditional recipe calls for a lid of bread dough. The bread absorbs the taste of the stew and is delicious served with it. This was a dish made on laundry day when the women had no time to prepare a hot meal for their husbands. Thus they brought their prepared casserole to the bakers who would seal it with dough and cook it all day in his oven. On their way home from the river or wash house, the women would pick up the warm dish and go home to feed the family.
I lived in Germany, near the French border and Baeckeoffe is a very traditional ALSATIAN dish. The town of Soufflenheim (about 30 kms from where we lived) sold the decorative clay pots meant for this dish.
The recipe is basically a meat & potato stew but simmered in the oven. I always add leeks and onions, following a recipe given to me by an Alsatian lady. Great dish to serve on cold winter weekends! It always tastes better the next day!!
I was just wondering, what this is supposed to be. I am a passionate cook, and I am German, so I would guess this is like Backofen (oven), but other than that, i have never heard of this recipe. So, which region is it supposed to be coming from, you guys?? Enlighten me, and I will hit you back with a delicious recipe for Backeskartoffeln (about 200 year old recipe with sour cream, potatoes, pork, wine and cinnamon..) D. Wilkins