 Ragoût aux lentilles | |
| Type | Stew |
|---|---|
| Place of origin | France |
| Region or state | Paris |
Ragout (/ræˈɡuː/,French:ragoût,French:[ʁaɡu]) is astew served as a main dish.
The term comes from theFrenchragoûter, meaning 'to revive the taste'.[citation needed]
The basic method of preparation involves slow cooking over a low heat. The main ingredients are many; ragouts may be prepared with or without meat, a wide variety of vegetables may be incorporated, and they may be more or less heavily spiced and seasoned.[citation needed]
The Roman-era cookbookApicius includes a recipe for ragout withostrich meat. According to a translation by Patrick Faas, it incorporateddates, honey, vinegar,garum (a fish sauce),passum (a dessert wine), and spices such as pepper, mint, roast cumin, and celery seed. TheApicius recipe suggests boiling all the ingredients save for the ostrich meat together in a pot, binding them withstarch, and pouring the mixture over boiled ostrich meat, while Faas, in his reconstruction, tells the reader to first make aroux with flour and olive oil and addpassum, spices, honey, vinegar, dates, andgarum in a certain order, after which the reader can then stir in the ostrich meat, which he says can be roasted or fried.[1]
Two 18th-century English dishes fromThe Complete Housewife[2] show some of the varying meats, vegetables, seasonings, garnishes and procedures which can be applied to the ragoût.
A Ragu for made Dishes
TAKEclaret, gravy, sweet-herbs, and savoury spice, toss up in it lamb-stones (i.e. lamb'stesticles), cock's-combs, boiled, blanched, and sliced, with sliced sweet-meats, oysters, mushrooms,truffles, and morels; thicken these withbrown butter; use it when called for.
To make a Ragu ofPigs-Ears
TAKE a quantity of pigs-ears, and boil them in one half wine and the other water; cut them in small pieces, then brown a little butter, and put them in, and a pretty deal of gravy, two anchovies, aneschalot or two, a little mustard, and some slices of lemon, some salt andnutmeg: stew all these together, and shake it up thick. Garnish the dish withbarberries.
In his 19th-century culinary dictionary,Alexandre Dumas credits ragouts with making "the ancient French cuisine shine". He gives several examples includingsalpicons, made with a variety of meats and vegetables like mushrooms, artichokes, truffles,quenelles, and sweetbreads. According to Dumas each ingredient is cooked separately. The "Ordinary Salpicon" includes veal sweetbreads, ham, mushrooms,foie gras and truffles served inespagnole sauce. Celery ragout is cooked in bouillon seasoned with salt,nutmeg and pepper. Cucumber ragout is made withvelouté sauce. One ragout is made withmadeira,chestnuts andchipolata sausages cooked in bouillon with espagnole sauce.[3]
The 1731 patrioticballad "The Roast Beef of Old England" by the British writerHenry Fielding comically attributes Britain's traditional military prowess to the eating ofroast beef, suggesting that this has been lost since the introduction of ragout from "all-vapouring France".[4]
InRobert Burns' "Address to a Haggis" (1786), the poet suggests nobody could possibly choose French ragout when presented with the titular delicacy.
In the novelPride and Prejudice, the character Mr. Hurst reacts with disdain whenElizabeth Bennet opts for a "plain dish" instead of a ragout at dinner.
In the Haddawy translation ofThe Arabian Nights, the Steward's tale about "The Young Man from Baghdad and Lady Zubaida's Maid" (beginning during the 121st night and continuing through the 130th night) tells of the suffering of a young man who attempts to consummate his marriage without having washed his hands after having eaten a large quantity of ragout spiced with cumin.[5]
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