Venison at Christmas

 

Me carving 'une gigue', our roast haunch of venison for Christmas from a few years ago.

Some years ago, on this day, at the butcher's in Preuilly the woman in front of me was collecting her Christmas dinner order. It was a boned rolled leg of venison. Thierry the butcher took so long describing two different ways of cooking it that the digital read out on his scales timed out and he had to weigh it again to get the price. (Marinate it in lots of red wine, with carrots and onions, then oven roast or pot roast. Don't overcook and serve slightly pink. Too many people overcook venison. That's his advice, but I don't think she listened too closely -- her husband was going to cook it, on Christmas Eve.) I caused a lively discussion by asking why a leg of venison is 'une gigue',  when a leg of lamb is 'un gigot'. 'Bonne question !' apparently, but no one in the shop had the answer. To make matters even more complicated, the word 'gigue' only applies to roe deer legs. A red deer leg is 'un cuissot'. Our chef friend Jean-Michel later added some more to the list -- wild boar (sanglier) also has 'un cuissot'; veal (veau) has 'un cuisseau' (pronounced the same as 'un cuissot') and beef (boeuf) has 'une cuisse'; whereas pork (porc) has 'un jambon'. There are lots of other words for 'leg' in French, like 'patte' and 'jambe' as well, and depending on what sort of creature you are talking about, you use a different word, especially in culinary French. 

Inside the butchers shop, Preuilly sur Claise.