Baeckeoffe

Adapted from Australian Gourmet Traveller

French main course recipe for traditional Alsatian meat dish.

We cook this during the month of July during the Tour de France bicycle race, when the riders are in the Alsace region.

The original recipe was inspired by Australian Gourmet Traveller but we have modified it brown the meat at the start of the recipe rather than after marination, for two reasons.

Firstly, browning (malliard reactions) do not start to occur until all surface of the meat is completely dry. After marination, the meat is very wet and it is a laborious process to dry the meat sufficiently to achieve browning in a reasonable time that does not overcook the meat. Secondly, the deep flavours imparted by browning will become part of the marinade.

The origins of this recipe, which translates to “baker’s oven”, involved sealing the lid of the pot with scaps of bread dough and letting them cook in the residual heat of the bakery oven. Sealing the pot with dough is unnecssary and a good seal can be achieved with foil underneath the pot’s lid.