Cacasse à cul nu is the humble emblematic stew of the Ardennes: potatoes stewed in a brown roux until soft and coated in a glossy, savoury gravy. Its blunt name — roughly 'bare-bottomed cacasse' — means the dish goes 'naked', without meat, because meat was once a luxury the cottagers could not afford. Flavour came instead from a browned flour-and-fat roux and from a piece of bacon rubbed around the pot but never added. It is plain, warming peasant food, and the whole of the modern Ardennes claims it.
The cacasse belongs to the Ardennes, and is usually traced to the Meuse valley. Its origins are not precisely documented, but it appears in records from the late 18th century — it is noted in Gérard Gayot's history of the revolutionary Ardennes covering 1789 to 1792 — which marks it as a long-established dish of the region. It was food of the subsistence economy, when villagers lived on what their own ground produced and meat was reserved for feast days; the 'cul nu' in the name is precisely the absence of meat. Since 2001 a local brotherhood, the Confrérie de la Cacasse à cul nu, has championed and codified the dish, and modern versions now openly add meat.
It comes to the table as soft chunks of potato in a thick brown gravy, looking like a rustic potato fricassee. The taste is gentle and homely: earthy potato, the toasty depth the browned roux gives, a whisper of smoke and salt from the bacon-rubbed pot, all bound in a clinging, savoury sauce. The potatoes should be tender but still holding their edges, not collapsed to mash. In the meatless original it is frugal comfort food; a sauce that tastes only of raw flour means the roux was not cooked dark enough.
The dish is built on a roux. Flour is cooked in fat — traditionally lard, or the fat rendered from the bacon — until it browns, which both toasts the flour to a nutty depth and lets the starch granules disperse so they will thicken the liquid smoothly rather than clump. The browned roux is the only source of body and much of the flavour, which is why it must be taken to a real colour. Stock or water is whisked in, then peeled, chunked potatoes are simmered in this gravy until tender; the potatoes also leach their own starch, further thickening the sauce. Rubbing the pot with bacon, instead of adding it, was a way to win a trace of cured-pork flavour from a scrap too precious to eat.
Variations
The true 'cul nu' version is meatless, flavoured only by the bacon-rubbed pot. Modern Ardennes cooks, and the brotherhood that revived the dish, more often make it dressed — known as cacasse rhabillée, culottée or habillée ('clothed') — with smoked sausage and slices of bacon cooked right in. Onion is commonly added, and some finish it with a little vinegar or herbs. At heart it stays a potato-and-roux stew, with or without its 'clothes'.
On the Palate
Where Cacasse à Cul Nu sits in the French flavor cloud
Ingredients
Serves 4How it's made
6 steps · 25 min active + 45 min waiting
- 12 min
Rub the inside of a heavy pot or Dutch oven with a strip of bacon to leave its fat and flavour behind.
- 25 min
Melt lard or bacon fat in the pot and stir in flour to make a roux.
Watch outCook the roux until it turns a real nut-brown — this browned flour is nearly all the flavor and body the dish has; a pale roux tastes of nothing.
- 38 min
Cook the roux gently, stirring, until it turns a real nut-brown colour.
- 45 min
Whisk in hot stock or water to make a smooth brown gravy, and add chopped onion.
Watch outWhisk the hot liquid in steadily to a smooth gravy — pour it in fast and the roux seizes into lumps that won't smooth out.
- 540 min
Add peeled, chunked potatoes and season; simmer gently until the potatoes are tender and the sauce has thickened.
- 65 min
Adjust the seasoning and serve hot, on its own or with a green salad.
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