Page 11 - Book-TradiAliCulture-Belgium

What is the “boulets à la liègeoise” ?

Also called more regionally balls with rabbit sauce, it is a traditional Belgian
culinary specialty which, as its name indicates, comes from the region of the city of
Liège.

It consists in one or two large balls made from minced meat of pork and veal,
pork and beef, crumbs, onions and parsley, browned in the oven, then cooked on a
gentle fire with a special sweet and sour sauce with onions, vinegar, brown sugar
and Liège syrup. This sauce is called rabbit sauce but does not contain a rabbit. Its
name would come from Mrs. Geraldine Lapin, born Corthouts, wife of Ernest Lapin
(1868-1922), who would be at the origin of the recipe for this sauce.

Véritable institution des
brasseries et friteries liégeoises,
connu dans toute la Belgique, ce
plat est traditionnellement servi
accompagné de frites, (on parle
alors de « boulets-frites »), de
mayonnaise et de crudités peu
assaisonnées ou de compote de
pommes. Il est à la carte de la
plupart des friteries et
restaurants liégeois.

The historical origins of the « Boulets »:

This is a regional term that does not appear in the dictionary with a specific culinary
definition. The word "boulet" has been mentioned for the first time in the sixteenth
century by Lancelot de Casteau, master of three Princes-Bishops of Liège. If the
latter spoke only about fish balls, he also prepared for meat balls, but under the
name of "rondes boules" whose recipe is nevertheless very similar to that one made
today.

La toute première recette du genre retrouvée
à Liège comportait : veau et graisse de bœuf
hachés, œufs, noix de muscade, gingembre,
sel, herbes hachées. La sauce se compose de
bouillon, de citron confit, de menthe, de
marjolaine et de verjus ou de vin.
On retrouve l'évolution de cette recette dans
un manuscrit liégeois du XVIIIe siècle, mais
cette fois-ci sous le nom de « boulet »,
désormais définitivement acquis.

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