Four white meats set cold in a lightly vinegared jelly and eaten straight from the pot with hot frites, which melt the jelly into a sauce as you go.
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.
5 editor picks for Potjevleesch in Lille, ranked by editorial score. All Lille signature dishes · Potjevleesch across every city.
Au Georges V ★ 4.3
Vauban-Esquermes · 104 bis Boulevard de la Liberté, 59000 Lille
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.
La Petite Table ★ 4.2
Vieux-Lille · 59 Rue de la Monnaie, 59800 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.
Estaminet Au Soyeux ★ 4.1
Vieux-Lille · 48 Rue de Gand, 59800 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.
L'Estaminet du Welsh ★ 4.0
Vieux-Lille · 45 Rue de Gand, 59000 Lille
L'Estaminet du Welsh on Rue de Gand in Lille builds its whole card around welsh, a dozen versions of cheddar melted in beer over bread and frites.
Le Porthos ★ 3.8
Vieux-Lille · 53 Rue de la Monnaie, 59800 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.