Pierrade refers to the stone which rests above the heating element on my machine

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Pierre means stone, so a pierrade is a stone-like thing. This is definitely NOT a French monopoly in the food world: cooking your food on a hot stone slab. Still, it's a lot of fun and as you are heating up the machine for cheese-melting it would be a waste not to slap some meat on the top of the element, right? Cooking the meat is the responsibility of the guests: just lay the meat on the hot slab and remember to turn it over and remove it when done. Generally, one person is designated to keep an eye on each of the meats, making sure that more is put on the element as space becomes available. In using the pierrade, a cook has a bit more scope for creativity. First, you can prepare a variety of meats and marinate them in sauces if you like. Secondly, you can come up with tasty sauces to accompany your meats. This time I kept to a fairly simple meat selection: the Savoie ham, slices of beef and pieces of chicken with a touch of olive oil to keep them from sticking to the stone. The store had a good selection of the new fall mushrooms, so I bought trompettes de la mort, oyster mushrooms, some that looked a bit like shiitake (but weren't) and a new one to me: pieds bleus. I sauteed them in a bit of butter, garlic and thyme and added a spoonful of creme fraiche just before serving. (Not only was this delicious with the beef, but I ate the remainder tonight with some leftover raclette on toast and it went extremely well with the cheese too!) For the chicken, I sauteed a chopped shallot in butter, and added a little tarragon, mustard and creme fraiche. Other favourites in the sauce department are: peppercorn sauce, bearnaise, tomato and hot pepper...basically anything you can think of to go with meat will please your guests! As for the meat, I also often use slices of duck or pork. The duck can get a bit messy as it gives up more fat than the other meats, but it is truly delicious. Serve all of the above, cheese and meats, with a nice thick red wine to help fight all the cholesterol you are taking on. It's well worth it!