fondue bourgignonne

[SaligoBay]

A local restaurant is offering this at lunchtime for 15.50 euros à volonté.

Have you had it?   Is it worth 15.50? 

[letrangere]

I stand corrected but presume this is a steak fondue?  If the meat is high quality and there's plenty of it I guess it would justify the price but where does the bourgignonne (ie red wine) bit come in to it?  M

[SaligoBay]

I don't know if there is red wine, Margaret.  I've looked at a couple of links on the internet, it seems that you dip the meat and veg into boiling stock, didn't see any mention of wine.

 

 

[Hagar]

I believe the correct spelling is Fondue Bourguignonne - If you enter that into google you will get thousands of recipes etc.

The Bourguignonne part (god that's difficult to type) I believe refers simply to the region which is coincidentally famous for it's wine

There a number of different variations on the dish - some say cook in Bouillon/stock , others in Oil , Oil & Butter. But the essentail main ingredient is good (and it must be good) Fillet Steak. Ideally it should be accompanied by various sauces with a mayonnaise base. Again (IMO) these should be freshly made.

Since good fillet steak costs 40+ euros a kilo 15.50 per person sounds quite reasonable - assuming that you get more than one or two pieces each.

I would give it a try

Hagar

[Hagar]

Maybe there is a connection with the wine - found this on www.fonduecity.com

Meat fondues, or Fondue Bourguignonne, originated centuries ago in Burgundy's famous vineyards. Here, when the grapes were ripe, harvesting was a priority, without time for a midday meal. A lazy monk, Johann du Putzxe, had the idea of heating oil to dunk-cook pieces of the meat taken from the Abbot's private supplies, so that he could eat on the run. The Swiss developed the idea to its present form and credited the Burgundian grape pickers by calling it Fondue Bourguignonne. 

Health Warning - Don't believe everything you read on the 'net

[letrangere]

Come to think of it, I've had a steak fondue in Austria several times where cubes of fillet are speared on to skewers and fried in hot oil/butter combi.  You're then served a selection of sauces to dip the cooked meet in to mustardy and pickle type things, quite delicious.  M

[Jill<br><br>Jill (99)]

The first time I had Fondue Bourgignonne was in 1976 when I stayed with a French family in Chambery. I still have the note book where I noted their version of it. They were a family who prided themselves as being Gourmets and Gourmands!

The oil had herbs added to it.

The steak was cut in cubes.

The sauces were:

Mayonnaise

Aoili

Tartare

Ketchup with porto!!!!

also cubes of cheese and walnuts were available but getting these to go/stay on the fork were a huge problem. I can't actually remember what we had with this but believe it was actually frites.

A few years later I had it again at the home of a friend in Normandy. She was rather a lazy cook and served a large packet of crisps with it - yes she is French - I was surprised myself.

I have seen packs of Fondue sauces in supermarkets in France, in fact I bought one one year. These included bearnaise and tartare, I think.

We have Fondue Bourgignonne at home a couple of times a year. It is one of my son's favourite meals. It is also ideal when the mother-in-law visits as she likes her steak to be burnt and my husband and I like ours fairly rare. We tend to give her two forks so she has time to burn 2 pieces of steak to a cinder while we show probaby 8 or 10 pieces of steak to the oil! We strain the oil and save it until next time we have fondue.

Another advantage is that if you are having guests for a meal, you might allow a normal amount of steak per person, but you are quite likely to end up with some left over. The nature of the meal just stops you eating as much.

Bon appetit!