A crépinette is a small, flattened sausage, sometimes referred to as a sausage parcel. It is similar in shape to a sausage patty, circular, and flattened. It is made from minced or ground pork, turkey,

veal Veal is the meat of calves, in contrast to the beef from older cattle. Veal can be produced from a calf of either sex and any breed, however most veal comes from young male calves of dairy breeds which are not used for breeding. Generally, v ...

, lamb or chicken, and can even be made from

truffles A truffle is the fruiting body of a subterranean ascomycete fungus, predominantly one of the many species of the genus ''Tuber''. In addition to ''Tuber'', many other genera of fungi are classified as truffles including ''Geopora'', ''Peziza ...

. Crépinettes are wrapped in

caul fat Caul fat, also known as lace fat, omentum, or fat netting, is the thin membrane which surrounds the internal organs of some animals, such as cows, sheep, and pigs, also known as the greater omentum. It is used as a casing for sausages, roulades, ...

, rather than wrapped in a casing. It is usually cooked with an outer coating of bread and sautéed in butter.

Name

The word ''crépine'' () is French for "pig's caul". The name originated in the second half of the 13th century as "a small ornamental crêpe", being derived from the word '' crêpe''. In cookbooks, the term ''crépinette'' is sometimes used to indicate the contents of the crépinette only. This is the same as other countries where we find crépinette, sometimes spelled ''crepinette'', to describe both the contents and the dish itself.

Definition

A crépinette is a mixture of minced meat stuffed in intestinal membrane. Although it has a different casing from sausage, it is often described as a sausage dish. It is also described as a round and flat dish in a number of French dictionaries. The crépinette distinguishes itself by being balled meat wrapped in thin slices of meat.

Composition

The stuffing of the crépinette can be made of ground pork, chicken fillets, finely ground game birds (partridge, woodcock, pigeon), and also lamb sweetbreads, calf kidneys, fillets of lark or rabbit, and sliced eel. Viard, however, gives recipes where the contents of the crépinette are not ground but entire pieces of meat.

Cooking

The crépinette is cooked in a pan or on a grill. For Christmas, crépinettes are served with oysters by the oyster farmers of the Marennes-Oléron basin; the same happens in Bordelais where an expert alternates the tasting of a fresh oyster and a hot crépinette.

References

From ''The New Food Lover's Companion'' 3rd ed Sharon Tyler Herbst 2001 p 179

External links