Fricassee or fricassée is a

stew A stew is a combination of solid food ingredients that have been Cooking, cooked in Soup, liquid and served in the resultant gravy. Ingredients can include any combination of vegetables and may include meat, especially tougher meats suitable for ...

made with pieces of meat that have been browned in butter then served in a sauce flavored with the cooking stock. Fricassee is usually made with chicken, veal or rabbit, with variations limited only by what ingredients the cook has at hand.

Etymology

Fricassee is first attested in English in the mid-16th century. It is a word of French origin, although the exact etymology is unclear. It is theorized to be a compound of the French (to fry) and ' or ' (to break in pieces).

History

By the general description of frying and then braising in liquid, there are recipes for fricassee as far back as the earliest version of the medieval French cookbook , circa 1300. In 1490, it was first referred to specifically as in the print edition of . The 16th-century cookery book contains "For fricasies of a lambes head and purtenance". ''The perfect English cooke'' contains instructions to prepare a "Fregacy of Lamb or Veal".

Jean-Baptiste Tavernier Jean-Baptiste Tavernier (1605–1689) was a 17th-century French gem merchant and traveler. Tavernier, a private individual and merchant traveling at his own expense, covered, by his own account, 60,000 leagues in making six voyages to Persia ...

describes "a lusty Fricassie" in his late 17th-century ''Travels through Turkey to Persia''. English fricassees were usually thickened with egg yolks, while Italian used a mixture of lemon and egg yolks. By the 18th century, egg yolks had started to be replaced by flour in English and American cuisines. In

Martha Washington Martha Dandridge Custis Washington (June 2, 1731 Old Style, O.S. – May 22, 1802) was the wife of George Washington, who was the first president of the United States. Although the title was not coined until after her death, she served as the ...

's recipe for chicken fricassee, the chicken was stewed in gravy; then a sauce was made with cream and egg yolks. The early 19th-century cookery book ''

A New System of Domestic Cookery ''A New System of Domestic Cookery'', first published in 1806 by Maria Rundell, was the most popular English cookery book of the first half of the nineteenth century; it is often referred to simply as Mrs Rundell, but its full title is ''A ...

'' by

Maria Rundell Maria Eliza Rundell (née Ketelby; 1745 – 16 December 1828) was an English writer. Little is known about most of her life, but in 1805, when she was over 60, she sent an unedited collection of recipes and household advice to John Murray, of ...

says white sauce can be used for fricassee of "Fowls, Rabbits, White Meat Fish, of Vegetables". Broth made with chicken necks or feet or used to boil meats, or similar is simmered with herbs and lemon peel, then thickened with cream (or egg yolk), flour, and butter to make into a sauce.

Technique

Simone Beck Simone "Simca" Beck (7 July 1904 – 20 December 1991) was a French cookbook writer and cooking teacher who, along with colleagues Julia Child and Louisette Bertholle, played a significant role in the introduction of French cuisine, French cooki ...

, Louisette Bertholle and

Julia Child Julia Carolyn Child (Birth name#Maiden and married names, née McWilliams; August 15, 1912 – August 13, 2004) was an American chef, author, and television personality. She is recognized for having brought French cuisine to the American pu ...

in their ''

Mastering the Art of French Cooking ''Mastering the Art of French Cooking'' is a two-volume French cookbook written by Simone Beck and Louisette Bertholle, both from France, and Julia Child, from the United States. The book was written for the American market and published by Kno ...

'' describe it as "halfway between a sauté and a

" in that a sauté has no liquid added, while a stew includes liquid from the beginning. In a fricassee, cut-up meat is first sauteed (but not browned), then liquid is added, and it is simmered to finish cooking. Cookbook author James Peterson notes that some modernized versions of the recipe call for the meat to be thoroughly browned before braising, but the classical version requires that both meat and vegetables remain with no

caramelization Caramelization (or caramelisation) is a process of browning of sugar used extensively in cooking for the resulting butter-like flavor and brown color. The brown colors are produced by three groups of polymers: (C24H36O18), (C36H50O25), and ...

Types

Beef

In the early 19th-century cookery book ''

'' by

, a fricassee of cold roast beef is made with very thinly sliced beef cooked in butter and broth with parsley and onion, the sauce thickened with egg yolks, wine, and vinegar. Fricassee of cold roast beef was among the recipes published in the popular women's magazine '' Godey's Lady Book'' during the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861May 26, 1865; also known by Names of the American Civil War, other names) was a civil war in the United States between the Union (American Civil War), Union ("the North") and the Confederate States of A ...

Chicken and other poultry

Chicken fricassee has been described as "a standard old-fashioned American dish". It was one of

Abraham Lincoln Abraham Lincoln (February 12, 1809 – April 15, 1865) was the 16th president of the United States, serving from 1861 until Assassination of Abraham Lincoln, his assassination in 1865. He led the United States through the American Civil War ...

's favorite dishes. It is the typical "comfort food" of

Cajun cuisine Cajun cuisine ( , ) is a subset of Louisiana Creole cuisine, Louisiana cooking developed by the Cajuns, itself a Louisianan development incorporating elements of Indigenous cuisine of the Americas, Native American, West African, French cuisine, ...

. A 1734 American recipe by Mrs. John Burroughs calls for birds seasoned with nutmeg, parsley, onion, and mace, dredged in flour and browned in butter, then stewed in the pan with gravy, egg yolks, wine, and nutmeg to make a sauce with the consistency of thickened cream. A 19th-century recipe from

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

for (Spanish-style chicken fricasse) was prepared by frying chickens in lard with chopped onion, shallots, garlic, and mushrooms. Tomato juice is added with olives, fresh herbs, and olive oil to make a thick stew. One of the more popular dishes in the

Spanish Caribbean The Spanish West Indies, Spanish Caribbean or the Spanish Antilles (also known as "Las Antillas Occidentales" or simply "Las Antillas Españolas" in Spanish) were Spanish territories in the Caribbean. In terms of governance of the Spanish Empir ...

is (chicken fricassee). It was brought to the islands by settlers from the south of

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

and

Spain Spain, or the Kingdom of Spain, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe with territories in North Africa. Featuring the Punta de Tarifa, southernmost point of continental Europe, it is the largest country in Southern Eur ...

. Unlike French-style fricassee, it has a tomato-based sauce, usually with red wine. Similarly, ''fricassee chicken'' is made in other Greater Antillean islands such as

Jamaica Jamaica is an island country in the Caribbean Sea and the West Indies. At , it is the third-largest island—after Cuba and Hispaniola—of the Greater Antilles and the Caribbean. Jamaica lies about south of Cuba, west of Hispaniola (the is ...

. It is also made with a tomato-based sauce with local herbs and spices. ''Jamaican fricassee chicken'' is a popular Sunday dinner dish.

Fish

One fish fricassee is Lopadotemachoselachogaleokranioleipsanodrimhypotrimmatosilphiokarabomelitokatakechymenokichlepikossyphophattoperisteralektryonoptekephalliokigklopeleiolagoiosiraiobaphetraganopterygon, the longest name for a fricassee.

Rabbit

Hannah Glasse Hannah Glasse (; March 1708 – 1 September 1770) was an English cookery writer of the 18th century. Her first cookery book, ''The Art of Cookery Made Plain and Easy'', published in 1747, became the best-selling recipe book that century. It wa ...

's rabbit fricassee is made with small pieces of breaded rabbit fried in butter and served with red wine gravy.

In Jewish cuisine

Jewish fricassee is nearly always made from poultry (most commonly goose or chicken), generally from offal and other chicken scraps, and sometimes includes meatballs. In

Ashkenazi Jewish cuisine Ashkenazi Jewish cuisine is an assortment of Traditional food, cooking traditions that was developed by the Ashkenazi Jews of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern, Northwestern Europe, Northwestern and Northern Europe, Northern Europe, ...

, it is called (chopped chicken) and may include gizzards, chicken neck, wing tips, and feet. Sephardic cooks may refer to the dish as or (in Morocco) . Whereas non-Jewish cooks used dairy fat (such as butter) or lard to cook their fricassee, Jews used

schmaltz Schmaltz (also spelled schmalz or shmalz) is rendered (clarified) chicken or goose fat. It is an integral part of traditional Ashkenazi Jewish cuisine, where it has been used for centuries in a wide array of dishes, such as chicken soup, l ...

(in the Ashkenazi lands) or olive oil (in the

Sephardic Sephardic Jews, also known as Sephardi Jews or Sephardim, and rarely as Iberian Peninsular Jews, are a Jewish diaspora population associated with the historic Jewish communities of the Iberian Peninsula (Spain and Portugal) and their descendant ...

world) as a cooking fat, due to the prohibition on mixing meat and dairy products. Fricassee should result in a thick, saucy gravy. The dish is served alongside rice, noodles, barley

farfel Farfel (Yiddish Yiddish, historically Judeo-German, is a West Germanic language historically spoken by Ashkenazi Jews. It originated in 9th-century Central Europe, and provided the nascent Ashkenazi community with a vernacular based on H ...

, or dumplings.

References

External links

{{Cooking Techniques Meat dishes Vegetable dishes French stews Italian stews British stews American stews Jewish cuisine Cajun cuisine