Ask the Foodie: What the hell is ragout?

Dear Foodie:

What the hell is ragout? How do you pronounce it? What is it?

V


Dear V:

It is very interesting that you have asked the foodie this question. I am actually in the middle of reading "Heat", Bill Buford's fascinating book about his time in Mario Batali's kitchen at Babbo and Bill actually answered your question for me. Below is a direct quote from the book which I believe answers your questions better than I could:

"An Italian ragu and a French ragout are more less the same thing. In any language, the process involves taking a piece of meat and, as it was described to me in the vernacular of the kitchen, cooking the sh*t out of the f*cker. Both the term and the technique, I've since discovered, are at the heart of a centuries-long debate between advocates of French cooking and those of Italian in the we-were-there-first stakes...

Fundamentally, a ragu is an equation involving a solid (meat) and a liquid (broth or wine), plus a slow heat, until you reach a result that is neither solid or liquid."

Hope that helps you V and thanks Bill!