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Centre-Val de Loire
‘À la tourangelle’, says its name — but beuchelle may well have made a detour via Vienna: a white ragoût of veal sweetbreads and kidneys, which Touraine has adopted as its own.
Traditional dish from Centre-Val de Loire.
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Beuchelle — ‘à la tourangelle’, or ‘de Tours’ — is a hot dish bringing together veal sweetbreads and kidney, mushrooms and crème fraîche; its recipe is attributed to chef Édouard Nignon at the beginning of the 20th century, based on the Austrian Beuschel. The word itself is said to be the French rendering of ‘beuschel’, a ragoût of veal lungs and heart that was once served in Austria.
According to Le Gourmeur, Nignon, after cutting his teeth in Nantes and then showcasing his talents in Paris, took charge of the kitchens at the Trianon in Vienna, where he served Archduke François-Joseph; it was during these years that he took inspiration from the beuschel to create beuchelle, originally served in crisp puff pastry, like a bouchée à la reine. The website la-viande.fr recounts the same scene differently: the chef, in the service of the archduke, made it famous beyond France's borders by devising a variation of an old white ragoût, served in a timbale under a vol-au-vent crust. The trade press notes that this speciality ‘enjoyed its hour of glory in Paris and Tours, after having been appreciated at the court of the Tsar of Russia and that of Emperor François-Joseph in Vienna’.
The name nevertheless poses a difficulty, as Wikipedia points out: named ‘à la tourangelle’, beuchelle cannot both originate from Tours and have been invented by Édouard Nignon, who never worked there. According to Robert J. Courtine, the name may possibly have been chosen by Nignon in reference to a popular image of Touraine — its châteaux, its gentle pace of life.
Other sources do not ask the question and simply see it as ‘a very old recipe from the region’, an ‘ancient dish’. Sources therefore diverge on the dish's origin. Touraine, in any case, has made it its own: the Région Centre included ‘Beuchelle à la tourangelle’ among the recipes of its culinary heritage inventory, conducted by the Institut européen d'histoire et des cultures de l'alimentation in Tours, and completed in 2012.
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Touraine has always cultivated the arts of the table and the produce of its terroir: cheeses, wines, goat and sheep rearing, vegetables. Thanks to its oceanic climate, its region is said to be the kitchen garden of France; the nobility came to appreciate the gentle pace of life and gastronomy in its châteaux. Touraine wines — Chinon, Bourgueil, Montlouis, Vouvray — feature in numerous regional specialities, and the website la-viande.fr counts among them the matelote des tonneliers, blanquette de veau, daube de bœuf and, ‘of course, the famous beuchelle de Tours’.
Beuchelle was reportedly brought back to the table towards the end of the 20th century: revived in 1994 by Bernard Tardif, president of the La Marmite d'Or association, it has since reappeared on the finest tables of Touraine. The Confrérie gastronomique de la Marmite d'Or has indeed promoted it since 1994 through an annual competition; in 2012, its jury selected three laureates, including Olivier Loize, chef of the By Bardet restaurant in Tours, who was awarded the honorary prize.
Since 2023, a brotherhood has borne its name: the Confrérie de « La Beuchelle à la Tourangelle », whose creation was registered on 22 July 2023, has its headquarters at the Hôtel Noble in Vernou-sur-Brenne. Its aim is to make the dish known and promote it, and to champion its tasting ‘in a festive and convivial atmosphere’. It holds its Grands Chapitres at the Château de l'Hôtel Noble, where it inducts knights in the presence of friendly brotherhoods.
Appearance
three elements of equal size — kidney cubes of around 3 cm, slices of sweetbread, sliced mushrooms — delicately combined and presented in a cocotte or in a large deep plate.
Taste
according to an article in Touraine Terroir, the veal sweetbreads are distinguished by their tenderness and delicacy, whilst the kidneys offer a more pronounced flavour; a splash of flambéed marc intensifies the aromas without overpowering them.
Texture
the kidneys must remain slightly pink inside; the cream, reduced until velvety, coats the sweetbreads and mushrooms.
Two ways of serving it share the table. The original, pastry-based version is presented in crisp puff pastry or a vol-au-vent crust, like a bouchée à la reine; a guide to Indre-et-Loire notes that after cooking, beuchelle ‘is served in a vol-au-vent’. The version revisited by Jean Bardet, a Michelin-starred chef in Tours, dispenses with puff pastry; today, according to Le Gourmeur, this is the most widespread form in Touraine.
The mushrooms also vary depending on the source: morels, oyster mushrooms and truffle according to Wikipedia and Le Gourmeur, oyster mushrooms or button mushrooms for the recipe from Terroir de Touraine.
sliced to the same size, peppered and very lightly salted, it is browned in a generous knob of sizzling butter.
sliced to the same size, they are sautéed in butter until nicely coloured, then coated in the reduced cream.
the three components, sweetbreads, kidneys and mushrooms, are delicately combined and served piping hot.
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Beuchelle is served piping hot, in a cocotte or in a large deep plate, or, in the puff pastry tradition, in a timbale or in a vol-au-vent crust. Wikipedia pairs it with white wines from Touraine or Bourgogne; Touraine Terroir suggests serving it with seasonal vegetables or sautéed potatoes, and a good white wine from Touraine.
Beuchelle carries no official quality sign (PDO (AOP), PGI (IGP), Label Rouge…): it is a traditional dish. It features among the recipes in the inventory of the culinary heritage of the Centre region, completed in 2012, and a brotherhood founded in 2023 in Vernou-sur-Brenne is dedicated to its promotion.
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