Émincés et Hachis

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •Instant-read thermometer
• •Small shallow saucepan
• •Heatproof mixing bowl and saucepan for an improvised bain-marie
• •Warm shallow platter, timbale, or baking dish
• •Sharp slicing knife

Instructions

1. 1

   Choose the preparation

   Select one four-serving branch: Émincé de Bœuf (No. 1175), Hachis de Bœuf à l’Américaine (No. 1178), or Hachis de Bœuf Parmentier (No. 1179). Each preparation keeps its own formula and proportions. This entry supplies the law governing their final warming, so do not combine the three or rebuild their sauces here.

   Use cooked beef that was cooled within two hours, refrigerated at or below 4°C / 40°F, and kept no longer than three to four days. Fine technique cannot rescue carelessly stored meat.
2. 2

   Set the gentle heat

   For the sliced preparation, warm a shallow serving dish with hot water, then dry it. For the hachis in a timbale, set a heatproof bowl over a saucepan containing 2 cm (¾ inch) of barely simmering water. For the stuffed potatoes, heat the oven to 160°C / 325°F. Keep an instant-read thermometer beside the stove; the aim is 74°C / 165°F without allowing the meat's sauce or garnish to boil.

3. 3

   Warm the émincé

   For Émincé de Bœuf (No. 1175), keep the cold beef slices out of their accompanying sauce or garnish while you bring that sauce to a full boil. Fan the meat in the warmed shallow dish, immediately pour the boiling sauce over it, cover, and leave it for two to three minutes. Check the centre of an overlapping stack for 74°C / 165°F. If it needs more heat, place the covered dish over barely simmering water and turn the slices once, stopping as soon as they are hot. If the sauce bubbles around the meat, lift the dish away at once. Ça se rattrape: remove the beef, cut any tightened slices still finer across the grain, let the sauce settle off the heat, then return the meat only to coat.

4. 4

   Warm the American hachis

   For Hachis de Bœuf à l’Américaine (No. 1178), place the prepared beef, potato, tomato sauce, and reduced gravy mixture in the heatproof bowl. Warm it over barely simmering water, folding gently from the bottom until it reaches 74°C / 165°F without a single bubble breaking through the mixture. Recrisp the reserved potato dice separately in a dry skillet, then scatter them over the hot hachis with its parsley. If the base begins bubbling, lift the bowl off immediately. If some beef has firmed, chop those pieces finer and fold them back through the potato off the heat. The texture changes, but supper is saved.

5. 5

   Warm the Parmentier shells

   For Hachis de Bœuf Parmentier (No. 1179), arrange the filled, capped potato shells in a snug baking dish and cover loosely. Warm freshly assembled shells for about ten minutes; if they have come directly from the refrigerator, allow fifteen to twenty-five minutes, until the centre reaches 74°C / 165°F. Do not chase a browned cap under a salamander or broiler. This version is meant to keep its shell looking intact. If the filling starts to sizzle, remove the dish at once. Ça se rattrape: split the shells, chop any firm beef still finer, fold it back through the potato and sauce, and serve them open.

6. 6

   Serve without delay

   Bring the chosen preparation straight to the table in its warmed platter, timbale, or potato shells. Do not hold it over heat while bread is cut or glasses are filled; these dishes reward prompt service and punish a distracted cook. Sauce gleaming, potatoes crisp where promised, meat hot but never boiled. À table!

Chef Tips

• •Cold roast beef slices most cleanly while thoroughly chilled. For an émincé, use a long sharp knife and cut across the grain as finely as you can; thinness is tenderness here.
• •A heatproof bowl over barely simmering water is the home equivalent of the brigade's hot cupboard. It supplies patient, even heat and gives you time to stop before the sauce boils.
• •Keep every element separate until its appointed moment: meat away from boiling sauce, crisp potatoes away from moist hachis, and filled potato shells covered only while they warm. That small discipline preserves each texture.
• •The referenced preparations are built with real butter and their specified sauces. Use them as written. A fat substitute changes both flavour and the way the potato and sauce bind, and we don't apologize for butter.
• •A light, dry red with good acidity suits all three branches. Serve bread with the émincé because a properly built sauce should not be abandoned on the plate.

Advance Preparation

• •Prepare the selected branch through the point immediately before final warming up to one day ahead. Keep sliced meat separate from sauce, and keep crisp potato garnish separate from the moist hachis.
• •Cool cooked components promptly in shallow containers, refrigerate at or below 4°C / 40°F, and reheat only the amount you intend to serve. Do not warm the dish more than once.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 275g)