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French · Lorraine

Potée Lorraine

The potée lorraine is Lorraine’s great boiled dinner: a slow-simmered one-pot meal of smoked pork, fresh sausages, root vegetables, cabbage, and potatoes, cooked together until each element is perfectly tender and infused with the smoky, savoury broth. This is peasant cooking in the noblest sense — a dish that requires no skill beyond patience and good ingredients, yet produces a result of profound satisfaction. The foundation is smoked pork: a smoked palette (shoulder), smoked lard (belly), or a ham hock, supplemented by fresh Lorraine sausages (saucisses de Lorraine, a coarse-ground pork sausage seasoned with wine and garlic). The smoked pork is soaked in cold water for 4-6 hours to reduce excess salt, then placed in a large pot of fresh cold water with a bouquet garni and brought to a gentle simmer. After 1.5 hours, the root vegetables are added in sequence according to their cooking times: turnips and carrots first (cut into large chunks — never small dice, which would dissolve), celery root, and finally potatoes (30 minutes before the end). Cabbage (a savoy or white cabbage, quartered) is blanched separately for 5 minutes to remove bitterness, then added to the pot for the final 40 minutes. The fresh sausages are added for the last 25 minutes (earlier addition makes them burst and release their fat into the broth). The broth itself becomes one of the principal elements: clear, golden, deeply smoky and savoury, served in bowls as a first course with slices of toast, before the meats and vegetables are arranged on a vast platter for the main course. The potée must simmer, never boil: gentle heat produces tender meat and clear broth, while boiling toughens the protein and clouds the liquid. The accompaniments are classically simple: coarse Dijon mustard, cornichons, and a pot of horseradish cream. This is the Sunday meal of Lorraine, a dish that gathers the family around a single pot and a single platter.

‹Swipe for the next dish›
ServesSix to eight portions
TotalAbout 3 hours active, plus 4–6 hours soaking
Sourced2of 12 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.

1.2 kg
smoked pork palette (shoulder) or smoked belly (lard fumé), or ham hock
soaked in cold water 4–6 hours before cooking
Not yet stocked in British Columbia
500 g
saucisses de Lorraine (fresh coarse-ground pork sausage seasoned with wine and garlic)
Not yet stocked in British Columbia
1
bouquet garni
bay, thyme, parsley
Not yet stocked in British Columbia
Vegetables
400 g
turnips
peeled, cut into large chunks
Not yet stocked in British Columbia
400 g
carrots
peeled, cut into large chunks
Your own market
300 g
celeriac (celery root)
peeled, cut into large chunks
Not yet stocked in British Columbia
600 g
potatoes
peeled, kept whole or halved if large
Origin · FranceLekker · Vancouver →
1 medium
savoy or white cabbage
quartered, core partially trimmed
Not yet stocked in British Columbia
To serve
2 tbsp
coarse Dijon mustard
Your own market
100 g
cornichons
Origin · FranceLekker · Vancouver →
100 g
horseradish cream
Your own market
6–8 slices
bread
toasted, for serving with the broth
Your own market

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

II

The Method

1
Drain the soaked smoked pork and discard the soaking water. Place the meat in a large pot and cover generously with fresh cold water. Add the bouquet garni. Set over medium heat and bring to a gentle simmer, skimming all grey foam from the surface as it rises. Reduce the heat so the surface barely trembles. The water must not boil. Cook at this temperature for 1 hour 30 minutes. The broth is ready to proceed when it runs clear and golden.
2
Add the turnips and carrots to the pot. After 10 minutes, add the celeriac. Maintain a constant gentle simmer throughout — this is where the dish lives or dies: a rolling boil at any point will toughen the pork irreparably and cloud the broth beyond recovery. The vegetables should yield to the point of a knife at their thickest part but hold their shape entirely.
3
While the root vegetables cook, bring a separate pan of unsalted water to the boil. Add the quartered cabbage and blanch for 5 minutes, then drain. This step removes the bitterness that would otherwise permeate the entire broth. The cabbage leaves should have brightened to an even green.
4
Add the blanched cabbage to the main pot 40 minutes before the expected end of cooking. Add the potatoes 30 minutes before the end. Both should be submerged in the broth. Continue the gentle simmer. The potatoes are done when a skewer passes through without resistance.
5
Add the fresh sausages for the final 25 minutes only. Earlier addition causes them to burst and leach fat into the broth. They are cooked when firm to gentle pressure along their length and show no give at the centre.
6
Ladle the clear broth through a fine sieve into a warmed tureen or individual bowls. Serve at table with slices of toast as the first course. The broth should be golden, translucent, and deeply smoky on the nose.
7
Arrange the meats — sliced — and all vegetables on a large warmed platter. Serve as the main course with coarse Dijon mustard, cornichons, and a pot of horseradish cream alongside.
III

Quality Hierarchy

01
Reserve — A smoked palette from a heritage-breed pig (Porc Vosgien where obtainable), house-made saucisses de Lorraine coarsely ground and seasoned with Pinot Gris and fresh garlic, with a split pig's trotter added for gelatin and body.
02
Estate — A well-sourced smoked shoulder from a regional charcutier, fresh Lorraine sausages from the same counter, and vegetables from a farm market — turnips and celeriac bought in autumn at their densest.
03
Market — A good smoked ham hock from a supermarket charcuterie counter, fresh coarse pork sausages seasoned with garlic, and seasonal root vegetables. The dish remains entirely satisfying at this level.
04
House — Any smoked pork piece available — hock, belly or shoulder — with standard fresh pork sausages. The soaking and the slow simmer still produce a respectable broth and tender meat.
IV

Sensory Tests

◇Sight. The broth runs clear and golden, with no grey foam remaining on the surface after the initial skim.
◇Sight. The blanched cabbage has brightened to an even, uniform green before it is added to the pot.
◇Touch. A skewer passes through the thickest potato without resistance; the root vegetables yield at their core but hold their shape.
◇Touch. The sausages feel firm and springless along their length when pressed gently.
◇Smell. The finished broth, ladled into bowls, carries a clean, deeply smoky, savoury aroma with no sour or bitter notes.
◇Where it lives or dies. The pot must hold a constant, barely trembling simmer from first to last; a single rolling boil toughens the pork and permanently clouds the broth.
Pillar V
Cross-cuisine parallels are part of membership.
The dishes this one teaches you, across the cuisines — on every recipe.
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VI

What to Pour

The pairing
Mugnier Musigny Grand Cru
Domaine J.-F. Mugnier · Chambolle-Musigny
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, cornichons
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