Chef Juliette
Bouillabaisse à la Marseillaise
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Fricassée de Veau
Created by Chef Juliette
Based on No. 1276, Fricassée de Veau, from Le Guide Culinaire (1907) by Auguste Escoffier
Veal stiffened gently in butter without a trace of colour, floured in the pan, and simmered with mushrooms and onions before egg yolks and cream turn its white sauce silken.
Soups & Stews
French
Comfort Food
Make Ahead
30 min
Active Time
1 hr 20 min cook•1 hr 50 min total
Yield4 servings
Fricassée de veau (veal stiffened in butter and cooked in its own white sauce) teaches control without colour. The one true thing to know before touching the pan is this: the veal must turn firm and opaque in foaming butter without acquiring a golden edge. This is raidir, to stiffen gently, and the word carries the technique. Brown the meat and you haven't ruined supper, but you've left the pale, delicate character of a fricassée behind.
The original formula assumed a saucier on staff, white stock never off the fire, and enough veal for a dining room. Here, a heavy lidded sauté pan holds four portions, while measured pale stock replaces the brigade stockpot. Separate garnish pans and last-minute sauce service are scaffolding, so they go. What remains is the dish itself: one ounce of flour for every pound of veal, the flour cooked with the meat, the mushrooms and onions simmered in that sauce, and the liaison of egg yolks and cream added off the heat. One cook, one stove, one evening.
The finished sauce should be ivory, glossy, and just thick enough to follow the spoon, with tender veal and vegetables that taste of the sauce because they cooked inside it. Keep the butter pale during the raidir. That is the step that decides the fricassée before everything else begins.
Fricassée de veau belongs to the cuisine bourgeoise table and to the Parisian classical kitchen that codified its working method, rather than to a single regional larder. It traveled from household white stew into the grand-kitchen repertoire, where its distinction from blanquette became exact: blanquette begins by cooking raw meat in liquid, while fricassée first stiffens the meat in butter without colour and cooks the flour directly with it. Mushrooms and small onions are not decorative extras; they cook in the sauce and belong to the dish's generous table register.
The technique, the tradition, and the story behind every dish.
Discover Culinary ExplorerIngredients
boneless veal shoulder
Quantity
2 lb (907 g)
cut into 1½-inch (4 cm) pieces
fine sea salt
Quantity
1½ teaspoons (7.5 ml / 9 g)
divided
ground white pepper
Quantity
½ teaspoon (2.5 ml / 1 g)
unsalted butter
Quantity
¼ cup (60 ml / 57 g)
plain flour
Quantity
Scant ½ cup (110 ml / 57 g)
pale unsalted white veal stock or chicken stock
Quantity
3½ cups (830 ml / 830 g)
warmed and divided
small pearl onions
Quantity
12, about 1 cup (240 ml / 150 g)
peeled
small button mushrooms
Quantity
2½ cups (590 ml / 225 g)
trimmed and halved if large
large egg yolks
Quantity
2
heavy cream
Quantity
½ cup (120 ml / 120 g)
| Ingredient | Quantity |
|---|---|
| boneless veal shouldercut into 1½-inch (4 cm) pieces | 2 lb (907 g) |
| fine sea saltdivided | 1½ teaspoons (7.5 ml / 9 g) |
| ground white pepper | ½ teaspoon (2.5 ml / 1 g) |
| unsalted butter | ¼ cup (60 ml / 57 g) |
| plain flour | Scant ½ cup (110 ml / 57 g) |
| pale unsalted white veal stock or chicken stockwarmed and divided | 3½ cups (830 ml / 830 g) |
| small pearl onionspeeled | 12, about 1 cup (240 ml / 150 g) |
| small button mushroomstrimmed and halved if large | 2½ cups (590 ml / 225 g) |
| large egg yolks | 2 |
| heavy cream | ½ cup (120 ml / 120 g) |
Equipment Needed
- •5-quart heavy casserole or deep sauté pan with lid
- •Small saucepan for warming stock
- •Balloon whisk
- •Fine-mesh sieve for the liaison rescue
Instructions
- 1
Prepare the pan
Pat the veal dry, then season it with 1 teaspoon of the salt and the white pepper. Warm the stock in a saucepan and keep ½ cup aside for adjusting the sauce later. Have the onions and mushrooms ready before the butter meets the pan; once the flour goes in, the method should move without interruption.
Use pale, unsalted stock. A deeply roasted stock brings brown colour and a stronger flavour that overwhelms the veal, while salted stock may become harsh as the sauce concentrates. - 2
Raidir the veal
Melt the butter in a heavy 5-quart casserole or deep sauté pan over medium-low heat. When it foams but remains pale, add the veal in a roomy layer and turn the pieces for 5 to 7 minutes. They should become opaque and slightly firm on every surface without browning. If the butter begins to colour, take the pan off the heat, add 1 tablespoon of the reserved stock, and lower the burner before continuing. Ça se rattrape. Pale butter, gentle heat, constant attention.
- 3
Cook the flour
Sprinkle the flour evenly over the veal. This preserves the original proportion exactly, one ounce of flour for each pound of meat. Turn the pieces gently for 3 minutes so every trace of flour meets the butter and loses its raw smell, but do not let it toast. The pan will look chalky and rather crowded. It is exactly right. If the flour begins to catch or turn beige, move the pan off the heat and stir in 2 tablespoons of warm stock at once before it darkens.
- 4
Moisten the sauce
Pour in 3 cups of the warm stock gradually, stirring continuously to dissolve the flour around the meat before adding more. Scrape the corners and floor of the pan so no flour hides there. Add the pearl onions, then bring the sauce just to a boil while stirring. The moment it boils, lower the heat to a bare simmer and partially cover the pan. This brief boil sets the flour's thickening power; the gentle cooking afterward keeps the veal tender.
- 5
Simmer the garnish
Cook the veal and onions at the quietest simmer for 35 minutes, stirring along the floor every 10 minutes. Add the mushrooms and continue for 20 to 30 minutes, until the veal yields easily to a fork and the onions are tender but still whole. Both garnishes cook in the sauce, as the formula requires. If the sauce tightens before the veal is tender, add the reserved stock a spoonful at a time. If the veal is ready while the sauce remains loose, lift out the meat and vegetables and simmer the sauce briefly until it lightly coats a spoon.
- 6
Make the liaison
Transfer the veal, onions, and mushrooms to a warm serving dish. Take the sauce completely off the heat and wait until active bubbling stops. Whisk the egg yolks and cream together, then whisk in three ladlefuls of hot sauce, one at a time. Stir this tempered liaison back into the pan. The residual heat will give the sauce its final silken body. Do not boil it now, because boiling curdles the yolks. If it begins to look grainy, whisk in a tablespoon of cold cream immediately. If it has gone further, strain it through a fine sieve into a clean bowl. Ça se rattrape.
- 7
Coat and serve
Taste the sauce and add the remaining salt only as needed. It should fall from the spoon in a smooth ivory ribbon, rich but not stodgy. If it is too thick, loosen it off the heat with a spoonful of warm stock. Pour the sauce over the veal and its garnish, turning everything once so it is generously coated. Serve at once, and never let the finished fricassée boil during holding or reheating. À table!
Chef Tips
- •Choose veal shoulder, not thin scallops or lean roasting meat. Shoulder contains enough connective tissue to become tender during the gentle simmer and gives the sauce some natural body.
- •White veal stock is ideal, but a pale, unsalted chicken stock is the honest home equivalent when veal stock isn't waiting on the stove. Avoid dark roasted stock. It changes both the colour and the intention of the dish.
- •The flour quantity is not guesswork: 2 ounces for 2 pounds of veal, preserving the source formula's one ounce per pound. Cook it with the meat before adding stock, because that sequence is what separates this sauce from one thickened afterward.
- •A dry, full-bodied white wine suits the cream and veal without bullying them. Serve the fricassée with plain rice or buttered potatoes, something quiet enough to carry the sauce.
Advance Preparation
- •Cook the veal, onions, and mushrooms through the simmering stage up to a day ahead, but stop before adding the egg-yolk liaison. Cool promptly, cover, and refrigerate.
- •Reheat the unfinished fricassée slowly to a bare simmer, adding a little stock if the flour-bound sauce has tightened. Remove it completely from the heat before tempering and adding the yolks and cream.
- •Once the liaison has been added, hold the fricassée only over the gentlest warmth and never let it boil. For make-ahead service, the clean stopping point is always before the liaison.
Frequently Asked Questions
Nutrition Information
1 serving (about 500g)
Calories
690 calories
Total Fat
46 g
Saturated Fat
23 g
Trans Fat
2 g
Unsaturated Fat
21 g
Cholesterol
350 mg
Sodium
1080 mg
Total Carbohydrates
17 g
Dietary Fiber
2 g
Sugars
4 g
Protein
51 g
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