The Belly of Paris - Emile Zola [173]
14. JAMBONNEAUX: A jambonneau is a lightly cured pork shoulder, which is really the upper arm of the pig. It is a pear-shaped cut, hand-molded after cooking to emphasize the shape and the meat pushed down to make the bone stick up at the end like a stem, though in this case it is presented with the bone removed. Traditionally it is lightly dusted with bread crumbs.
15. BOUDIN: Blood sausage. In the next chapter, Zola gives as a backdrop one of the novel's best scenes, a description of how to make boudin. Today it is called boudin noir because of the advent of boudin blanc—white sausage made of white chicken or pork meat and sometimes with cream added. But in the Paris of Zola boudin referred to boudin noir, sausage made with pork blood, a little pig's head, and onions sautéed in lard and sometimes milk or cream, though this last addition seems to have been less common in the nineteenth century.
16. ANDOUILLES: Originally from northern France, especially Normandy and Brittany, andouilles are large smoked sausages sliced and eaten cold. In the Middle Ages they were considered a delicacy. Andouilles are filled with tripe, cut-up large intestines, and belly—all from pig. Twisting all of this into the black casing is no easy matter and is best described by the fact that it has led to an expression, on fait des andouilles, literally “making andouilles,” which refers to the squirming of restless children, an expression I know of in only one other language, Yiddish, in which it is called spilkes.
17. PÂTÉS: The word literally means “crusted,” and in the nineteenth century and earlier pâté was a cooked loaf of seasoned ground meats, as it is today, but baked in a crust. Today this would be called a pâté en croûte, which is redundant in French.
18. SAUCISSONS: Saucisse, or sausage, which comes from the Latin salsicia, meaning “salted,” as do similar words such as “salami,” is an ancient form of preserved meat. Saucisson means simply a large sausage, of which there are many kinds; if it is dried and ready for eating, it is a saucisson sec.
19. CERVELAS: This is a term for a specialty sausage that varies from region to region; two of the most famous are the Alsatian and the Lyonnais. Cervelas sausages are usually made exclusively from larger chunks of meat and are of ten seasoned with garlic. They are cooked sausages poached in either water or red wine. The name may come from the original presence of pigs' brains, cervelles, though this ingredient has not been used in recent centuries.
CHAPTER TWO
1. LE VIGAN IN THE GARD: Near Nîmes in Zola's native Provence.
2. HE BECAME A REPUBLICAN: At the time this meant a supporter of the republic that the emperor Napoleon had overthrown and thus an opponent of the current repressive imperial regime.
3. HE BECAME DISTRAUGHT AND RAN TO ALL THE “CLUBS”: In February 1848, bloody revolution established the Second Republic, which lasted only until the coup d'état in December 1851. The Second Republic had a heady, idealistic tone, and clubs were formed to air radical political theories.
4. See note 2 on page 313.
5. CORNICHONS: Literally “little horns,” these are the French version of what the English call gherkins, very young cucumbers harvested at between three and eight centimeters. Cornichons are pickled in vinegar, usually with some herbs, and they are a mainstay of charcuteries.
6. PLASSANS: Plassans, in Provence, the seat of the fictional Rougon-Macquart family, is Zola's fictitious name for Aix-en-Provence, where he was raised.
7. PETIT SALÉ: A cut of pork belly with adjacent ribs, spare ribs, that is rubbed and packed in salt, herbs, and spices, such as thyme and cloves, left for weeks, then boiled slowly. It can be eaten cold or heated.
8. LARDOONS: Small strips of cured pork fat, here used in sausages but also drawn through some lean