Hochpot of Venison
Source: Lancelot Casteau, Ouverture du Cuisine, 1604.
Heuspot de venaison.

Pour heuspot de venaison, soit de sanglier ou de cerf, prennez pain bruslé, & faictes poiure passer l'estamine, & mettez dedans noix muscade, poiure, claussons, & pouldre, succre, canelle, vin rouge, deux our trois oignons haschez menus, fricassez en beurre, & faictes les bien bouillir ensemble tant qu'il soit luisant.

 Venison hochepot.

For hochepot of venison, whether it is boar or deer1, take burnt bread, & have pepper strain through a sieve, & put in nutmeg nut, pepper, cloves, & powder*, sugar, cinnamon, red wine, two or three onions chopped fine, fried in butter, & have it boil well together until it is well thickened. 
 

Venison Hochpot - Redaction

2 lbs venison, cubed into 1" pieces2
4 parsnips, peeled & diced3
handful of parsley4
salt
2 cups water

4 1" thick slices of hard, stale Italian bread
1 teaspoon finely ground pepper
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
2 tablespoon brown sugar
2 cup red wine5
2 onions, finely chopped

In a heavy pot6 put water, venison, parsnips, parsley and salt to taste. Bring to a boil, then cover, lower heat, and simmer until tender. Depending on the cut of meat, this can be 1 - 1 1/2 hours.  

Lightly toast your stale bread. Put it into a mortar and grind it fine. Then push it through a fine mesh strainer with the back of a spoon
until  you have 1/2 cup of very fine bread crumbs. Set aside to make the sauce.

While the venison is cooking, fry the onions in butter until well caramelized. About 1/2 hour before serving the hochepot, heat the wine,
sugar, and spices in a saucepan. Whisk in the bread crumbs a little at a time. Then add the fried onions. Keep whisking the sauce until the bread crumbs have dissolved fully and lost their "crumbiness" and the sauce is smooth and thick. If you need a little more liquid, add some broth from the venison. This may take about 20 minutes.  To serve, put the hochepot in a serving bowl and pour the sauce over it.
Serves 8.

Notes:
1. In Casteau's day venison was a generic term for 'game meat.' 
2. Venison stew meat is available online for $4.00lb at www.oldworldvenison.com.  Based on other references, the meat is probably cut into fairly small pieces. This certainly helps tough meat to cook faster.
3. Two of his other hochepot recipes call for "roots." One involves stuffed roots, the other either parsnips or radishes.  His
hochepot with parsnips calls for them to be "cut fine."
4. Elsewhere he lists herbs suitable for hochepot, of which parsley is one. Any other typical stew herbs could be
used, including basil and oregano, which would give it a rather different flavor. 
5. Casteau gives no directions about how to make the meat itself, only the directions for the sauce.  A Rhone wine does very well for this.
6. I use a Creuset brand pot that is enamel over cast iron. 


 
 
All materials copyright 1998-2002, L.E. Pearson.  Unauthorized use or reproduction is prohibited.