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French · Béarn

Porc au Pot Béarnais

While poule au pot is Henri IV’s celebrated chicken dish (already in the database), the porc au pot béarnais — the everyday pork version — is the more commonly eaten reality of Béarnais farmhouse cooking. This one-pot preparation combines salted and fresh pork with root vegetables and the unique Béarnais preparation called farcidure (or farci): a large dumpling made from stale bread soaked in the pot’s broth, mixed with chopped pork liver, garlic, parsley, eggs, and sometimes ham, tied in a cloth and poached in the pot alongside the meats. The construction follows the garbure principle of sequential assembly: salted pork belly (petit salé, soaked 12 hours) and a fresh pork blade (palette) go into cold water with aromatics, brought to a gentle simmer. After 1 hour, root vegetables (carrots, turnips, potatoes, leeks) and the cloth-wrapped farcidure are added. The entire assembly simmers for another 1.5 hours until the meats are fork-tender and the farcidure is firm and cooked through. The farcidure is the star: unwrapped, it reveals a dense, savory, bread-and-liver pudding that is sliced thick and served alongside the meats and vegetables. The broth — clear, golden, porky — is served first as a soup course over bread slices. The meats, vegetables, and sliced farcidure are arranged on a platter as the main course with Dijon mustard and cornichons. This is the Béarn’s Sunday lunch — the pot bubbling from morning mass to midday service.

‹Swipe for the next dish›
ServesSix portions
Total3 hours 30 minutes (plus 12 hours soaking)
Sourced2of 18 in BC
Cook
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I

The Market List

The benchmark for each ingredient, and who stocks it near you. Tap a stockist to go straight to the product.

800 g
petit salé (salted pork belly)
soaked in cold water 12 hours, drained
Not yet stocked in British Columbia
700 g
pork blade (palette)
fresh, bone-in
Not yet stocked in British Columbia
1
pig's trotter
split in half
Not yet stocked in British Columbia
3
carrots
peeled, halved lengthwise
Your own market
2
turnips
peeled, quartered
Not yet stocked in British Columbia
4
potatoes
peeled, left whole if small
Origin · FranceLekker · Vancouver →
3
leeks
trimmed, white and pale green parts only
Your own market
For the farcidure
200 g
stale bread
crusts removed, torn
Your own market
150 g
pork liver
finely chopped
Not yet stocked in British Columbia
80 g
cooked ham
finely chopped
Not yet stocked in British Columbia
2
eggs
beaten
Your own market
3
garlic cloves
peeled and finely chopped
Your own market
20 g
flat-leaf parsley
finely chopped
Your own market
1 tsp
fine salt
Your own market
1 tsp
black pepper
freshly ground
Your own market
To serve
6
slices of bread
for the soup course
Your own market
1
jar Dijon mustard
Your own market
1
jar cornichons
Origin · FranceLekker · Vancouver →

Each tap is counted, so the stockist sees the demand Provenance sends them.

II

The Method

1
Twelve hours before cooking, submerge the petit salé in a large bowl of cold water. Change the water once during this period. Drain and rinse before use. This step is not optional: un-soaked salt pork will render the broth inedibly salty.
2
Place the drained petit salé, the pork blade, and the split trotter in a large pot. Cover with cold water by at least 5 cm. Bring slowly to a bare simmer over medium heat, skimming the grey foam continuously as it rises. The surface should be clear and the liquid barely trembling — a full boil will cloud the broth and toughen the meat.
3
Once the broth runs clear, add no further aromatics. Maintain a gentle simmer — a few lazy bubbles at the surface — for 1 hour. The smell should be clean and porky, not sharp or acrid.
4
While the meats simmer, prepare the farcidure. Soak the stale bread in a ladleful of the hot broth until fully saturated, then squeeze firmly with both hands until as dry as possible — the mixture must be firm enough to hold a slice, not a porridge. Combine the squeezed bread with the chopped pork liver, ham, garlic, parsley, and beaten eggs. Season. The mixture should hold its shape when pressed into a ball.
5
Flour the interior of a thick cotton cloth generously. Place the farcidure mixture at the centre, form it into a compact round, and tie the cloth loosely above it — leave room for the dumpling to expand during poaching. The knot must be secure but the cloth not drum-tight.
From the canon — Poaching is cooking a protein in liquid at a temperature below the boil — typically 75–85°C for most proteins, with variations specific to each. Poaching (Pocher) →
6
After the meats have simmered 1 hour, add the carrots, turnips, potatoes, and leeks to the pot. Lower the cloth-wrapped farcidure in on top, fully submerged. This is the step on which the dish lives or dies: if the farcidure goes in too wet it will dissolve into the broth; if it goes in too early the vegetables will be lost to mush before the dumpling is cooked. From this point, maintain a steady, gentle simmer for a further 1 hour 30 minutes, turning the farcidure once at the halfway point.
7
At the end of cooking, lift the farcidure from the pot and unwrap it on a board. It should be firm, cohesive, and hold a clean edge when pressed with a finger. A skewer inserted at the centre should meet no raw resistance. The meats are done when a fork slides in and out without effort.
8
Ladle the clear, golden broth over bread slices in warmed soup bowls and serve as the first course. Then arrange the meats, vegetables, and thick slices of farcidure on a warmed platter and bring to the table with Dijon mustard and cornichons.
III

Quality Hierarchy

01
Reserve — Petit salé from a heritage Gascon or Basque black pork; duck liver in place of pork liver in the farcidure, as — it gives a richer result; a pig's trotter added from the start for gelatin.
02
Estate — Good-quality salted pork belly from a reputable charcutier, properly soaked; pork liver for the farcidure; garden-fresh root vegetables in season.
03
Market — Supermarket petit salé (soak with diligence), pork blade, and pork liver; seasonal root vegetables from the market; stale baguette for the bread component.
04
House — Any salted pork simmered with fresh blade, root vegetables, and a bread-and-liver farcidure tied in whatever cotton cloth is available — the structure of the dish holds at any level of ingredient quality, provided the technique is respected.
IV

Sensory Tests

◇Sight. The broth is clear and golden after skimming; a cloudy broth signals the heat was too high.
◇Touch. The farcidure mixture, before wrapping, holds its shape when pressed into a ball and does not slump or weep liquid.
◇Touch. The cooked farcidure yields a clean, firm edge under finger pressure and shows no raw, doughy give at the centre.
◇Touch. A fork pressed into the petit salé and the blade meets no resistance and withdraws cleanly.
◇Where it lives or dies. The farcidure must enter the pot properly squeezed of moisture and at the correct moment — 1 hour into the cook — so that it sets firm enough to slice while the vegetables remain intact and the broth stays clear.
Pillar V
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The dishes this one teaches you, across the cuisines — on every recipe.
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VI

What to Pour

The pairing
Henry Marionnet Touraine Sauvignon Blanc
Domaine Henry Marionnet — Loire · Loire Valley
Not yet stocked in British Columbia
Wine
From British Columbia
Fort Berens Riesling
Fort Berens Estate Winery · Lillooet
Not yet stocked in British Columbia
Wine
Without alcohol
GT's Synergy Organic Kombucha — Gingerade
Not yet stocked in British Columbia
Non-alcoholic

Why each one works is part of membership — Enter · from $49 a year →

The whole pairing
Pillar VII
Origin and lineage are part of membership.
Where the dish comes from and how it came to be — on every recipe.
Enter · from $49 a year
Sourced through Provenance

The hands behind the plate.

Lekker
Vancouver · potatoes, jar cornichons
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