Showing posts with label Sancerre. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Sancerre. Show all posts

Crottin de Chavignol AOP. One of France’s outstanding goats’ milk cheeses.

from
Behind the French Menu
by
Bryan G. Newman

behindthefrenchmenu@gmail.com

 


Different ages of Crottin de Chavignol AOP
and stage in its production.
(N.B. Crottin de Chavignol is pronounced krotan de chavinol)
Photograph courtesy of Sunny Ripert
https://www.flickr.com/photos/sunfox/4613789795/

The Crottin de Chavignol.

The Crottin de Chavignol is an excellent, creamy, when young, 32% fat, goats’ milk cheese made with unpasteurized milk.  The minimum permitted aging is ten days, and from then on, the cheese is sold with varying degrees of maturity, some as long as three months or more.  The youngest cheeses are mild and may be served warm in salads.  The young cheese has a white rind, and as the cheese matures, the rind takes on a bluish tinge that cheese lovers look for.  When aged for three or more months, the cheese will be crumbly and will have developed its distinctive taste with a kick.  The smallest of these cheeses weighs just 60 grams (2.10 ounces) and is about 5cm (2”) wide by 2.5 cm high (1”)     


The goats of Chavignol.
Photograph courtesy of JPC24M
https://www.flickr.com/photos/cjp24/16666609732/

The village of Chavignol is set in a very active neighborhood; to begin with, it is just 3.7 km (2.25 miles) away from the town of Sancerre, so famous for its excellent wines. All around are villages that are active in cheese making, running snail farms, wine-making, and other artisan food industries. Administratively Chavignol has been recognized as part of Sancerre, so I expect that over the years, Chavignol, with its less than 300 inhabitants, will have become a Sancerre suburb.

The ages of Chavignol

When the rind begins to turn blue, it will be about three months old. That is when a Crottin de Chavignol should be on a restaurant's cheese trolley or purchased to take home. If you have bought one to take home, then eat it within one or two weeks. Outside of the area, not every fromagerie will stock Crottin de Chavignol. With France's 46 AOP kinds of cheeses and at least another 1,200 registered cheeses fighting for shelf space, not even the largest cheese shop can carry everything. For a restaurant, keeping even 20 cheeses properly aged is a very expensive process. Fromageries will stock many more cheeses and, apart from the most popular cheeses and their own preferred choices, they will hold monthly specials. I spent some time with a Maître Fromager, a cheese master, in the city of Bourges. This well-educated cheese maven was also the owner of an excellent cheese store selling Crottin de Chavignol. He offers his customers and, on my visit, slivers of this cheese at two or three stages of maturity. He points out the different ages of each and allows the buyer to choose among the different tastes.


Three ages in the life of a Crottin de Chavignol.
The cream-colored cheese on the left is fresh and soft.
The cheese in the center is called “bluish” and ready to eat but mild.
The cheese on the right marked is aged and the choice of the cheese mavens who appreciate the bite.
Photograph courtesy of the Chavignol cheese producers.

When buying a Chavignol to take home, remember that cheeses with unpasteurized milk brought to the USA need to be clearly marked that they have aged over sixty days. The UK accepts the European Union inspected unpasteurized cheeses without any restrictions.

 


You’ll know when you arrive in Chavignol.
Photograph courtesy of Sunny Ripert
https://www.flickr.com/photos/sunfox/4613837935/

The village of Chavignol gave the cheese its name and remains a small and beautiful village in the department of Cher in the region of Centre-Val de Loire. The department of Cher is part of the ancient province of Berry in the Loire Valley and home to many famous wines and cheeses.  Berry has five excellent goat’s  cheeses including the Crottin de Chavignol AOP;  the Valençay AOP; the Pouligny Saint Pierre AOP;  the Selles sur Cher, AOP, and the  Sainte-Maure-de-Touraine AOP

Crottin de Chavignol  on French menus:

Salade de Crottin de Chavignol, (Salade Verte, Crottin Chaud, Tomate, Magret Fumé)  A green salad made with a young Crottin de Chavignol served warm, along with tomato and smoked duck breast.

La Tarte au Crottin de Chavignol – A cheese tart made with the Crottin de Chavignol.

Le Burger au Crottin de Chavignol – A cheeseburger made with the Crottin de Chavignol.

Crottin de Chavignol Chaud sur  Pain Poilâne Toasté - Crottin de Chavignol served on toasted Polar bread also called Swedish bread or Nordic bread. This bread is a traditional rye flour flat bread with dimples.

Crottin de Chavignol sur  Toast au Miel d'Acacia et Pignons de Pin - Crottin de Chavignol cheese served on toast with Acacia honey and pine nuts.


Acacia Honey.
Photograph courtesy of Daioh
https://www.flickr.com/photos/parparlotie/3738445557

Crottin de Chavignol Rôti et Poires Grillée - Crottin de Chavignol roasted and served with grilled pears.

Celebrating the Crottin de Chavignol

With such a famous cheese, there is an annual fete to celebrate it: the Fete du Crottin de Chavignol, the Chavignol cheese fair; it is held on the first Saturday and Sunday in May. Chavignol uses its position very well, and the festival is set in between the village of Chavignol and the town of Sancerre in the Caves de la Mignonne. Even if you missed the Fete du Crottin de Chavignol, the village of Sancerre and the villages roundabout have about twelve fêtes over weekends between April and August, celebrating local wines, cheeses, snails, and other products offering tastes and places to purchase. One fete that should not be missed celebrates Sancerre wines and oysters. 

The Tourist Information Office of Sancerre has an English-language website that covers the whole area of Sancerrois, including all the villages and places of interest around the town of Sancerre and Chavignol. Whatever you do not see clearly on their website, write to them, and within three or four days you will have a reply. Their English language website is:

https://www.tourisme-sancerre.com/

Most of the Chavignol cheese is produced near the village. However, for historical reasons, some of the cheese is made just over the border in the neighboring departments of Loiret and Nièvre in Bourgogne-Franche-Comté. 

 


The Château de Sancerre
Photograph courtesy of JPC24M
https://www.flickr.com/photos/cjp24/5544936637/

Getting to Chavignol and Sancerre

Bourges, the capital of the ancient province of Berry and now the capital of the department of Cher is in the region of Centre-Val de Loire. Bourges is a beautiful and fascinating city, and from there to Chavignol or Sancerre is just 46 km (29 miles), and that is less than one hour by car or bus from Bourges. Caveat emptor, avoid the train it will take you three hours.

The meaning of the word crottin.

The word crottin is part of the name of many small goats’ cheeses. The rather unfortunate translation of this word into English is a little piece of animal dung! Nevertheless, do not worry; the small goats’ cheeses with crottin as part of their name are mostly excellent. A few hundred years ago, when the local farmers were handing out the names for tiny cheeses, they did not have a public relations expert at hand. They looked at the size of the cheese and playfully associated the shapes with names that they knew. Who expected these cheeses to be sold around the world and become part of the cheese course in three-star Michelin restaurants?


Wines from Sancerre.
Photograph courtesy of dpotera 
https://www.flickr.com/photos/e_calamar/7073195509/
 

-----------------------------

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Behind the French Menu
by
Bryan G. Newman

 

behindthefrenchmenu@gmail.com

 

Copyright 2010, 2012, 2017, 2022
 
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Berry, One of France’s historic Provinces, Enjoy its excellent Berrichonne Cuisine. Savor its wines. Taste its outstanding cheeses and much more.

from
Behind the French Menu
by
Bryan G. Newman
behindthefrenchmenu@gmail.com
 

   
Château de Valençay
In the department of Indre (Berry).
www.flickr.com/photos/sybarite48/8313808905/
  
Berry
  
Berry is a historic French province in the Loire Valley that, during the French revolution, was divided into the two departments. They are Cher and Indre in the administrative region of Centre-Val de Loire. Despite more than two hundred years of administrative division, Berry remains united in its cuisine. 

How to get there.

Berry's old provincial capital was the city of Bourges, now the prefecture, the department capital of Cher. Châteauroux is the largest city in the department of Indre ad its prefecture. From Paris, the departments are two-and-a-half-hours by car, and less than two hours by direct TGV train.
   
Berrichonne's traditional dress.

Berrichonne the people and Berrichonne the Cuisine
  
Berrichonnes is the name given to the people who live in the area and Berrichon was the language they spoke. That language was a precursor of modern French. Berrichonne is the name of the excellent cuisine that was and is still is being created in the area. 
  
The cuisine.
  
Berry’s cuisine has well-established culinary credentials, but like much of the best French cuisine does not cling to a single style or type of recipe. Local dishes will often be assigned suffixes that will show their origin. Your menu may offer dishes… du Berry or…. à la Berrichonne.  Outside of the area, Berry’s name remains famous throughout France for its vegetables, freshwater fish, cheeses, snails, and wines. When traveling in the area, local restaurants will always include at least one dish with their famous green lentil, the Lentille Verte du Berry, IGP, Label Rouge and their cheeses will include one their five famouse AOP goat’s cheeses.

Your menu may offer:

Coq au Vin à la Berrichonne – Coq au Vin made with one of the red wines of Berrichone.  
  
Coq au Vin.
www.flickr.com/photos/nathan_y/5180111161/
 
Crème de Lentille Verte du Berry  - A cream of lentil soup made with the green lentils of Berry. These yellow-green lentils from Berry have a mild chestnut flavor, and they are France’s only label rouge, red label lentil. These lentils were the first dried vegetable to be awarded the Label Rouge for their consistent quality.
   
Cuisses de Grenouilles Flambées à la Crème d'Ail Persillée – Frogs’ legs in a cream of garlic sauce flavored with parsley and flambéed before serving.
   
Fricassée de Lumas à la Berrichonne – The local Petit Gris snail fried in butter and flavored with garlic, parsley, sea salt, and pepper, often made with an added local white wine.
  
RIs et Rognon à la Berrichonne, En Croûte –  Sweetbreads and kidneys, cooked in a pastry covering in the manner of Berrichonne.
  
Salade de Lentilles Vertes du Berry au Chaud  - A salad made with the green lentils of Berry and warm goats' cheese. Your cheese plate or a restaurant’s cheese trolley will include at least two of Berrichonne’s five famous goats’ cheeses. Berry has quite a number of other excellent cheeses, and you may enjoy them locally; unfortunately, most do not have the production required to receive a national following. For more about the famous five, see lower down this post.
    
Green lentil salad with a walnut dressing.
www.flickr.com/photos/stone-soup/357601017/

Salade Berrichonne – A salad in the manner of Berry. The traditional version is a warm goat’s cheese served with toast, on top of a poached egg, bacon, and tomatoes. The salad is flavored with nuts, cider vinegar, walnut oil, and a small amount of mustard. Like all salads linked by name to a specific area, there are small changes in the recipe from chef to chef, and Berry chefs will also make one or two tweaks to the original recipe. Ask how your Salade Berrichonne is prepared; it should be close to the traditional recipe.
  
Tarte Berriaude - An apple tart flavored with a cinnamon cream sauce. Occasionally this dish may be served flambéed with Calvados, France’s famous and unique apple brandy.

The fish, frogs, and snails of Berry

Local chefs take full advantage of the freshwater fish from the National Park of Brenne. The park has over 1,000 freshwater ponds as well as freeing-running streams and freshwater fish-farms. From here comes fresh carppikeeels, pike-perchfreshwater perch, and frogs, here uniquely called guernouilles; in the rest of France, frogs are grenouilles. Local menus will also feature their lumas snails, the Lumas de Cluis, the local name for their homegrown petit gris snails. Most of these snails are raised in and around the small town of Cluis in the department of Indre. Cluis has a number of snail fairs every year, but the big one is the Fête Du Luma held on 1st May.     

Sandre – Zander or Pike-Perch.
www.flickr.com/photos/marsupilami92/46524550024/
   
The wines of Berry
    
Berrichonne is part of the Loire Valley, so even the house wines in small restaurants will usually be the excellent IGP Val de Loire wines. If you do want an AOP local wine, ask for the wine list and look for a white, rosé or light red Sancerre AOP;  a white, rosé or red Menetou Salon AOP; a white Quincy AOP; a rosé or red Châteaumeillant AOP or their white, rosé, and red Reuilly AOP wines. For those who want sparkling wine, the nearby Crémants de Loire are excellent whites and rosés sparkling wines. 
   
www.flickr.com/photos/e_calamar/7073195509/
    
The five most famous cheeses of Berry.
  
Berry has many wonderful goats’ and cows’ cheeses though their internationally famous five AOP cheeses are all goats’ cheeses. 

Pouligny Saint Pierre AOP;  
Selles sur Cher AOP,
Valençay AOP.

   
The Sainte-Maure-de-Touraine cheese.
    
Listening to French in Berry
  
You may have learned excellent French in school or college; however, among themselves, the locals do allow old Berrichon words to slip in, and that, along with local usage, may interfere with any eavesdropping!
   
Visiting Bourges the old capital of Berry
   
Bourges, the ancient capital of Berry, is now the prefecture, the departmental capital of  Cher. Bourges has a fantastic history, a unique Gothic 13th-century cathedral, and is set on the River Yevre. Of particular interest is the Marais Berruyers, the marshes of Berry; there is no longer any marshland there though the name remains. The marshes are an amazing agricultural area in the center of the city, a 10-15 minute walk from the cathedral. Originally, this was a market gardening center; now, it has over 700 private plots with some that include amateur fish farms. You may visit and walk among most of the plots. Bourges is 250 km (153 miles) from Paris. With a direct TGV train, traveling time is 1 hour and 45 minutes, and by car two and a half hours.
   
The cathedral of Bourges. (Cher).
www.flickr.com/photos/sybarite48/5026494266/

Visiting Châteauroux the largest city in Indre
and the Brenne national park.
  
Châteauroux was the largest city in Berry and now is the prefecture, departmental capital of Indre. The town is set on the River Indre and the edge of the Brenne national park. If you just wish to enjoy the country travel slowly around the National Park of Brenne with its ponds, fields, forests, and villages along with many small, but good, local restaurants. The park’s English language website is http://www.parc-naturel-brenne.fr/en/.  
    
A Squacco Heron (ardeola ralloides).
In the Brenne National Park.
www.flickr.com/photos/bensphotograph/25816609498/

The Circus Museum
and the annual Green Lentil fete in Vatan (Indre).

If you are traveling with children, the small town of Vatan has a unique circus museum. Vatan is just 30 km, or twenty-five minutes by car, from Châteauroux. However, when visiting the museum, do check its opening times as they used to close daily for two hours for lunch! The circus museum’s French-language website is www.musee-du-cirque.com/Vatan; it is easily understood using Google or Microsoft translation apps.

On the second weekend in September, Vatan hosts the annual Fete de la Lentille Verte du Berry à Vatan, the Festival of the Green Lentil of Berry in Vatan. Their French language website is www.lentilleduberry.com/FR/esprit-terroir.html. This green lentil was the first dried vegetable to be awarded the Label Rouge, the Red Label.
        
The snail fete, the Fete de Lumas, in the town of Cluis (Indre).
      
Cluis has several snail fetes every year, but the largest begins on the first of May. The town also has a farmers’ market on the first and third Sunday mornings of every month. The Berry Province French language website    https://www.berryprovince.com/agenda/fete-du-luma-cluis/ give more information; it is easily understood with the Google or Microsoft translate apps. You can write ahead for dates and information on all their snail fairs to info@cluis.fr.   They promise to reply in English.
  
Château Valençay and its gardens

The beautiful Château Valençay was once the home of that consummate politician Talleyrand. Talleyrand: Charles Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord, Prince Benevento (1754- 1838).
    
Talleyrand was a gourmet and France’s first internationally famous politician, as well as the first politician to use the dinner table for political maneuvering. As a Minister, he first served King Louis XVI but later supported the French Revolution and took part in writing the Declaration of the Rights of Man. As a true Everyman’s politician, he later served Napoleon I as Foreign Minister, and then when the monarchy returned, served King Louis XVIII and King Louis-Philippe, Philippe Égalité.

One of Talleyrand’s most famous quotes was:

L’Angleterre a deux sauces et trois cents religions; la France au contraire, a deux religions, mais plus de trois cents sauces.

The English have two sauces and three hundred religions, while on the other hand, France has two religions and more than three hundred sauces.
  
The nearby town of Valençay gave its name to the Chateau. It is the only town in France to have an AOP for both its cheese and wine, as well as a chateau named after it. The Valençay AOP wines are whites and reds and its cheese is one of France’s most respected goats’ cheeses.

The main fountain in the grounds of the Chateau de Valencay.
www.flickr.com/photos/zigazou76/18620718256/

Champagne Berrichonne
  
Look at a map of Berry, and you will see one large part is called Champagne Berrichonne, and that causes some confusion. Champagne Berrichonne has no Champagne; the word champagne historically refers to a type of soil and the name was adopted further north for the famous sparkling wine. Champagne Berrichonne is not a center for bubbling wine, or any wine for that matter, though it does have a micro-brewery. Champagne Berrichonne is a vast plain and a center for the cultivation of Berry’s famous green lentils and also their cattle farming. The area is covered with hundreds of small lakes and is also home to the Pouligny Saint-Pierre AOC goats’ cheese.

--------------------------------

Behind the French Menu
by
Bryan G. Newman 
Copyright 2010, 2013, 2014, 2019, 2024
behindthefrenchmenu@gmail.com

 
--------------------------------

Searching for the meaning of words, names or phrases
on
French menus?
 
Just add the word, words, or phrase that you are searching for to the words "Behind the French Menu" (best when including the inverted commas), and search with Google, Bing, or another browser.  Behind the French Menu’s links, include hundreds of words, names, and phrases that are seen on French menus. There are over 450 articles that include over 4,000 French dishes with English translations and explanations.

Connected Posts:

 
 



 
 
 


 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 


 
 
 
 



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