parlez vous boucher?

Familiarize yourself with the words below and you can avoid ordering goat cheeks for dinner while you’re in France.

Poultry

Poulet – chicken (probably ex-layer, and the ‘normal’ age to buy one).

Poulette – young chicken.

Coq – cockerel.

Pintade – guinea fowl.

Dinde – turkey.

Volaille – fowl/ poultry.

Cuisses – thighs.

Magret – breast.

Carcasse – carcasse, the same in english, these are the empty remains of a butchered bird, which are sold (cheaply) in France for making stocks and soups

Pork (porc)

Poitrines-bacon

lardons- pieces of bacon

Echine -  shoulder, encompasses the blade bone and spare ribs.

Plat de côtes -  from where the hand and belly meet

Côtes – chops. Basically, rack of pork.

Filet – in France, is from the hind loin area of the pig

Joint ‘avec la couenne’ (pronounced la ‘quwen’) — with crackling.

Joues – cheeks.

Lamb (agneau):

Gigot d’agneau – leg of lamb.

Echine/epaules – shoulder

Côtes – chump.

Collet – scrag (end).

Poitrine/ poitrail – breast

Côtelette – chop. usually from the rack of lamb

Jarret – shank or shin

Selle d’agneau – saddle

Beef (boeuf, bifteck):

Bavette alayou- hangar, skirt London broil

Bavette flanche – flank steak

Filet  - fillet

Faux filet – strip steak,

Steak à hacher – Steak haché looks like a burger, but is high quality steak minced up and pressed together.hamburger.  It’s used for steak tartare.

Romsteak/ rumsteak – rump steak., sirloin, London broil

Aloyau – sirloin

Entrecôte – rib eye.

Tournedos/ filet mignon – tenderloin steak usually cut almost as high as it is wide. You can get ‘tournedos’ of lamb, too.

Tranches – steak, slab

Other beef parts

Tête de veau – rolled veal head, including the tongue.

Langue de bœuf beef tongue.

Gîte (à la noix) topside.

Tranche grasse – eye round

Other body parts (!)

Cul – tail.

Cou – neck

Tranche – meaning ‘slice’, implies a steak of any meat other than beef

Filet/ longue/ aloyau – all words for loin

Cote premier – Loin chop

Any meat that says ‘à poêler’ means ‘for stewing/ braising’.

Merguez – Moroccan sausage with lamb and beef

Click here to go to a great website with an interactive cow.   You click on the cow part to see the french name for the corresponding cut as well as a picture of the cut.   It’s in French, but that’s the fun.   I wish I knew about this site earlier.