Chef Juliette
John Dory (St. Pierre)
John Dory has the delicacy of sole and the firmness of turbot. A light flouring, a quick butter sauté, and nut-brown beurre noisette show exactly why looks never mattered.
Culinary Explorer
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Pieds de Mouton Tyrolienne
Created by Chef Juliette
Based on No. 1328, Pieds de Mouton Tyrolienne, from Le Guide Culinaire (1907) by Auguste Escoffier
Tender sheep’s trotters, glossy with tomato, onion, garlic, and Poivrade, prove that the final ten-minute simmer is an exchange: gelatin enriches the sauce while pepper and acidity wake the meat.
Main Dishes
French
Comfort Food
Weeknight
Budget Friendly
15 min
Active Time
25 min cook•40 min total
Yield4 servings
Pieds de Mouton à la Tyrolienne (sheep’s trotters with tomato, onion, and Poivrade sauce) teach one precise lesson: when the meat is already tender, the final simmer is for exchanging flavours, not cooking it again. The trotters lend gelatin and richness to the sauce; the tomato, garlic, and Poivrade return sharpness and warmth. Boil them hard and the skin loosens while the sauce turns greasy. A bare simmer keeps everything whole and glossy.
The original kitchen began with twenty freshly cooked trotters, a saucier keeping Poivrade ready, and a timbale waiting for service. Here, eight trotters feed four, a butcher supplies them fully cooked, and a wide sauté pan replaces the brigade’s separate sauce station. The quantity and equipment changed because one cook doesn’t need twenty portions or a stockpot kept alive all day. The sequence and proportions remain: onion and tomato in butter, parsley and garlic, Poivrade, then exactly ten minutes with the trotters. One cook, one stove, one evening.
Cleaning and slowly cooking raw trotters is the brigade scaffolding, and this entry always assumed that work was finished. The dish itself is the reduced tomato-onion foundation and that brief final simmer, so neither gets cut. Before you touch the pan, drain the cooked trotters thoroughly and blot them dry. Excess cooking liquor is the one thing most likely to turn this compact sauce watery.
Pieds de mouton à la tyrolienne belongs to the Parisian classical table, where economical cuts from the triperie were given formal service through carefully built sauces and deep serving timbales. Despite its title, the preparation is not a dependable record of Tyrolean household cooking: à la tyrolienne is the French kitchen’s name here for the tomato, onion, garlic, and Poivrade treatment. The dish carried sheep’s trotters from market and bistro tables into the grand repertoire without disguising what made them valuable, their tenderness, gelatin, and ability to carry a sharp sauce.
The technique, the tradition, and the story behind every dish.
Discover Culinary ExplorerIngredients
fully cooked sheep’s trotters
Quantity
8 (about 2 lb / 900 g)
well drained and blotted dry
unsalted butter
Quantity
1 tablespoon (15 ml / 14 g)
yellow onion
Quantity
1/3 cup (80 ml / 55 g)
chopped
peeled tomatoes
Quantity
2/3 cup (160 ml / 150 g)
gently squeezed of watery seeds and roughly chopped
fine salt
Quantity
1/4 teaspoon (1.25 ml / 1.5 g), plus more if needed
freshly ground black pepper
Quantity
1/8 teaspoon (0.6 ml / 0.3 g)
flat-leaf parsley
Quantity
1 teaspoon (5 ml / 1 g)
finely chopped
garlic
Quantity
1/2 teaspoon (2.5 ml / 2 g)
crushed
Poivrade sauce
Quantity
2 tablespoons plus 1 1/2 teaspoons (38 ml / about 40 g)
hot water (optional)
Quantity
Up to 2 tablespoons (30 ml / 30 g)
only if needed to loosen the sauce
| Ingredient | Quantity |
|---|---|
| fully cooked sheep’s trotterswell drained and blotted dry | 8 (about 2 lb / 900 g) |
| unsalted butter | 1 tablespoon (15 ml / 14 g) |
| yellow onionchopped | 1/3 cup (80 ml / 55 g) |
| peeled tomatoesgently squeezed of watery seeds and roughly chopped | 2/3 cup (160 ml / 150 g) |
| fine salt | 1/4 teaspoon (1.25 ml / 1.5 g), plus more if needed |
| freshly ground black pepper | 1/8 teaspoon (0.6 ml / 0.3 g) |
| flat-leaf parsleyfinely chopped | 1 teaspoon (5 ml / 1 g) |
| garliccrushed | 1/2 teaspoon (2.5 ml / 2 g) |
| Poivrade sauce | 2 tablespoons plus 1 1/2 teaspoons (38 ml / about 40 g) |
| hot water (optional)only if needed to loosen the sauce | Up to 2 tablespoons (30 ml / 30 g) |
Equipment Needed
- •Wide 10-inch (25 cm) sauté pan
- •Fine colander and clean kitchen towel
- •1 1/2-quart (1.4-liter) deep round serving timbale or bowl
Instructions
- 1
Drain the trotters
Set the cooked trotters in a colander for at least ten minutes, then blot them carefully with a clean towel. Remove any loose fragments of bone without tearing the skin. Have the Poivrade sauce measured and the serving timbale warming before you begin; once the trotters enter the pan, the dish moves quickly.
The trotters must be fully cooked before this recipe begins. A butcher’s cooked product is the honest home equivalent for the long preliminary pot the original kitchen kept as separate work. - 2
Soften tomato and onion
Melt the butter in a wide sauté pan over medium-low heat. Add the chopped onion and pressed tomato together, then season with the salt and pepper. Cook for 10 to 12 minutes, stirring often, until the onion is completely tender and the tomato has collapsed into a thick, moist foundation; a spatula drawn across the pan should leave a trail for a second before the sauce closes over it. Keep the onion pale. If the tomato begins catching before the onion softens, add one teaspoon of the hot water and lower the heat. Ça se rattrape.
- 3
Add the sharp finish
Stir in the chopped parsley and crushed garlic for 30 seconds, just until the garlic smells warm but has taken no colour. Add the Poivrade sauce and scrape the pan thoroughly so the buttery tomato foundation becomes one sauce. Bring it only to a quiet simmer and taste before adding more salt, since the finished Poivrade may already be well seasoned.
- 4
Simmer exactly ten minutes
Nestle the drained trotters into the sauce and turn them gently until coated. Once the sauce returns to a bare simmer, cook uncovered for exactly 10 minutes, turning the trotters once or twice so they warm evenly. Do not let the pan boil hard. The trotters are already tender, and a violent boil loosens their skin and throws fat into the sauce. If the sauce tightens enough to catch, add hot water one teaspoon at a time; if it remains loose, lift out the trotters and reduce the sauce alone for a minute or two before returning them. Both are recoverable.
- 5
Fill the timbale
Empty the hot water from the warmed timbale and dry it. Arrange the trotters snugly inside, preserving their shape, then spoon every bit of the glossy tomato and Poivrade sauce over them. Serve at once with bread close at hand for the sauce. Cooking well is not cooking fancy. À table!
Chef Tips
- •Ask a halal, North African, or specialist butcher for sheep’s trotters that are fully cleaned and cooked, not merely singed or blanched. Raw feet require lengthy preliminary cooking, and that work sits outside this entry just as it did in the original kitchen.
- •Poivrade sauce is a finished classical component, not pepper and vinegar stirred together at the last moment. Have it ready before the pan goes on; its reduction and body are what bind the tomato to the gelatinous trotters.
- •Use ripe fresh tomatoes when they have flavour. Out of season, good canned whole tomatoes are the classical pantry’s honest answer; drain, peel if necessary, squeeze away the loose seeds and liquid, then weigh the pulp.
- •Leftovers set firmly in the cold because the trotters are rich in gelatin. Keep them refrigerated for up to two days, then reheat once over very gentle heat with a spoonful of water. A hard boil will break the sauce and damage the skin.
- •A young Beaujolais served slightly cool has enough fruit for the tomato and enough acidity for the gelatin. Set down a plain loaf beside the timbale. The sauce should not return to the kitchen.
Advance Preparation
- •Buy or collect the fully cooked trotters up to one day ahead and keep them covered in the refrigerator. Drain them for ten minutes and blot them dry just before cooking.
- •Have the finished Poivrade sauce ready before beginning, or prepare it earlier the same day according to its own entry and reheat the measured amount gently.
- •The onion may be chopped and the tomatoes peeled, pressed, and weighed up to four hours ahead. Keep them covered separately in the refrigerator so the onion does not perfume the tomato.
Frequently Asked Questions
Nutrition Information
1 serving (about 285g)
Calories
345 calories
Total Fat
24 g
Saturated Fat
8 g
Trans Fat
1 g
Unsaturated Fat
14 g
Cholesterol
130 mg
Sodium
400 mg
Total Carbohydrates
4 g
Dietary Fiber
1 g
Sugars
2 g
Protein
28 g
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