Hochepot

The hochepot (Dutch: hutsepot) is a stew eaten in the Nord-Pas-de-Calais region of France, and in Flanders and Hainaut in Belgium.

Its origins go back to the Middle Ages and its first known recipes are in the Manuscript of Sion, the oldest treatise of cooking written in French around the 13th century.

They simmer in a pot with winter vegetables: carrots, parsnips, onions, leeks, celery, potatoes and herbs.

It gives a recipe that says how to accommodate boar and deer meat which must be "Long boiled, larded lengthwise from within.

This kind of preparation is very close to the hochepot recipe of a manuscript of Ghent University Library dated to the late 15th or early 16th century.

This recipe of hochepot with venison is called "Om hutspot te redenen van een hert".

It is reported that besides venison, onions and red wine, you need verjuice, butter, sugar, nutmeg and cardamom.

Le Viandier de Taillevent, the oldest manuscript of which was written in the 14th century, possesses only one hochepot recipe, with poultry.

Traditionally in the Nord-Pas-de-Calais region, this dish is accompanied by a lager or a fresh, young, white wine .