Behind the French Menu

Bleu de Causses the Blue, Mild to Spicy, Creamy Cow’s Milk Cheese from Aveyron in the South.

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Behind the French Menu
by
Bryan G. Newman

behindthefrenchmenu@gmail.com

Bleu de Causses

Photograph courtesy of Société Laitière de Laqueuille

Bleu des Causses AOP is a semi-soft, 45% fat, cows’ milk cheese made with pasteurized milk. It is white to ivory with greenish-blue veins aged for at least 21 days before being sold. It has an earthy smell with a spicy, nutty taste and a creamy pate changing to slightly crumbly as it ages. Cheese shops keep this cheese in two or more ages to satisfy the pockets, tastes, and needs of their customers. A whole cheese will weigh over 2 kilos (4.40 lbs), but a wedge kept in aluminum foil and a vacuum pack kept cold in the hotel mini-bar will travel well for 24 to 36 hours. When home the cheese must be kept in the refrigerator, (never the freezer) in aluminum foil and plastic wrap. This cheese is made with pasteurized milk, and so it can be taken into the USA, but for more about buying cheese in France and taking them home click here.

Bleu de Causses

Photograph courtesy of Fromagerie Le Chat Bo

France has a large selection of blue cheeses made with cow’s, sheep’s or goat’s milk along with a few that are made with mixed milks. Textures vary from creamy to crumbly and tastes run the gamut of mild to very spicy. What boosts the Blue des Causses in the restaurants' popularity stakes is this cheese’s flexibility. Many blue cheeses will age with a more piquant taste coming with age, but until you actually take them out of the cave or aging room and taste them, you cannot be really sure how spicey and or crumbly it is. Bleu de Causses has its rind removed after the minimum aging of 21 days when it is replaced with aluminum foil. That allows the cheese to be aged at slightly higher temperature cellars for up to six months and properly controlled its taste and texture changes like clockwork.

Map of the cheese making centers in the causses.

Home to some of France’s most famous cow’s, goat’s and sheep’s milk cheeses.

Photograph courtesy of Domaines and Terroirs

When a chef wants a light note that will not overpower a fish dish he or she will pick up the phone and ask for a 21 or 30-day old cheese. For a quiche, a 45-day aged cheese may be ordered, and for steaks the chef will ask for a 90-day aged cheese. The fromager, the cheesemonger who supplies the cheese, doesn’t need to taste it, the date stamp says it all. After120 days the Bleu des Causses will only be on the cheese trolley though the cheese’ aficionados know that five months will be better than four with the real mavens saying that the very best is six months old. N. B. Any older it begins to fade.

The Tarn Gorge seen from the Millau Viaduct

The Causses that gives this cheese its name are limestone plateaus in France’s Massif Central. The gorges are created by the rivers Tarn, Dourbie, Jonte, Lot and Aveyron running through the limestone and making for arresting scenery.

Photograph courtesy of Allan Harris

www.flickr.com/photos/allan_harris/2647320054/

The cheese comes from around the towns of Sainte-Afrique and Millau and they are just 28 km (17 miles apart) in the center of the department of Aveyron in the region of Occitainie. The department of Aveyron has two other AOP cheeses with Roquefort AOP sheep’s milk cheese being made just 11.6 km (7.2 miles) from Sainte-Afrique and the Laguiole AOP cow's milk cheese which is at the heart of many of the tastiest Aligots 120 km (63 miles) to the north of Millau.

Bleu de Causses will be on many menus:

Dorade Marbré au Bleu des Causses, Mascarpone aux Noix, Confiture de Courge Musquée - The striped seabream or sand steenbras prepared with the Bleu de Causses and Marscapone cream cheese with walnuts (France’s favorite nut) accompanied by a butternut squash jam. The striped seabream is caught in the Mediterranean as well being raised in sea farms, and it will be on many menus. Its taste is very similar to the Daurade Rose, the Bluespotted Seabream. While Marscapone is an Italian cream cheese don’t be surprised to see it on a French menu as there are many parts of France with strong Italian connections such as the city of Nice on the Cote d’Azur, and many Italian cheeses are close to the heart of French cuisine with Parmesan, the leader.

Faux Filet de Bœuf Sauce au Bleu Des Causses - The UK sirloin and the US strip steak grilled or fried and served with a Bleu de Causses sauce. Faux-filet makes great steaks; they come from just below the French entrecote, the UK and US ribeye.

US strip steak – The French faux filet

Photograph courtesy of Ed Kohler

www.flickr.com/photos/edkohler/2196323585/

Pièce de Boucher et sa Sauce Au Bleu Des Causses - The butcher’s cut served with a Bleu des Causses sauce. The pièce de boucher is one of four French cuts that are amongst the tastiest and tenderest of steaks from the rump. The French names for these cuts are Araignée de Bœuf, Merlan de Rumsteck, Poire de Bœuf, and the Langue de Chat, and there are no English names. You won’t find anything like these tender and tasty cuts in plastic wrap in a UK or USA supermarket, and the butcher’s outside who are willing to prepare these cuts are few and far between.

Tartare de Bœuf aux Noix et au Bleu des Causses – A steak Tatar with walnuts and Bleu des Causses.

Steak Tatar

Hotel du Vin & Bistro

www.flickr.com/photos/hdv-gallery/7138285281/

Quiche au Bleu de Causses et sa Salade – Quiche made with Bleu des Causses served with a salad. The origin of all quiches is the Quiche Lorraine in North-Eastern France now part of the region of the Grand Est and while they made all around the world the name is a direct link to their origins.

The Bleu de Causses was traditionally made from a mixture of sheep's milk mixed either with cow's or goat's milk, and it competed in the same market as Roquefort. Then as the producers and the government tried to make sense of competing demands for names and manufacturing secrets the cheese was made from cow’s milk that resulted in a milder taste than Roqueforte. To the mavens, there is a slight difference between the Bleu des Causses produced in winter and summer. Cheeses made in winter are lighter in color than their summer as the cows are fed in barns with the dry grasses, herbs, and flowers from summer pastures that also results in a slightly drier pate; both versions have their admirers.

The Millau Viaduct

Photograph courtesy of Jaap Verbeek

www.flickr.com/photos/jaapv/42932279492/

The town of Millau stands out among those traveling in the center of southern France as the Millau Viaduct is the tallest bridge in the world is here. At 336.50 meters (1,106 feet) high the Millau Viaduct is the quickest way via an AutoRoute from Paris to Barcelona and places along the way. The bridge spans the gorge valley of the River Tarn though many traveling south enjoy the scenery rather than the autoroute and then connect to the bridge. The whole area is beautiful and a stopover in the towns of Sainte-Afrique, Millau, Roquefort and or Laguiole will introduce you to some of the tastiest parts of France and the local wines are recommended with the red or rose Marcillac not to be missed.

Marcillac Rose

Photograph courtesy of Wine-Searcher.

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Behind the French Menu
by
Bryan G. Newman

behindthefrenchmenu@gmail.com

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Câpres – Capers, the Flavor Bombs. Capers in French Cuisine.

Behind the French Menu
by
Bryan G. Newman

behindthefrenchmenu@gmail.com

A jar of capers

Photograph courtesy of timlewisnm

www.flickr.com/photos/gozalewis/3292119124/

Capers come as a flavor package and are mostly seen as pea-sized darkish green globes that are part of sauces and or salads. In French cuisine, it’s their salty, slightly sour, lemon tang marks for them to be used with cream and butter sauces where their flavor, often with added lemon juice cuts down richness. It’s their tart flavor that enhances the taste of mayonnaise, salads and cold sauces, such as and tartar sauce or a tapenade. (A tapenade is an anchoïade with added capers, and the word tapena means caper in Provençal).

Steak tartare, fried capers, quail egg yolk.

N.B. You cannot make a real Steak Tatar without capers.

Photograph courtesy of Trip Advisor.

The capers are an important part of Mediterranean cuisine, and that’s where they probably originated though some in Southeast Asia may disagree. Capers were already part of Greek and Roman cooking and would have been introduced to France by the Greeks when they occupied southern France in the sixth century BCE. Dishes with capers are found in all parts of French cuisine but is most prominent in Provencal and other southern French cuisines.

The caper is not a fruit they are a bud, which left alone become the attractive white and mauve flowers of the caper bush. When these buds are picked from the bush they are pickled in vinegar or salt brine; they are rarely dried before pickling as that process loses some of the taste and much of the scent.

The caper flower

The caper flower, like the poppy flower wilts within a few hours.

Photograph courtesy of Luc Coekaerts

www.flickr.com/photos/luc_coekaerts/26583674552/

In French cuisine capers are graded according to size and the caper size relates to taste. The smallest caper usually seen is less than 7mm across and called nonpareil. Nonpareil means unequaled and they are the most expensive. The smaller a caper is, the more delicate its flavor and aroma. The next step up is the surfines, and that means superior quality, then come capucine and onwards and upwards for the largest sizes that are rarely seen in restaurants. The size of the caper is seldom mentioned on a menu listing but when it is it will be the nonpareil. Apart from their taste and texture chefs prefer the smallest because their flavor is more easily controlled.

The caper bush also has berries, and caper berries are different from capers. Caper berries are larger and usually eaten like olives. There is more on caper berries at the end of this post.

Capers on French Menus

Aile de Raie Façon Grenobloise, Pommes Vapeur – Skate wing prepared in a Sauce Grenobloise and served with steamed potatoes. Sauce Grenobloise is a clarified butter sauce made with lemon and capers and almost always used for fish; it originated in the city of Grenoble in South Eastern France. Grenoble is famous for many things, but in the food world it is this sauce and the Noix de Grenoble AOP, the Grenoble Walnuts AOP.

Smoked salmon, cream cheese, bagel and capers,

Photograph courtesy of Jeffrey Bary

www.flickr.com/photos/70118259@N00/11140823483/

Carpaccio De Boeuf Viande Limousine, Mariné au Citron et à l'Huile d'Olive. Parmesan, Salade, Tomates, Câpres, Champignons - A Carpaccio of thinly sliced Label Rouge, red label, Limousine beef, marinated in lemon and olive oil served with shavings of Parmesan cheese. accompanied by a salad, with tomatoes, button mushrooms, and capers.

Lavaret, the Broad Whitefish,

With parsley and capers, slow roasted tomatoes with fennel seeds.

Photograph courtesy of Blue moon in her eyes

www.flickr.com/photos/bluumwezi/4768822184/

Dos de Cabillaud Lardé à la Tapenade Maison – A thick cut of fresh cod wrapped in bacon prepared with the house’s take on a tapenade. The beloved spread of Provence called Anchoïade or Anchoyade is made with anchovies, olives, garlic and olive oil; added crushed capers brings forth the tapenade, Tapenades will be offered as a spread or like this menu listing used in cooked dishes. Tapenade’s name comes from the Provençal word for capers, tapenas.

Jarret d'Agneau Braisé Au Fenouil Et Céleri, Beignet De Câpres, Pommes Dauphine - A cut across a braised a shin or shank of lamb prepared with fennel and celery, deep fried capers and served with Dauphine potatoes. The meat on a lamb shank surrounds the bone and the same cut with veal is a jarret de veau, more than similar to the Italian Osso buco.

Potage de Trumeau de Bœuf.

The recipe above comes from page 19 of France’s earliest printed cookbook.

Le Cuisinier Francoise by La Varenne published in 1651.

A trumeau de bœuf. is an early French name for jarret de bœuf.

Photograph courtesy of the Gallica the BNF, the French National Library.

Mi-Cuit De Thon Rouge De La Méditerranée En Croûte De Sésame, Huile De Câpres, Mijoté De Poivrons Et Menthe Poivrée – A steak from the Northern Bluefin tuna from the Mediterranean very very lightly braised on the outside and left raw in the inside, in a covering of sesame flavored with caper oil, lightly simmered bell peppers and spearmint. The two tastes and textures of tuna prepared in this manner match each other perfectly. Every French chef will have his or her own method of preparing caper oil though none squeeze the caper; most take pickled capers add them to olive oil, usually with added garlic and after some 30 days or so a caper infused oil should be ready to use,

Mi-Cuit, lightly braised, tuna on a bed of tapenade.

Photograph courtesy of Cornerstone Cellars

www.flickr.com/photos/cornerstonecellars/7160178863/

Câpres à queue - Caper berries

Pickled caper fruits mostly called caper berries may be part of some dishes, but their flavor is more like an olive.

Caper berries

Photograph courtesy of Mercedes Blanco

www.flickr.com/photos/merceblanco/8363885511/

The official caper sizes:

Lilliput (3-5 mm.) non-pareil (5-7 mm), surfines (7-8 mm), capucines (8-9 mm), capotes (9–11 mm), fines (11–13 mm), and grusas (14+ mm). If the caper bud is not picked, it flowers and produces a caper berry. The difference is that capers are the early flower buds, while the berries are what forms after they have bloomed and been pollinated. The largest that may be the size of an olive hang from a cherry-like stem and they are pickled with the stem. The fruits have tiny seeds inside (the size of kiwi fruit seeds), the tiny seeds are soft and pop when chewed, and so their texture is very different to capers. Caper berries have a strong smell that comes from ingredients also found in mustard and wasabi, but they less acidic and have a milder flavor than capers, which makes them edible on their own much like olives and pickles.

Caper Plant, buds, fruit, and flower.

Otto Wilhelm Thome (1840-1925)

Photograph courtesy of Revolvy. Public Domain.

In France, the most highly rated capers come from Provence, but the capers bought outside France will mainly come from Morocco, Turkey, Spain. India and Southeast Asia. Southeast Asia also competes for the origin of the plant and capers are included in their cuisines.

The caper bush is a thorny shrub that can grow up to two meters tall though most are less than one meter, The shrubs branches have thons at the base of each leaf and so when the capers and caper berries are picked a great deal of care, and thick gloves are needed; capers are still picked by hand as caper picking machines are still a work in progress

Capucine, Cresson d’Inde - Nasturtium, Indian cress

Nasturtium fruits can be pickled and used as a substitute for capers and sold at much lower prices under the name of "nasturtium capers.”

Capers in the languages of France’s neighbors:

(Catalan - taparera ), (Dutch - kapers), (German – kaper), (Italian - cappero), (Provencal - tapeno, tapero), (Spanish - alcaparra, caparra, tápana and the caper berry is alcaparrón), (Latin – capparis and the plant is capparis spinose).

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