Hoax about 'sauce lapin' for Belgian meatballs traps Wikipedia

A popular Belgian dish, "boulets à la liégeoise" (Liège-style meatballs), has a history intertwined with a culinary hoax. Food historian Pierre Leclercq revealed that the "sauce lapin" (rabbit sauce) often associated with the dish originated from a fabricated story about a Madame Lapin, a tale invented by a friend for a book.

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The recipe for the boulet became popular after the war, in friteries and brasseries. At the time, people didn't talk about boulets à la liégeoise but boulets 'sauce lapin'. Probably, this recipe has a domestic origin dating back to between the two wars. A legend attributes the creation of this sauce to a certain Madame Lapin… But this story was invented from scratch by a friend, Pierre-Brice Lebrun, in his book Petit traité de la boulette. He confessed to me that he was at the origin of this hoax, which is nevertheless found today on Wikipedia, taken at face value!

Leclercq explained that the recipe for "boulets" gained popularity after World War II in friteries and brasseries, initially known as "boulets sauce lapin" rather than "boulets à la liégeoise." He suggests the "sauce lapin" likely stems from the traditional Germanic recipe for rabbit with prunes, which became deeply ingrained in Belgian cuisine. Auguste Escoffier, the renowned chef, even declared rabbit with prunes as Belgium's national dish, impressing the French with its sweet and savory profile.

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In France, Belgian cuisine was considered merely an offshoot of French cuisine, less refined.

The meatballs themselves, "boulets," have a much longer history in Liège, appearing in culinary records for centuries. A 1604 recipe collection by Lancelot de Casteau, a master chef to Prince-Bishops, includes a recipe for "boulets" with a rather acidic sauce. By the 18th century, a Liège manuscript described a similar "boulets" recipe, and in the 19th century, they were served with a velouté sauce containing gherkins and vinegar, similar to Madeira sauce.

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The most plausible explanation is that this 'sauce lapin' was derived from the recipe for rabbit with prunes, very popular in Belgium since the end of the 19th century and originating from Germanic tradition. But the recipe became so established in Belgium that the great Auguste Escoffier even wrote that the Belgian national dish is rabbit with prunes!

It wasn't until the 20th century, specifically after World War II, that the "boulets sauce lapin" emerged. The dish only began to be widely referred to as "boulets à la liégeoise" around the 1980s. Leclercq's research highlights how culinary traditions evolve, sometimes incorporating playful fabrications that become part of the dish's lore.

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In Ouverture de cuisine, by Lancelot de Casteau – the first collection of recipes published in Liège in 1604 – we already find a recipe for boulets but with a rather acidic sauce.