from
Behind the French Menu
by
Bryan G. Newman
behindthefrenchmenu@gmail.com
Photograph courtesy of Céline MOSNIER
www.flickr.com/photos/hirondellecanada/3073174098/
Laguiole AOP is a 45% fat (30.5% dry weight), hard, unpasteurized, cow's milk cheese; it has a light golden color with a pleasant smell and a light, slightly fruity taste. The cheese is aged from 4 to 24 months. From a blind tasting of a six-month and an 18-month Laguiole AOP, the younger cheese was excellent, while the 18-month-old cheese was more like an aged cheddar with a slight bite.
The Aubrac cow.
Photograph
courtesy of Olivier Bacquet
www.flickr.com/photos/olibac/6008729138/
The Laguiole AOP cheese may only be made with milk from the Simmental and Aubrac cows. The cows graze freely for seven months a year on the Aubrac high basalt plateau between 800 and 1400 meters for close to seven months a year. In the winter, the cows are brought into barns and fed on the grasses and wild herbs collected from the Aubrac plateau during the summer. Milk production and refining of cheese must be carried out in the geographical area of the Aubrac, where less than 80 farms in the departments of Aveyron, Cantal, and Lozère are authorized to provide milk for this cheese. The cheese is named after the village of Laguiole. (The village and the cheese's name Laguiole AOP is pronounced is lay-ole, do not pronounce the g).
There are another eight AOP cheeses linked to the Aubrac Plateau, and they have their own French language websites. These unique cheeses are Laguiole, Salers, Cantal, Fourme d'Ambert, Pélardon, Rocamadour, Saint-Nectaire, and Bleu d'Auvergne).
The village of Laguiole.
Photograph courtesy of lns1122
www.flickr.com/photos/minijoegreen/21512662653/
Buying Laguiole Cheese
Should you decide to take a whole Laguiole AOC cheese home from France, you may encounter some difficulties; the smallest cheese weighs 20 kilos, and others weigh up to 50 kilos. I imagine all airlines would appreciate the extra income when you bring one of these cheeses as excess baggage. To avoid problems, buy a large wedge, maybe one kilo, and pack it well in a plastic bag. Where possible, buy from a professional fromager, a cheese shop, since most offer packaging in vacuum bags and may well provide a taste of a mature cheese as well. However, as this is not a soft cheese, it will travel well even if the bag is not vacuumed. Once home, keep this and all hard-yellow cheeses wrapped in plastic wrap in a refrigerator, but not in the freezer. When you open your cheese and cut a wedge, an hour before serving, rewrap your cheese and return it to the fridge; it should keep well for 8 -10 weeks if you let it last that long. Laguiole, the village, is in the department of Aveyron in the administrative region of Occitanie. For more about buying cheese in France and taking it home, click here.
Aligot.
Photograph courtesy of Tavallai
www.flickr.com/photos/tavallai/5850019237/
One of the most popular dishes made with Laguiole is Aligot, a traditional, very tasty, potato, and a cheese-based dish made in Aveyron with a young Lagouille cheese or an unsalted Tome (Tomme) Fraîche d'Aubrac. For Aligot, the cheese is mixed into mashed potatoes along with garlic, crème fraiche, milk, and butter. This combination is carefully stirred until long threads of cheese and potato may be drawn from the pot. The Aligot will usually be served with a small, pork, salami type sausage. In an upscale restaurant, the Aligot may have slices of beef added. (The original Aligot recipe is claimed as their own by two neighboring departments, Hérault and Lozère, and the cheese differs in each of the departments).
The ski station in Lagouile
Photograph
courtesy of Tourism Aveyron.
There is more to Aveyron and Laguiole than excellent cheeses.
The Aveyron department is a beautiful place for fishermen and women as it has five major rivers plus hundreds of streams and tens of lakes. Aveyron will be on many menus throughout France including their Bœuf Fermier d'Aubrac, Label Rouge, their mostly free-range red label Aubrac beef-cattle. Also look-out for their Label Rouge, red label, Agneau Laiton de l'Aveyron, lambs between 70-140 days; that and Aveyron's famous veal, their Label Rouge, red label, Veau d'Aveyron et du Ségala I.G.P.
The cutlery of Laguiole
Laguiole's village is also famous for "La Maison du Laguiole," the Laguiole knife's creators. Their knives, other cutlery, kitchen equipment, and their very individual corkscrews are appreciated worldwide. If you are in the area, worry not, they do have a factory outlet shop for visitors! Many French sommeliers, wine stewards, pride themselves on only using Laguiole corkscrews; this is the Rolls Royce of the limonadier type of corkscrew. The French for a corkscrew is Tire-Bouchon, the most famous of these French corkscrews in the "Limonadier," also called the Couteau Sommelier.
Maison du Laguiole “Limonadier”
Photograph
courtesy of La Maison du Laguiole
The name Limonadier comes from its original users' trade, for whom this particular corkscrew was created, they were soft drink vendors. Three hundred years ago, most wines were not sold in bottles; they were sold in barrels, though soft drinks were sold in bottles, and sealed with a cork. When this corkscrew was created, only a few fine wines were corked, and 99% of the population never saw them. The Limonadier is the corkscrew with a lever to assist in pulling the cork out. The name came from the shops, also called Limonadiers, which were early 17th-century soft drink shops and also the name of the profession of those who sold soft drinks. These stores opened the bottles of the non-alcoholic beverages they sold with the corkscrew called the Limonadier. Three-hundred years later, The French national association representing café owners is still called the Syndicat National des Limonadiers.
A Laguiole bread knife.
Photograph courtesy of La Maison du
Laguiole
If you are visiting Aveyron
The local Aveyron Tourist Information Offices will give you a list of over 100 wineries, farms, dairies, and other local producers in the department who open their farms and wineries to visitors. N.B. When visiting most farms and wineries, a small contribution to the local economy is expected. You may also have the list sent to you long before you leave home and plan your visits.
The Aveyron Tourist Information English language website is:
http://www.tourisme-aveyron.com/index_en.php
I have intentionally avoided recommending restaurants, as chefs and menus change; however, in the case of the village of Laguiole, I have made an exception. If your credit card is in good shape, consider the two-star Michelin Guide restaurant, Le Suquet, above the village. Le Suquet is owned and run by one of France's true master-chefs, Michel Bras, and his son Sébastien who, since 2009, is in charge. Fifty years with the same chef and all those Michelin Stars is long enough to consider making a recommendation. In 2017 Sébastien Bras turned down their three Michelin stars saying he no longer wished to be included in the Red Michelin Guide and "wanted to give a new meaning to my life." Nevertheless, in 2019 Michelin returned two stars, Le Suquet is simply too good.
The Le Suquet English language website is:
Wine in Aveyron
When
ordering wine, consider the Marcillac AOP, the most famous red
wine of Aveyron, and try the local IGP Aveyron
(previously the Aveyron Vin de Pays). These wines include whites, roses, and
red.
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Behind the French Menu
by
Bryan G. Newman
behindthefrenchmenu@gmail.com
Copyright, 2010, 2016, 2020
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