Meat · Recipe · Alsace · Reference page

Baeckeoffe

Name: Baeckeoffe
Prep time: 30 min
Cook time: 150 min
Total time: 900 min
Yield: 6
Ingredients: 400 g mutton or lamb shoulder, in 4–5 cm cubes; 400 g pork neck (échine), in 4–5 cm cubes; 400 g beef shin (gîte) or blade (paleron), in 4–5 cm cubes; 1 piece raw pig's trotter, split (or half a trotter); 500 ml dry Alsace white wine (Pinot Blanc or Riesling); 2 clove large garlic cloves, peeled; 1 sprig thyme; 1 piece bay leaf; 1 tsp salt; 0.5 tsp freshly ground black pepper; 1.2 kg potatoes, peeled and sliced about 5 mm thick; 3 piece large onions, sliced; 30 g plain flour, mixed with just enough water to make a soft paste

Mutton, pork and beef marinated overnight in Alsace white wine, layered with potatoes and onions in an earthenware terrine sealed with a flour paste, and baked slowly. A three-meat dish that was once left in the village baker's cooling oven.

Servings: 6
Preparation: 30 min
Cooking: 2 h 30
Resting: 12 h
Total: 15 h
Difficulty: Involved

Equipment

Large earthenware baeckeoffe terrine with lid (about 4–5 litres), or a cast-iron casserole
Large bowl for marinating
Small bowl for the sealing paste

To drink & serve with

Alsace
An Alsace Pinot Noir, or the same dry white as the marinade.
Pinot Noir
Hachette's sommelier suggests a fruity, fleshy red; Alsace Pinot Noir is the local choice.
A green salad after it is enough.

Substitutions

Mutton → Lamb shoulder. The three meats are traditional, but two will do.
Earthenware terrine → A heavy cast-iron casserole with a tight lid; seal it with the same paste.
Pig's trotter → Leave it out and add a piece of pork rind; the juices will be thinner.

Common mistakes

Using lean, quick-cooking cuts: they dry out. Choose shoulder, neck and shin.
Skipping the seal: the liquid evaporates and the top layer dries.
Rinsing the potato slices too long: some starch helps thicken the juices.

Storage & reheating

Keeps 2 days in the fridge and reheats well, covered, in the oven until piping hot. Freezing makes the potatoes grainy.

Safety

The meat stews for over two hours in a sealed pot and is thoroughly cooked. Allergens: sulphites (wine); gluten only in the sealing paste, which is not eaten but can crumble into the dish.

Allergens

Sulphites · Gluten

Check labels: stock, bacon and sauces can contain further allergens.

Three meats and a baker's oven

Hachette's wine-and-food guide calls the baeckeoffe a classic of Alsace: three meats cooked very slowly in the Alsatian baker's cooling oven. A widely told story links it to washing day, when the meat was left to cook while the women did the laundry; that detail is local tradition and is not documented in the sources used here.

Hachette's version has the usual elements: beef, pork and mutton, marinated in Alsace white wine, layered with potatoes and onions over a pig's trotter, and sealed under a paste of flour and water.

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A sealed braise

A baeckeoffe is a braise without browning. The overnight marinade seasons the meat and supplies all the liquid. Sealed in a heavy terrine, the wine never boils off; it simmers gently with the juices from the meat and the gelatine from the trotter, while the potatoes absorb it and part of their starch thickens it. Shoulder and neck cuts, rich in connective tissue, become tender in this moist heat.

Hachette bakes the sealed terrine 2 hours 30 minutes at 190 °C. A thick earthenware pot warms slowly, so the contents stay well below the oven temperature for much of that time.

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How it connects

Wine region

origin Alsace

Cut

made with Paleron (shoulder blade)

Potato

made with Charlotte

Grape variety

pairs with Pinot Noir

Recipe

related Choucroute garnie

Baeckeoffe

Equipment

Ingredients

Meat and marinade

Layers

Seal

Method