Hochepot

The hochepot is a sort of stew well appreciated in the Nord-Pas-de-Calais region, Flanders and Hainaut. Its origins go back to the Middle Ages and its first recipes are in the Manuscript of Sion, the oldest treatise of cooking written in French around the 13th century. It has nothing to do with the Dutch hutspot which is a dish made from mashed potato and whose recipe would have been concocted during the siege of Leiden in 1574.

Definition

It is a Flemish stew made with oxtail, sheep's shoulder, salted bacon and vegetables. The tail of beef is a piece of meat that is sometimes a real delight. Vegetables are served whole when they are mashed in the hutspot. The hochepot was formerly a meal with meat, chestnuts and turnips cooked with stock in a pot of soil. Nowadays, it is cooked with different kinds of meat: beef ribs, shoulder or neck of mutton, veal chest or veal collar, salted pork, pig ears and pig feet and sausages. They simmer in a pot with winter vegetables: carrots, parsnips, onions, leeks, celery, potatoes and herbs.

Origin and etymology

It is an old recipe from the north of France and the emblematic dish of Flanders and the province of Hainaut. The etymology of the word comes from the old French “hottison” which mean “shake” in English. The term also refers to a casseroled chicken with vegetables cooked with down pieces of beef.

Historical background

The oldest treatise of cooking in French is the Manuscript of Sion. It was written at the end of the13th century. It was found in the Cantonal Library of Valais. It gives a recipe that says how to accommodate boar and deer meat which must be "Long boiled, larded lengthwise from within. Then cook it in another water with mace and a lot of wine. With a cameline sauce ".

If no vegetable to go with the dish is mentioned in the manuscript, it is not the same for the salted meat. To accommodate it, he advises: "Soak. Then wash very well. Throw out the first broth. Wash with clean water. Let cool. Then cut into thin slices. Bring to a boil with half water and half white wine. Then peel the chestnuts cooked on the coals. Place everything on a plate. Serve the game meat with the broth. Eat with some mustard ".

This kind of preparation is very close to the hochepot recipe of a manuscript of the University of Ghent library, which is dated from the late 15th to the beginning of the 16th century. This recipe of hochepot with deer meat is called “Om hutspot te redenen van een hert”. It looks like to the medieval stew which contains onions and red wine. It is reported that besides deer meat, onions and red wine, you need verjuice, butter, sugar, nutmeg and cardamom. The hochepot was then just a kind of meat cooked in a liquid. It is the only similarity that allows to connect the medieval hochepots with the current Flemish hochepots.

The Viandier of Taillevent, whose the oldest manuscript, was written in the 14thcentury, possesses only one hochepot recipe, the one with poultry. But the oldest version remains the one of the manuscript of Sion.

His editor says: « Hochepot de poullaile metez par membres surfrire en saing de lart prenez ung pou de pain brullé & des foyes deffais de vin & du boillon de beuf metez boulir vostre grain affinez gingembre canelle grene de paradis deffait de verjus et doit estre noiret & cler ».

After deductions, it allows to affirm that "the different versions of the Viandier are rewritings and enlargements of the original version of the manuscript of Sion, prior to the presumed birth of the Taillevent. Ingredients This dish requires feet and ears pig, salted bacon, tail and breast of beef, shoulder and breast mutton, carrots, cabbage, onion, leeks, potatoes, salt and pepper.

The cooking

The recipe for the hochepot has changed with the time and has nothing to do with the hochepot from Ghent. In the manuscript of Sion, it is a stew with "pieces of poultry fried with bacon. It is cooked then in a broth and thicked with some liver and a toast. It is spiced with cinnamon and maniguette and then mixed with some verjuice to give it a clear appearance. The hochepot in the Middle Ages and its wide diversity of recipes do not make it possible to give a more precise definition except to say that it is the ancestor of the current hochepots.

Directions

Put all the meats in a pot, cover with water. Season whith salt and pepper. After boiling, let it simmer for two hours. After two hours add the vegetables and let it cook again for two hours on low eat. Serve the broth in soup tureen with some vegetables. The hochepot, a main course, contains meat and the rest of the whole vegetables.

Food / beer / wine pairings

Traditionally in the Nord-Pas-de-Calais region, this dish is accompanied by a lager. "His slight bitterness refreshes the mouth and puts the dish at ease: the fat is attenuated and the vegetables release their fruity notes”. Chef Patrick Asfaux advises the Angelus beer from the Brasserie d'Annœullin. For wine lovers, the choice can be made for a fresh, young, white wine from the vineyards of Bordeaux or the vineyards of the Loire Valley. For those who prefer red wine, the primeurs wines of which the Beaujolais nouveau are a perfect choice.