pot-au-feu

American  

[paw-toh-fœ] / pɔ toʊˈfœ /

noun

French Cooking.

1. a dish of boiled meat and vegetables, the broth of which is usually served separately.

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pot-au-feu British  

/ pɔtofø /

noun

1. a traditional French stew of beef and vegetables

2. the large earthenware casserole in which this is cooked

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Etymology

Origin of pot-au-feu

1785–95; < French: literally, pot on the fire

Explanation

If dinner tonight will be beef stew, you can make it sound fancier by calling it pot-au-feu, which means the same thing in French. This loan from French is almost always a good response to the question "what's for dinner," since its literal meaning is only "pot on the fire." In practice, pot-au-feu designates a stew, and it joins the list of dishes whose names are drawn from their cooking vessels or implements. Hot pot is surely a relative!

Example Sentences

He decides he will make a pot-au-feu, a humble serving of boiled meat and vegetables that he plans to cook and serve with exceptional care.

From Los Angeles Times • Dec. 15, 2023

"Just to film the pot-au-feu, Michel Nave had to manipulate forty kilos of meat," he said.

From Reuters • May 24, 2023

If history is any indication, this beef will boil over into a classic pot-au-feu to keep us warm as winter approaches.

From Slate • Nov. 22, 2019

“There is only one place in the world, outside of fiction, where such a pretentious pot-au-feu of newsworthy people could simmer so richly and continuously in such a compact vessel,” wrote the journalist Sherwood Kohn.

From The Wall Street Journal • Mar. 7, 2018

Fat skimmed from boiled meat, pot-au-feu, before the vegetables, etc., go in, is quite as good as that from roast, treated in the same way.

From Culture and Cooking Art in the Kitchen by Owen, Catherine