Chef Juliette
Selle de Veau (Relevé)
A half saddle of veal, bacon-barded and braised by short moistening, emerges bronze and succulent, with the concentrated veal glaze that makes this grand relevé worthy of the home table.
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Calf’s Feet
Created by Chef Juliette
Based on No. 1286, Calf’s Feet, from Le Guide Culinaire (1907) by Auguste Escoffier
Pieds de veau turn patient poaching into two rewards: tender, trembling morsels with sauce gribiche tonight, and gelatin-rich liquor that gives tomorrow’s braise its body.
Main Dishes
French
Budget Friendly
Make Ahead
45 min
Active Time
3 hr 30 min cook•4 hr 15 min total
Yield4 servings
Pieds de veau à la gribiche (calf’s feet with egg-and-herb sauce) teach the honest purpose of slow poaching. The feet contain little conventional meat and an abundance of skin, tendon, and cartilage; given gentle heat, these become supple and remarkably rich. The one true thing is this: the blanc, an acidulated flour poaching liquor, must barely tremble. Boiling tears the feet apart before you can bone and serve them.
The original entry is pantry intelligence rather than a complete plated formula. It chiefly sends calf’s feet toward aspics and braising stock, then directs any special service to the calf’s-head family. That assumed a stockpot never off the fire and spare hands to bone the feet while warm. Here the cross-reference becomes a complete home dish: four butcher-prepared feet, one heavy pot, and the sharp sauce gribiche traditionally at home beside tête de veau. The quantity is scaled for four because the entry supplied no table portion of its own.
The standing stockpot and spare hands were brigade scaffolding, so they can go. The long blanc and warm boning are the dish, and they must stay. Hold that poach at the barest tremble, and the rest is patient work for one cook, one stove, one evening.
Pieds de veau belong to the French classical pantry and the bourgeois table, where cooks valued the feet as much for their gelatine as for the portion that reached the plate. In professional kitchens they quietly supplied the setting power for aspics and the body for braising liquor, exactly the practical role that made them indispensable. When served as a dish, they followed the poaching and sharp-sauce grammar of tête de veau, with mustard, vinegar, capers, cornichons, and herbs cutting through their generous texture.
The technique, the tradition, and the story behind every dish.
Discover Culinary ExplorerIngredients
butcher-cleaned, split calf’s feet
Quantity
4 (3½ to 4 pounds / 1.6 to 1.8 kg total)
hoof casings removed
cold water
Quantity
6 quarts (5.7 liters / 5.7 kg)
divided
all-purpose flour
Quantity
¼ cup (60 ml / 30 g)
white wine vinegar
Quantity
½ cup (120 ml / 120 g)
onion
Quantity
1 medium (about 7 ounces / 200 g)
peeled and quartered
carrots
Quantity
2 medium (about 7 ounces / 200 g)
cut into thick rounds
leek
Quantity
1 small (about 5 ounces / 140 g)
washed and cut into three pieces
bouquet garni of parsley stems, thyme, and bay leaf
Quantity
1
fine sea salt
Quantity
2 tablespoons plus ½ teaspoon (32.5 ml / 39 g)
divided
black peppercorns
Quantity
10 (about ½ teaspoon / 1 g)
large eggs
Quantity
2
Dijon mustard
Quantity
1 tablespoon (15 ml / 15 g)
red wine vinegar
Quantity
2 tablespoons (30 ml / 30 g)
grapeseed or another neutral oil
Quantity
½ cup (120 ml / 110 g)
cornichons
Quantity
¼ cup (60 ml / 40 g)
well drained and finely chopped
capers
Quantity
2 tablespoons (30 ml / 20 g)
drained and finely chopped
flat-leaf parsley
Quantity
¼ cup (60 ml / 15 g)
finely chopped
tarragon leaves
Quantity
1 tablespoon (15 ml / 3 g)
finely chopped
freshly ground black pepper
Quantity
¼ teaspoon (1.25 ml / 0.6 g)
| Ingredient | Quantity |
|---|---|
| butcher-cleaned, split calf’s feethoof casings removed | 4 (3½ to 4 pounds / 1.6 to 1.8 kg total) |
| cold waterdivided | 6 quarts (5.7 liters / 5.7 kg) |
| all-purpose flour | ¼ cup (60 ml / 30 g) |
| white wine vinegar | ½ cup (120 ml / 120 g) |
| onionpeeled and quartered | 1 medium (about 7 ounces / 200 g) |
| carrotscut into thick rounds | 2 medium (about 7 ounces / 200 g) |
| leekwashed and cut into three pieces | 1 small (about 5 ounces / 140 g) |
| bouquet garni of parsley stems, thyme, and bay leaf | 1 |
| fine sea saltdivided | 2 tablespoons plus ½ teaspoon (32.5 ml / 39 g) |
| black peppercorns | 10 (about ½ teaspoon / 1 g) |
| large eggs | 2 |
| Dijon mustard | 1 tablespoon (15 ml / 15 g) |
| red wine vinegar | 2 tablespoons (30 ml / 30 g) |
| grapeseed or another neutral oil | ½ cup (120 ml / 110 g) |
| cornichonswell drained and finely chopped | ¼ cup (60 ml / 40 g) |
| capersdrained and finely chopped | 2 tablespoons (30 ml / 20 g) |
| flat-leaf parsleyfinely chopped | ¼ cup (60 ml / 15 g) |
| tarragon leavesfinely chopped | 1 tablespoon (15 ml / 3 g) |
| freshly ground black pepper | ¼ teaspoon (1.25 ml / 0.6 g) |
Equipment Needed
- •8-quart (7.5-liter) heavy pot with lid
- •Parchment paper for a cartouche
- •Cheesecloth for rescuing a loosening foot
- •Fine-mesh sieve
- •Slotted spoon
- •Sturdy whisk
Instructions
- 1
Blanch the feet
Examine the prepared feet and remove any stray bristles with clean tweezers, then rinse them well. Put them in a heavy pot with 2 quarts of the cold water and bring it to a full boil. Boil for 5 minutes, drain, and rinse the feet under cool water while rubbing away any grey foam. Wash the pot before continuing. This blanching is scaffolding worth keeping: it removes blood and impurities that would give the blanc a muddy taste.
- 2
Build the blanc
Whisk the flour with the white wine vinegar and 1 cup of the remaining cold water until perfectly smooth. Pour it into the clean pot, whisk in the rest of the water, then add the onion, carrots, leek, bouquet garni, 2 tablespoons of the salt, and the peppercorns. Settle in the blanched feet. Lay a parchment cartouche directly over the liquid and use a small heatproof plate to keep the feet submerged if necessary. Bring the blanc slowly toward a simmer.
If the flour forms beads, strain the cold blanc before adding the vegetables and feet. Once it has heated, chasing lumps is tiresome work with no reward. - 3
Poach without boiling
Lower the heat as soon as the first bubbles rise. Poach the feet partially covered for 3 to 3½ hours, keeping the blanc between 185 and 195°F (85 and 90°C), with only an occasional bubble breaking the surface. Add hot water if the feet become exposed. They are ready when a skewer enters the thick pad without resistance and a large bone twists free cleanly. If a foot begins separating because the liquid boiled, lift it onto a square of cheesecloth, tie a loose parcel, and return it to gentler heat. Ça se rattrape.
- 4
Make the gribiche
While the feet poach, cover the eggs with water in a small saucepan, simmer them for 9 minutes, then cool and peel them. Separate the yolks from the whites and chop the whites coarsely. Mash the yolks with 2 teaspoons of the Dijon mustard, 1 tablespoon of the red wine vinegar, and the remaining ½ teaspoon salt. Whisk in the oil drop by drop at first, then in a thin stream, until the sauce is thick but loose. Fold in the chopped whites, cornichons, capers, parsley, tarragon, black pepper, and enough of the remaining vinegar to make the sauce properly sharp. Keep it at cool room temperature.
If the emulsion separates, whisk the reserved teaspoon of Dijon with a teaspoon of cold water in a clean bowl, then beat in the broken gribiche one spoonful at a time until it comes together. - 5
Bone them warm
Lift one foot at a time onto a rimmed tray, leaving the others in the warm blanc. As soon as it is cool enough to handle, pull out every bone, including the small toe bones, and discard any rough or discolored skin. Keep the tender skin, cartilage, and tendon together, then cut them into generous 1½-inch pieces. If a foot cools and sets before you finish, return it to the warm liquor for 5 minutes rather than forcing the bones out. Strain the blanc through a fine sieve and keep 2 cups with the boned portions for reheating.
- 6
Warm and serve
Return the boned pieds de veau and the reserved 2 cups of blanc to the pot. Warm them for about 5 minutes at the barest simmer, then lift them out with a slotted spoon and drain well. Arrange them on a warmed platter and spoon some sauce gribiche generously over the center, leaving the rest in a bowl for the table. The feet should be supple, glossy, and yielding, with the mustard and vinegar cutting cleanly through their richness. À table!
- 7
Keep the liquor
Strain the remaining cooking liquor once more, cool it promptly over an ice bath, and refrigerate it within 2 hours. It will set firmly when cold. Lift away the fat and freeze the gel in small portions for bodying braises and sauces. Because this special-dish method uses a flour blanc, the liquor is meant for an opaque braise rather than a crystal-clear aspic.
Chef Tips
- •Ask the butcher for feet that have been scalded, scraped, split, and stripped of their hoof casings. This is proper butcher work. If only frozen feet are available, thaw them slowly in the refrigerator and blanch them exactly as directed.
- •Calf’s feet are not a veal chop hiding inside a complicated wrapper. Their pleasure is texture: skin, tendon, and cartilage transformed into something supple and sticky enough to hold the bright gribiche. Know what is coming and you’ll understand the dish.
- •The bare simmer is the whole lesson. Hard boiling loosens the skin, scatters the connective tissue through the pot, and leaves you with excellent stock but very little supper.
- •Serve with plain boiled potatoes or thick bread for catching the sauce, and pour a brisk, lightly chilled Gamay. Cooking well is not cooking fancy.
Advance Preparation
- •The feet can be cooked and boned up to 2 days ahead. Refrigerate the portions submerged in strained cooking liquor, then reheat them very gently until the gel melts and the pieces are warm throughout.
- •Sauce gribiche can be made 1 day ahead and refrigerated. Bring it toward room temperature before serving, and fold in the parsley and tarragon shortly before the meal so they remain bright.
- •The strained cooking liquor can be chilled, defatted, and frozen in 1-cup portions for up to 3 months. Add a portion to a modest braise and it will give the sauce remarkable body.
Frequently Asked Questions
Nutrition Information
1 serving (about 230g)
Calories
550 calories
Total Fat
43 g
Saturated Fat
9 g
Trans Fat
1 g
Unsaturated Fat
33 g
Cholesterol
235 mg
Sodium
1050 mg
Total Carbohydrates
3 g
Dietary Fiber
1 g
Sugars
1 g
Protein
38 g
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