from
Behind the French Menu
by
Bryan G. Newman
A valley in the Auvergne seen through an
extinct volcano
The
Auvergne contains many extinct volcanoes with the last eruption around 6,000
years ago.
The Auvergne is close to the geographic center of France and
includes the departments of Allier, Cantal, Haute-Loire, and Puy de Dôme. The
Auvergne's mountains, rivers, and lakes are hiking, camping, and water-sports
centers in the summer. In the winter, the higher elevations become centers for
winter sports and ski resorts. For those
who enjoy a quieter vacation, the Auvergne is the place. The Auvergne is one of
the least inhabited areas in Europe; it has two persons per sq km. Compare that
with Provence- Alps-Cote-d'Azur with 156 persons per sq km. (Since 1-1-2016 the Auvergne is part of the
administrative region of the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes).
Dining in the Auvergne with 100% local produce.
Dining in the Auvergne can be an awesome experience for visitors to
France. Excellent meals made by well-trained chefs, with many only using local
ingredients. Even the water, the beer and the wine on the table may be
regional. Bottled mineral water with brands like Volvic, Vichy, Saint-Diéry,
and others are well-known throughout France.
Local beers include Volcans, Vellavia, Pastourèla, Sagnes, Ambrée, and
others. To see a Wikipedia list of the beers produced in the region, click here.
Historically the Auvergne was the third-largest wine-producing
region of France after Bordeaux and Burgundy. However, like most other wine-producing
regions in Europe, their vineyards became infected with phylloxera at the end
of the 19th century. Unfortunately, unlike
other areas, the Auvergne wine producers never recovered their fame and
fortune. Nevertheless, that does not mean that the Auvergne has a shortage of
excellent local wines; their Chanturgue AOP red wine has a remarkable history
in French cuisine. (Towards the end of
this post, I have listed the most well-known wines).
Auvergne restaurant menu listings:
Couderc
Gentiane - A bitter, but fresh tasting,
local aperitif or digestif served cold or with ice. It is made from fresh
gentian flowers grown in the mountains.
Crème de Lentilles du Puy - A cream of lentil soup made with the Auvergne's
unique AOP lentils, the Lentilles de Puy. These
lentils are cultivated in an area with its own microclimate around the small
town of Puy-en-Velay in the department of Haute-Loire. These lentils are a dark
green color characterized by blue marbling. For lentil lovers these
are very special with less than 300 tons are grown in any one year.
If you do visit Puy-en-Velay, there
is a 12th-century cathedral which is a UNESCO World Heritage site. The
cathedral is built along the old pilgrimage route to Santiago de Compostela in
Spain. The pilgrimage route is marked by the sign of the scallop shell; in France that
is also the shape of those famous little sponge cakes called Madeleines.
Photograph Public Domain
Vichyssoise –
Vichyssoise; a cold leek and potato soup. Vichyssoise is the dish to choose on a hot summer's day. Mind
you; not everyone considers Vichyssoise an authentic Auvergnat dish, even
though an Auvergnat native created it. The chef, Louis Diat, created his
world-famous soup at the New York Ritz-Carlton in Hotel, USA, in 1917, and so
some chefs claim the soup for the USA. The Auvergnats, the name given to the
Auvergne residents, believe this soup is their own. Ignoring all the arguments,
it is clear that Louis Diat had different ideas and named the soup after his
hometown of Vichy in the Auvergne, and that was over 100 years ago.
Vichyssoise
www.flickr.com/photos/stuart_spivack/22822969/
Melon
Fraîcheur et son Jambon d'Auvergne – Chilled
melon served with a cured ham from the Auvergne. Jambon
cru d'Auvergne hams are salted and then cured for a minimum of nine months with
very best cured for up to sixteen months. For more about French cured
hams, click here.
Belles
Tranches de Bœuf AOC Fin Gras du Mézenc Justes Marinées et Condiments d' une Béarnaise – Beautiful
slices of Fin Gras du Mézenc AOC beef lightly marinated and served with a Sauce Béarnaise. This particular dish is a Fin Gras du Mézenc take on a beef Carpaccio. The Bœuf Fin Gras du
Mézenc AAOP cattle are raised on the Mézenc Massif that runs through
the departments of Ardèche and the Haute-Loire. These are a unique AOP beef cattle since they are not a single breed; rather, they are
mixed breeds raised as free-range cattle. They are given their AOP for the way
they are nurtured and the taste of their beef. This finely marbled beef is only
on French Menus between February and early June.
Coq au Vin de Chanturgue –
Coq au Vin, prepared with the Chanturgue AOP red wine of the Auvergne. Most chefs agree that
the first time this dish appeared on a French restaurant menu this was the wine
use.
Coq au Vin.
www.flickr.com/photos/nathan_y/5180111161/
Truite Sauvage, de l’Auvergne Grillé au Feu de Bois avec Carottes Vichy – Wild Auvergne trout, grilled
over a wood fire and served with carrots cooked in the manner of Vichy. Carrots in the
style of the town of Vichy is a garnish of carrots served glazed with butter.
The original recipe requires the carrots to be boiled in Vichy’s famous, bottled,
lightly effervescent mineral water; however, I doubt that most restaurants carefully observe that
instruction. The Auvergne has hundreds of rivers and streams. The Auvergne is
considered a freshwater fisherman’s and fisherwoman’s paradise and apart from
trout local fishermen and women will be catching: omble chevalier, freshwater char; brochet, pike; sander, pike-perch; perche, freshwater perch; carpe, carp;
and the American import Black-Bass or Black-bass à Grande Bouche, large-mouthed bass. Many amateur fishermen and women choose the Auvergne expressly
for the exceptional fishing and privacy. Vichy is famous for the food products
named after it, such a Vichyssoise and its Vichy mineral water. The town itself
remains infamous for its role as the center of German collaboration in WWII.
Lake Pavin in the Auvergne.
The lake is part of an extinct volcano and a beautiful place to
visit.
www.flickr.com/photos/98338863@N08/15618693045/
Aligot d'Auvergne Saucisse et Salade de
Printemps – Auvergne aligot, a
traditional and very popular dish of mashed potatoes and a young Cantal or a Tomme d'Auvergne
cheese. Here the Aligot is served with an Auvergne sausage and a spring salad, a salad made with young vegetables. The traditional Auvergne
sausage is a small salami type pork sausage, about 100 grams, made with pork,
pork fat, and beef. When this sausage is served with Aligot, it is
usually grilled.
Aligot
www.flickr.com/photos/tavallai/5850019237/
Truffade Auvergnate –
A traditional potato dish from the Auvergne. It is a thick potato pancake made
from thinly sliced potatoes fried in goose fat. Just before serving, it is
mixed with a fresh Auvergnat tomme cheese. This dish made be served on its own
or accompanied by grilled Auvergne sausages or locally cured ham.
Tarte de les Perles Noires et
Perles Rouge de l’Auvergne - A
tart made with the red and black pearls of the Auvergne. In season all over the
Auvergne’s mountains and hills, the locals will be collecting their wild and
cultivated red and black pearls, the local berries. These include the baies de cassis, European black-currants;
the groseille rouge, red currants; myrtille or bleuet, the bilberry; mûre,
the blackberry, baie de Genièvre, the juniper berry,
and the framboise, the raspberry.
A
black pearl - a mûre, a blackberry.
www.flickr.com/photos/malmont/30949598068/
Verveine -
Lemon Verbena or lemon-scented verbena, the herb, may be offered as an herbal
tea. In the Auvergne, Verbena is also made into a liqueur, and that may be
offered as a digestif.
Liqueur de Châtaigne de
l'Auvergne - The chestnut liqueur of the Auvergne may be offered as a digestif. An
alternative will be the Marc d'Auvergne, one of the many local digestifs that
you may choose from. Marcs are very similar to the grappas of Italy. They are
brandies made with the leftovers from pressing the grapes used for wine.
Originally they were the brandies made for the peasants; now they are
professionally distilled, aged, and served in the finest restaurants.
Cheese in the Auvergne
There
are five Auvergne cheeses with an AOP: Cantal, Salers, Bleu d'Auvergne, Saint-Nectaire, and the Forme d'Ambert. Apart
from these five, there are many excellent cheeses without an AOP. These less
expensive, but very tasty, cow's, goat's and sheep's cheeses include Chèvreton,
Chabrirou, Le Chambérat, Fournols, Saint-Amant, and the Tomme d'Auvergne among many
others. Not having an AOP does indicate an inferior cheese; many excellent
cheeses do not have the distribution or exact geographical production areas that
are required for an AOP.
Cantal Vieux
The Cantal Vieux will have been matured for at least six months.
The
Auvergne has a Route des Fromages AOP d'Auvergne, a cheese road for their top
five cheeses. Taking this road is an excellent way to see the region while
tasting cheeses of every type, AOP or not, along with wines and other local products. There
is, unfortunately, no official Route des Vins d'Auvergne, a wine road.
Nevertheless, you may see a map with the Auvergne wineries clearly marked on
the French language website below. (The site is easily navigated in English
with Google or Bing Translate apps).
The
English language web site for the Auvergne's five AOP cheeses is:
With
the map of the cheese road and the directions to the Auvergne's wineries, make
your own combined wine and cheese road. The farms and wineries that you stop at
for a tasting will ask for a small and reasonable contribution to the local
economy. After a few hours of wines, cheeses, beautiful scenery, and
picturesque villages stop for lunch, find a hotel, rest, and enjoy the peace
and quiet and continue the next day.
Then come the Auvergne's wines.
The AOP wines of the Auvergne include:
Saint-Pourçain
AOP: Red, rosé, white and mousseux, lightly sparkling, wines
Côtes d'Auvergne AOP: (5
appellations)
Madargue: Red.
Chateaugay: Red,
rose, and white.
Chanturgue: Red.
The original red wine used for Coq au Vin.
Corent:
Dry rosé
Boudes: Red
Côte
Roannaise AOP: Reds and rosé.
Côtes
du Forez AOP: Red and rose.
The wines of the Auvergne
There
are many good and inexpensive Auvergne wines, including the Vins IGP du Puy de
Dôme. (IGP wines were previously called Vin de Pays). There are reds, rosés,
gris (gray), and white wines, but the difference between vintners, even with
wines from the same year, can be amazing. I always travel with an up-to-date
pocketbook on French wines as a price and year tell me little about what's in
the bottle, and even a well-recommended producer can have a bad year.
Additionally,
Auvergne has many Vins de France. (Previously the Vins de France wines were
called Vins de Table). A Vin de France label may indicate low-cost wines, but a
limit on the price but does not mean that they are all terrible wines. Like all
wines, including those with an AOP, you need recommendations from someone who
knows the wine, the year, and or the vintner. There are many reasons that a
wine cannot hold an AOP grading, and many of those relate to where the grapes
grew, and the grapes used, not the taste. N.B.: Old wines at low prices are
indications to choose something else; the French know their wines, and if it
were good, they would have been there first. See the post on the new French
wine labels: What has changed in French wines? What is an AOP, an IGP, and a
Vin de France?
Before traveling to the Auvergne
Study
the French Government, English language website, below, for the Auvergne, and you'll be
on the way to a very different and calm part of France.
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Behind the French Menu
by
Bryan G. Newman
Copyright 2010, 2014, 2020
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