Potjevleesch
Photo: Jiel Beaumadier · CC BY-SA 4.0

History

The name is Flemish for little pot of meats, and the dish is recorded in Taillevent's Viandier of 1486 as already popular around Dunkerque. Westhoek farmers made it in winter, preserving good cuts with wine, vinegar and spice rather than salt or smoke, and ate it cold in the fields at harvest. Purists use rabbit, chicken and pork; a fourth camp adds veal. It reaches Lille from the coast and is now a fixture of every estaminet card on Rue de Gand.

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Make it at home

Yield Serves 6Hands-on 40 minTotal 16 hrDifficulty Intermediate

Ingredients

  • 400g rabbit, boned and cubed
  • 400g chicken thigh, boned and cubed
  • 400g pork shoulder, cubed
  • 400g veal shoulder, cubed
  • 2 onions, sliced
  • 400ml dry white wine
  • 100ml white wine vinegar
  • 10 juniper berries
  • 3 bay leaves, 4 sprigs thyme
  • 6 leaves gelatine, or 2 pig's trotters
  • Salt and black pepper

Method

  1. Season all four meats well and layer them in a deep terrine with the onions, juniper, bay and thyme.
  2. Pour over the wine and vinegar. The meat must be covered; top up with water if it is not.
  3. Bring to a boil on the hob, then cook at 140C for 2 hours 30 minutes.
  4. Lift the meat into a clean terrine, packing it tightly.
  5. Strain the liquid, reduce it by a third and dissolve the soaked gelatine in it off the heat.
  6. Pour the liquid over the meat until covered, cool, then refrigerate for at least 12 hours to set.
  7. Turn out or serve in the pot, cold, with very hot frites.

Tip from the editors. Use pig's trotters instead of gelatine if you can get them. The set is softer and the flavour deeper.

Where to eat potjevleesch

Potjevleesch in Lille

Estaminet Au Soyeux ★ 4.1

€€ French regionalVieux Lille

Au Soyeux on Rue de Gand in Lille runs 44 covers of ch'ti cooking, potjevleesch and carbonade with maroilles croquettes and roasted bone marrow.

OrderPotjevleesch, the jellied terrine of four white meats.

TipOnly 24 seats indoors plus a 20-seat terrace, so book for a weekend evening.

Directions

La Petite Table ★ 4.2

€€ French regionalVieux Lille

La Petite Table has run on Rue de la Monnaie in Lille since 2003, a small estaminet doing carbonade, welsh and potjevleesch properly by hand.

OrderPotjevleesch with the house frites.

TipFinish with the spéculoos mousse rather than the café gourmand.

Directions

L'Estaminet du Welsh ★ 4.0

€€ French regionalVieux Lille

L'Estaminet du Welsh on Rue de Gand in Lille runs a lunch menu at 12.90 euros and a plat du jour from 9.90, built around a dozen welsh variations.

TryWelsh au maroilles

TipThe plat du jour starts at 9.90 euros, which is the cheapest sit-down welsh in Vieux-Lille.

Directions

Au Georges V ★ 4.3

€€ French regionalVauban Esquermes

Au Georges V on Boulevard de la Liberté in Lille calls itself the temple of welsh, and runs a smoked version alongside potjevleesch and carbonade.

OrderThe welsh fumé, made with a blend of classic and smoked cheddar.

TipA vegetarian welsh is on the card. The current owners took the place on in 2022.

Directions

Le Porthos ★ 3.8

€€ French regionalVieux Lille

Le Porthos on Rue de la Monnaie in Lille is a brick-walled estaminet cooking the regional card: carbonade, potjevleesch and welsh, served all day at weekends.

OrderCarbonade flamande, with the house frites.

TipThe kitchen runs 12:00 to 14:00 and 19:00 to 22:00 on weekdays, then straight through from 12:00 to 22:30 on Saturday and to 22:00 on Sunday.

Directions

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