#1--Paupiettes

The first thing I learned was not to use the yellow Fiestaware for the "Plate it Up" shot. Sorry about that. This is how we learn right?

The oldest recipe for this dish is dated 1337 from Le Viandier (The Viander of Taillevent edited by Terence Scully) and despite variations in the name contains neither larks nor olives. Two popular variations in the nomenclature do give one pause to ponder... "Blind Larks" or "Birds without Heads" and "Beef Olives" were amusing to the modern mindset while being rather tricksy at the same time. It should be noted that there are a multitude of options with this cooking technique. As far as I can tell the term "paupiette" refers to thinly sliced meat wrapped around a filling, which is usually meaty but can be veg. The recipe from Le Viandier uses veal shank meat wrapped around marrow. There are lots of fish ideas, especially sole wrapped around shrimp. I saw a couple of duck around pork, pork around pork. Beef and pork. Beef and beef. Several beef around cheese. Some had a crepe batter outside, some did not. Many had mushrooms. One had an egg cooked in the center! The more modern dishes often had a tomato based sauce but those were disregarded as tomatoes were considered poisonous. I plan on doing a fish entree for Meatless Monday for this project. I do love me some duck. That one might need to happen also.


After cross referencing roughly 100 recipes I finally settled on what I was going to feed the boys. (Isabel, the resident vegetarian abstained from this dish. She was mortified by the titles from the very beginning!) Beef with beef and mushrooms.
So here is my interpretation.

 

Paupiettes du boeuf
serves 3-4

Beef brisket sliced thinly to form the outer wrap. (Not prosciutto thin...but pretty thin) I was working with roughly 4x6 inch slices of medium rare roast. I used about 1/4 lb of meat and got 12 little bundles.

1 pound Ground beef 85% lean.

1/8 c fresh shallots minced fine

2 tablespoons chives, dried and minced fine

four cloves of fresh garlic minced fine

salt to taste

long black pepper (a couple grinds)

green peppercorns (a couple grinds)

one whole egg

2/3 cup fine bread crumbs

 

two generous tablespoons of beef tallow

baby portabella mushrooms sliced

porter (about half a bottle)

beef broth

 
1. Combine the ground beef with all the spices, the raw egg and the bread crumbs. Form into 1X3 inch oval shapes. These apparently are the size of a lark's body and are supposedly reminiscent of said dish. Thus the headless/blind bird reference.
2. Lay the sliced brisket "flat on a clean dresser" and put a little meatball on one end. Wrap it up. Tie with twine. repeat till all your filling is used up.
3. melt tallow in large sturdy skillet. In small batches, brown the outsides of the bundles.
4. deglaze pan with broth, porter and mushrooms
5. They will hold in the oven.

Serve with mashed root veg.


---

These were damn tasty. I like this technique.