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New ZealandFlavors · Lyon
Elongated dumpling of pike, a freshwater fish, bound with a dough of flour, butter and milk, poached and gratinéed, usually served with Nantua sauce made from crayfish. It is the signature dish of the bouchons, Lyon’s traditional restaurants.
Traditional dish from Lyon, Auvérnia-Ródano-Alpes
Also known as: quenelle lyonnaise, quenelle de brochet sauce Nantua, quenelle de Lyon
Illustrative images. The pictures in this guide are illustrations based on the real place, not photographs, and may differ from it.
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Quenelle de brochet — Lyon, France
The quenelle de brochet is made from pike meat, a river and lake fish, mixed with a panade — a cooked mixture of flour, butter and milk — and eggs. The mixture is shaped into an elongated form with tapered ends and cooked in gently simmering water. It then goes into the oven, where it puffs and browns, covered with sauce.
The history of Lyon’s quenelle begins in the 19th century. Lyon historian Yves Rouèche notes that preparations of minced, shaped and cooked fish date back to Antiquity. In Lyon, the recipe using pike is said to have appeared around the 1830s with a pastry chef; quenelle de poisson à la lyonnaise already appears in a 1890 culinary dictionary. For about a century, pastry chefs made them; later, charcutiers took over.
In the 1920s, beef fat was replaced by butter, and a charcutier developed a way to shape the quenelle with two special spoons, giving it the tapered form. Lyonnaise mothers, cooks in the city’s restaurants, served it with Nantua sauce made from crayfish. The origin is contested with the Nantua region and the lakes of the Dombes, from where the pike came.
Today the quenelle is sold ready-made in Lyon charcuteries and appears on bouchon menus, gratinéed in individual dishes.
Lyon , Auvérnia-Ródano-Alpes
Signature dish of Lyon’s bouchons, made in the city since the 19th century with pike from the region.
Pike meat; panade (flour, butter and milk); eggs; salt, pepper and nutmeg; Nantua sauce (crayfish, butter, cream) or another sauce.
Gratinéed in the oven in an individual dish, covered with Nantua sauce, served with rice or bread. Eaten as a main course.
Year-round, at lunches and dinners in bouchons and at home.
Your questions
From pike meat, a freshwater fish, mixed with a cooked dough of flour, butter and milk, and with eggs. It is shaped, poached and gratinéed.
A sauce of crayfish, butter and cream, named after the town of Nantua near Lyon. It is the classic accompaniment to the quenelle.
The origin is disputed. Lyon regards it as the bouchons’ emblematic dish since the 19th century, and the pike came from the lakes of the Dombes and from Nantua.
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