Thick leek and bread potage
A garden vegetable broth thickened with bread, mild and comforting, with melting leeks, onions, and a bit of bacon. The quintessential everyday dish, steaming on the table each day.
A garden vegetable broth thickened with bread, mild and comforting, with melting leeks, onions, and a bit of bacon. The quintessential everyday dish, steaming on the table each day.
Come, bring your bowl. Here is the potage my maidservant sets on the cloth each day before I take up my pen: leeks from the garden, an onion, a piece of bacon, and above all stale bread left to melt in until the spoon stands upright. We want it thick, not clear like dishwater. Eat it hot, dip your crust in it; it is honest man's fare, and the mind works better with a full belly.
- •Leeks — one bunch (base vegetable)
- •Onions — two (aromatic)
- •Salt pork — one piece (fat and umami)
- •Stale bread — several slices (thickener)
- •Pot-au-feu broth — as needed (base)
Thick leek and bread potage
A garden vegetable broth thickened with bread, mild and comforting, with melting leeks, onions, and a bit of bacon. The quintessential everyday dish, steaming on the table each day.
Why this dish? This is the foundation of the family meals at fixed hours that Corneille leads: a thick potage opens almost every bourgeois dinner of the 17th century, where stale bread thickens the broth and feeds the whole household at little cost.
Come, bring your bowl. Here is the potage my maidservant sets on the cloth each day before I take up my pen: leeks from the garden, an onion, a piece of bacon, and above all stale bread left to melt in until the spoon stands upright. We want it thick, not clear like dishwater. Eat it hot, dip your crust in it; it is honest man's fare, and the mind works better with a full belly.
Ingredients (period version)
- Leeks — one bunch (base vegetable)
- Onions — two (aromatic)
- Salt pork — one piece (fat and umami)
- Stale bread — several slices (thickener)
- Pot-au-feu broth — as needed (base)
Ingredients
- Leeks — 4 (base vegetable)
- Onions — 2 (aromatic)
- Smoked bacon lardons — 120 g (fat and umami)
- Stale country bread — 4 slices (thickener)
- Chicken or beef broth — 1.2 L (base)
- Butter — 30 g (fat)
- Salt, pepper — to taste (seasoning)
Method
- Finely slice leeks and onions. Melt butter in a pot and sweat the vegetables over low heat for 10 minutes without browning.
- Add the lardons, let them render their fat for a few minutes.
- Pour in the hot broth, bring to a simmer, and cook for 25 minutes.
- Crumble the stale bread into the pot and let it melt for 10 minutes, stirring: the potage should thicken.
- Adjust salt and pepper. Serve very hot, optionally with a crust of bread at the bottom of the bowl.
How it was made : In the 17th century, bread was the king of foods: stale bread was used to thicken potages rather than thrown away. Broth often came from the pot where meats and vegetables cooked together. Forks were still rare; potage was eaten with a spoon and bread.
The contemporary twist : A drizzle of walnut oil and a few golden croutons turn this peasant potage into a chic bistro velouté.
Pierre Corneille · Charactorium