Bollito Misto: The Grand Boiled Meat
Bollito misto — the elaborate Northern Italian preparation of multiple meats (beef brisket, veal, cotechino sausage, chicken, calf's tongue, calf's head) poached together in separate pots or sequentially in a large pot — is the anti-sear, anti-Maillard preparation. It achieves flavour not through browning but through the progressive accumulation of poaching liquid flavour and the pure expression of each meat's character in its most unadorned state. The sauces served alongside (salsa verde, mostarda, cren/horseradish) provide the contrast that bollito's deliberate plainness requires.
- **Each meat poached separately:** Different meats require different cooking times — beef brisket 3+ hours; chicken 1.5 hours; cotechino 45 minutes - **Cold water start:** All meats added to cold water and brought to a boil — this produces a clearer broth and more uniform protein coagulation than adding to boiling water - **Skimming:** During the first 20 minutes of cooking, grey foam (coagulated blood proteins and impurities) must be skimmed continuously — producing the characteristic clear bollito broth - **The broth:** Is itself a dish — traditionally served as a soup course before the meats. The best bollito broth rivals any stock
Hazan