flipBréjaude, Cabbage and Bacon Soup
Bréjaude, Cabbage and Bacon Soup
Why this dish? Gabrielle grew up in Corrèze, and it was at the Aubazine orphanage that she experienced the most austere table. Bréjaude, a rustic Limousin soup where boiling broth is poured over bread, is exactly the kind of dish that fed the children and peasants of her region: nothing superfluous, all comfort.
A thick soup of green cabbage and salt pork, served boiling over wide slices of stale country bread. It is the farmer's complete meal: economical, warm, and sustaining for an entire afternoon of work in the fields.
Don't be fooled by the palaces: I knew a table where nothing was wasted. Cabbage, bacon, stale bread — that was a meal, and it was enough. We poured the boiling soup over the bread, and at the end, a splash of red wine in the bottom of the bowl, drunk in one gulp: we called that making chabrol. Simplicity, you see, I learned it before I made it fashionable.
- •Green cabbage — half a head (base vegetable)
- •Salt pork or half-salt belly — a good piece (fat and salt)
- •Stale country bread — a few slices (support, thickener)
- •Water — full pot (broth)
- •Turnip and potato — depending on the garden (accompanying vegetables)
Bréjaude, Cabbage and Bacon Soup
A thick soup of green cabbage and salt pork, served boiling over wide slices of stale country bread. It is the farmer's complete meal: economical, warm, and sustaining for an entire afternoon of work in the fields.
Why this dish? Gabrielle grew up in Corrèze, and it was at the Aubazine orphanage that she experienced the most austere table. Bréjaude, a rustic Limousin soup where boiling broth is poured over bread, is exactly the kind of dish that fed the children and peasants of her region: nothing superfluous, all comfort.
Don't be fooled by the palaces: I knew a table where nothing was wasted. Cabbage, bacon, stale bread — that was a meal, and it was enough. We poured the boiling soup over the bread, and at the end, a splash of red wine in the bottom of the bowl, drunk in one gulp: we called that making chabrol. Simplicity, you see, I learned it before I made it fashionable.
Ingredients (period version)
- Green cabbage — half a head (base vegetable)
- Salt pork or half-salt belly — a good piece (fat and salt)
- Stale country bread — a few slices (support, thickener)
- Water — full pot (broth)
- Turnip and potato — depending on the garden (accompanying vegetables)
Ingredients
- Curly green cabbage — 1/2 head (base vegetable)
- Half-salt pork belly — 200 g (fat and salt)
- Potatoes — 2 medium (mild binder)
- Onion — 1 (aromatic)
- Stale country bread — 4 slices (support)
- Water — 1.5 L (broth)
- Salt, pepper — to taste (seasoning)
Method
- Desalt the belly in cold water for 10 minutes, then cut into large lardons.
- Sauté the lardons and sliced onion in the pot, without added fat.
- Add the shredded cabbage and diced potatoes, cover with water, and bring to a boil.
- Simmer for 45 minutes over low heat; salt sparingly (the pork is already salty), pepper.
- Place the stale bread slices in the bottom of bowls and pour the boiling soup over them.
How it was made : In the Limousin countryside, the pot stayed on the fire and the soup improved over the days. "Chabrol" (pouring a little wine into the remaining broth and drinking it directly from the bowl) was a peasant ritual shared at all modest tables in the region.
The contemporary twist : Serve the soup in a clean white bowl, a single cabbage leaf placed vertically: the chic austerity Mademoiselle would have approved of.
Coco Chanel · Charactorium
