Catching a Rainbow

The Loire River named after the silt it produces in such great quantities, wends its way from its source in the southern part of the Cévennes highlands to the Atlantic Ocean near St Nazaire.
The Loire, the longest river in France some 10,000 Km long drains more than a 20% of the country and flows through some of the most fertile and productive areas of Europe let alone France.
To the West, bordering the vastness of the Atlantic, one finds the Pays de la Loire or the Land of the Loire. The name is a confusing moniker for this area of France; as it only comprises a few départements through which the river snakes, and is only one of the 26 regions of France as a whole.
However, the region of Pays de la Loire not only includes the ancient département of Loire Atlantique, once part of Brittany; but Brittany proper lies only a few miles north of the River crossing at St Nazaire.

The valley of the Loire is the home to some of the finest cheeses in France, particularly goat cheese. Names such as Crottin de Chavignol, Pélardon des Cevennes, Pouligny Saint Pierre, Sainte-Maure de Touraine Selles, sur Cher Valençay, and the Chabichou du Poitou are just a few, all of them covered by an Appellation d’origine Contrôlée, all of them great cheeses but, why did none of them make it across the river to Brittany and why does Brittany have no cheese today?

The last statement may cause concern for some very fine artisan cheese producers in Brittany, who on a small scale and local basis make some very fine cheese…but it is a sad fact that not one AOC cheese is made in Brittany let alone a goat’s cheese with the same classification.

Brittany, a peninsula, surrounded by the sea and the ocean for most part; has a strong affiliation with both. It is perhaps that Brittany has such a tie with the sea, that no real relationship was forged between it, the cow or the goat. It is true that Brittany makes a great deal of butter much of it speciality mixed with sea salt, but only a small percentage of the milk is transformed into cheese.

On visiting Brittany one admires the rocky coast continuously battered by wave and wind, its gentle cliffs descending abruptly to the mistress of Brittany…the sea. The regions history, dark, always connected to the deep, its music even the paint laid on stretched canvas, all have a connection with the Ocean. Pirates, Corsairs, fishermen. A people a language a way of life all seem to face seawards. This may account for why cheese has been neglected.

Brittany with its rolling low hills, soft rains and green grass should be fertile ground for cheese production, but it may have been the low hills which decimated cheese manufacturing prior to the middle ages. Roc Trevezel, the highest point in Brittany is only 384m above sea level.


Many of the most famous cheeses and cheese producing areas of France are located in remote highlands, in out of the way places away from normal trade routes and historically un-affected by outbreaks of Bubonic plague- Brittany has no such places.
In the 1300’s there was a huge outbreak of plague accounting for a loss of 25% of the French population. The Plague was known to follow trade routes, and Brittany had a major route from Rouen to Rennes and to the Western Ports.
The Ports of Brest, Morlaix and Roscoff also had contact with Ireland and Great Britain and thus completed the circular spread of the plague from France to England and back to France.
It is possible that the lack of cheese in Brittany was caused simply by the knowledge of cheese making dying out in the middle ages. This theory is further strengthened by the fact that many cheese in France, including Brittany were and are still made within the confines of Abby’s and Monasteries, they themselves normally isolated, enclosed, possible protected from the ravages of the Black Death, not by mountains or remoteness but by walls.

The cheeses that exists in Brittany today are mainly Trappiste cheese made in Abby’s, such as:
Abbaye de la Joie Notre Damme, a trappiste cheese made in the style, of Port du Salut.

L' Abbaye de Campeneac, another Abby cheese descended from the cheese of Mayenne, Entrammes, Port du Salut. Although today the Abby specialises in biscuit and chocolate production rather than cheese.

L'Abbaye de la Meilleraie,

Le Curé ou Le Nantais.
A cows milk cheese made south of the river Loire, so no longer in Brittany, created by a vicar from the Vendee.

Le Montauban-de-Bretagne
Is a variety of Saint-Paulin made in Ile-et-Vilaine.

Le Saint-Agathon
No longer exists but was made on farms around the area of Guingamp

Le Saint-Gildas
A rich cheese 75% fat content made from cows milk.

Cheese yes all of them made in the style of Port Salut or St Paulin, Trappist cheeses…none of them famous, none readily available and not one having an Appellation d’origine Contrôlée.

So why did goat cheese not cross the river Loire north into Brittany?
(To be continued)

In the heart of Brittany, half way between Rennes and Vannes in the département of Morbihan one finds the village of Campénéac.


The Abbaye de la Joie Notre Dame (the Joy of our Lady,) is of the Cistercian Order of the Strict Observance. It is a community of nuns formed in 1921 when they moved to the abbey in 1953. Previously they had been part of the Abbaye de la Coudre at Laval and when they moved they took their cheese making skills with them.

The cheese still made at the abbey is made from cow’s milk, and is of the semi-soft uncooked variety. It has a washed outer rind and is similar in appearance to Port Salut the cheese from which it is derived.

Unlike Port Salut, Abbaye la Joie Notre Dame is still made in small quantities and retains much of the characteristics of the original hand made cheese or Entrammes.
(Unfortunately in 1873 the abbey, which made Port Salut sold out to a factory and the cheese is now mass-produced, the orange rind made from plastic.)

Abbaye de la Joie Notre Dame comes in the form of a large disc 20 cm in diameter and 5 cm thick weighing approximately 1.4-1.4Kg, although it also comes 250 g and 390 g sizes.
The cheese aged for five weeks has a 50% fat content and is available all year round. During the ripening stage the cheese is washed with brine

I am currently looking for a picture of this cheese, if you have one then I would appreciate a copy via e-mail
to malcolm@malcolmhamilton.net


Wine
Goes well with a young fruity red Bordeaux such as Château Maurine 2004 or a Stowels Merlot


References and acknowledgements

web site for the abby
http://www.chambarand.com/53.0.html
Abbaye de la Coudre : BP 0537 - rue St Benoît - 53005 LAVAL -

Produced on the high Jura plateaux, this seasonal cheese produced from 15th August to 15th March each year obtained its Appellation d’Origine Contrôlé in 1981 the sixth Swiss cheese to obtain this major distinction.
It requires each stage of production, from milk to finishing, to take place within its region of origin - the Vallée de Joux and the Jura foothills in the Canton of Vaud.
It lays down strict requirements that producers must respect, under the control of an independent certification body. The AOC protects Vacherin Mont-d’Or from imitations, assuring consumers that it is a fully authentic cheese.

The Mont-d'Or was first made in the 14th century by monks at the Saint-Claude Abbey, but gained its reputation much later thanks to Louis 15th.

The Vacherin Mont d’Or as it is correctly called, is still made in the age-old fashion and is a very creamy, lightly salted cheese with a white to ivory-coloured, soft, lightly pressed paste. It has a slightly runny texture with an uncooked and often pleated washed rind; its flavour has overtones of spruce wood.
The cheese must have a minimum fat content of 45% and its humidity level must not exceed 75%. Cylindrical in shape (diameter: 20-30 cm, thickness: 3-5 cm), it varies in weight from 500 g to 3 kg.
The cheese is made from raw milk taken from Montbeliarde cows; rennet is added to obtain a curd and then placed in cylindrical moulds ready to be pressed.
After removing from the 1st mould, it is encircled by a spruce band and left to ripen on spruce wood shelves for twenty-one days, after which it is placed in a smaller box, a process that gives it its pleated appearance. Seven litres of milk are needed to produce one kilogram of cheese.

The cheese is becoming ever popular and production of Mont d’Or reached 4,096 tonnes in 2005/2006 an improvement on 3,970 tonnes in 2004/2005.


The cheese is always eaten from its original box, in two ways and is perfect for informal dinner parties.
It is eaten either cold (sometimes with a small spoon); or hot, baked, studded with garlic, and a glass of vin jaune poured into a cavity scooped from its centre before cooking.
The cheese is of course best eaten with a Jura wine the Vin Jaune.

The Vin Jaune is as peculiar to the Jura region as the Vacherin Mont d’Or and is only found in an area equidistant between the Cote d’Or and the Swiss border. It is also one of the oldest wine producing areas of France/Switzerland.
The Roman Consul, Pliny the Younger, was already praising the wines of Jura in the First Century AD; archaeologists have found evidence of grapevines being grown there even earlier. The variety of grape is called Savagnin and is used in the production of the ‘Yellow Wine.’
The process is completely different to normal wine production and is akin to the production of Sherry.

After a normal fermentation, the Savagnin wine is then aged in barrels for a minimum of six years and three months; during this time it develops a yeast-like covering similar to the flor, which protects aging Sherry, but unlike most Sherries however, Vin Jaune is not fortified.
The yeast crust limits oxidation and obviates the need to top off the barrel while reinforcing the nutty aromas characteristic to Savagnin and adding further complexities to the wine’s flavor.
The wine, such as Cotes de Jura, Vin Jaune, Clos des Grives, 1997, a very fine and delicious vin jaune with flavours of walnut and ginger, is the perfect accompaniment to Vacherin Mont d’Or, and can be purchased in Great Britain. Buy it now!

The Vacherin Mont d’Or does have a certain amount of history and there is a continual argument as to whether the cheese is Swiss or French in origin
For generations, people have been telling the story of how the recipe for Vacherin came to Charbonnières.

In 1871 the troops of General Bourbaki were retreating through the forests of the Jura during one of the coldest winters in living memory.
To force their way through the snow, the French soldiers drove a herd of cows in front of them, led by their cowherd called Roguin. And he was the man who held the famous secret - how to produce Vacherin Mont-d'Or.
The French story goes that Roguin settled in the area, produced cheese, as well as numerous children and lived happily ever after. However, the Swiss are not convinced and look to their archives to prove the story false and the cheese being Swiss.

Twenty-Six years before Roguin, a book of accounts was discovered which cast serious doubts on the legend.
It clearly records the delivery of Vacherin’s, not once but several times, in 1845 Twenty-six years before General Bourbaki's retreat.


The region

The French Jura, roughly corresponding to the old province of Franche-Comté, lies in eastern France, bounded on the west by Burgundy and on the north by the Vosges.

Two great Frenchmen were born in the Jura - the biologist Louis Pasteur (1822-1895) and the painter Gustave Courbet (1819-1877).


Sources and Acknowledgements
(Source: SIDF Mont d'Or, or vacherin du Haut-Doubs)

http://www.vacherin-montdor.ch/en/aoc.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Denis_Bourbaki

http://www.planetware.com/france/french-jura-f-fc-jura.htm

http://www.starchefs.com/wine/features/html/jura.shtml

https://www.thewinesociety.com/tws/Welcome.asp?Page=00Welcome&Ext=asp

http://www.jura-tourism.com/fiches.php?id=15&idSM=3&langue=2

Rungis is not so much a food market - but a town and a way of life for thousands.

The original market Les Halles de Baltard moved to the site of Rungis in 1969. Les Halles was situated in the centre of Paris and not only had outgrown the site but was also causing considerable traffic congestion for the capitol.
The move to Rungis was a monumental change, there having been a market at Les Halles since 1136. (Victor Baltard designed the original market beginning in 1851).

The town of Rungis is in the département of Val-de-Marne, which in turn is in the region of Île-de-France and is only 7 miles from the centre of Paris.
It is well served by communications being only a few miles from Orly Airport, close to the junctions of the A6 and the N7 two important arterial roads in France, as well as having its own rail depot within the confines of the market site itself.

Rungis is a food distribution centre not only for France, but also for other European countries. The market is divided into sections: fruit and vegetables, dairy, seafood, meat, poultry, flowers and other items connected with the food trade such as packaging, knives and kitchen equipment.

The market covers 573 acres, an area larger than the principality of Monaco and is frequented by 26,000 vehicles a day. Rungis is a town in itself with banks, post offices, hairdressers, hotels, a laundry and restaurants for the 15000 workers who live to eat rather than eat to live.

It deals in enough food to feed twelve million Frenchmen every day, as well as the finest restaurants in Paris and the surrounding area.
Girolles(Chanterelles) and Cèpes in our local supermarket today had been purchased at Rungis and were ready for me when the store opened at nine o’clock.

The market is the property of the French State but run by a company at Rungis on their behalf. It opens between 0200 and 1300 depending on which area one is visiting; the fish market opens before the others to ensure that the fish is as fresh as possible, the food halls are usually empty by 0800.

The market itself is a labyrinth of sheds, hangars and offices interconnected by streets railway lines and paths. The main food halls are huge affairs some like the fish hall is air-conditioned to help maintain the temperature and freshness of the products.
Men in bloodstained overalls preparing and selling all manner of meats; poultry and game frequent the meat hall.
The dairy section, a less bloody affair with cheeses too numerous to count stacked in every section. General de Gaulle once famously asked how is it possible “to govern a country that produces 246 different varieties of the stuff.” And they are all on sale at Rungis.

The fruit and vegetable section is the largest of the market with eight fruit and vegetable halls. The distances between the various vendors are so great that the buyers use bicycles to travel between them.

It is well know that the French are lovers of good food. The French not only pride themselves on the production and preparation of their food, but they also take as much care over their foods distribution, which can attributed to a famous chef, François Vatel.



The tragic story of Vatel comes to a head in 1671 when François Vatel was enticed to work for the Prince of Condé. The Prince has invited King Louis XIV as well as two hundred other guests to a reception.
On the first evening a light supper was prepared comprising of turtle soup, creamed chicken, fried trout and roast pheasant.
More guests than anticipated arrived to enjoy the sumptuous meal and Vatel thought that there was not enough food to go around. He became depressed even though his staff assured him that the meal had been a great success.
The following morning the staff awaited a consignment of fish, enough to feed the guests that evening, however when the delivery arrived the quantity of fish was far less than required. Vatel retired to his room, wrote a note explaining that the shame was too much to bear, before fixing his sword blades in a door frame and throwing himself onto the blades…eight times some say.
His body was found the following morning when he failed to turn up for work and the missing fish arrived a few minutes later

The meal went ahead as planned, however as a mark of respect for the great chef the fish course was omitted. Ever since food has priority in every mode of transportation in France.
The story of Vatel has been made into a film starring Gérard Depardieu.
Explore the Works of Gérard Depardieu
Vatel film review.

There is not an equivalent to Rungis in the United Kingdom. The nearest we have to it is New Covent Garden Market, situated at Nine Elms in South London…often called Nine Elms Market.
Between 1982 and 1985 I was a buyer at New Covent Garden market, buying fruit, vegetables and flowers.
I can still remember the first time I saw the huge trading sheds and amazed at the vast quantity of fruit and vegetables on offer. The noise, the sights and the smell of fresh coffee, freshly baked bread and sizzling bacon gently wafting across the site on the early morning breeze. And I swear there is nowhere colder than Nine Elms at three o’clock on a winter’s morning…except perhaps Rungis?
For those of you who have visited Nine Elms will know how big it is. Rungis however is ten times bigger and has five times as many people visiting it on any given day and the sights sounds and smells are equally ten times as vivid.

There are two major sea-salt producing regions in Northern France, and neither of them is in Brittany. However, sea-salt is such an essential cooking component that I felt it was appropriate to broaden the geographical scope for this article.

The two main regions of sea salt production are the town of Guérande a and the l'île de Ré a small island to the west of La Rochelle.

In fact Guérande was once a Breton town but is now situated in the Loire-Atlantique département of France following the division of Brittany in1941. Although no longer part of Brittany its links with the region are strong and Breton history and culture in the department are strong and very much alive.

Guérande and the surrounding area has a strong Celtic culture following immigration to the region in the 5th and 6th centuries by the Cornish, Irish and the Welsh.

The name Guérande comes from Breton ‘gwen ran,’ which means white land and refers to the white salt deposits that naturally occurred in Guérande salt marshes. However it was men who built the present day salt flats and man who still collects these precious crystals.

The salt is collected by the natural evaporation of seawater by the sun and is to this day dependant on the climatic conditions. The natural evaporation gives the salt its special flavour and quality.

Guérande salt has a wonderful flavour with subtle aromatic undertones and is perfect for cooking or as a seasoning.
Some say that there is no difference between table salt, which is made from mined refined rock salt, and sea salt…then there are still some people who think the earth is flat.
The subtleties of sea salt should not be overlooked and as a raw seasoning it cannot be beaten. Sea salt also has two additional benefits. It adds to the texture of a dish owing to its crystalline form and augments the flavour of a recipe by the slow release of its delicate flavours and fragrance

There are those that advocate a salt free diet for various reasons, but sea salt is far from just being sodium chloride. In fact the sodium levels are lower owing to the gradual evaporation of the seawater, thus making sea salt higher in other minerals such as magnesium, calcium and potassium, as well as trace elements such as copper, zinc and iron.


Since 1996, the salt works in Guérande have been listed in 100 French sites of remarkable taste. To join this association three criteria must be fulfilled

1. A site must be connected to a unique, long-recognised, gastronomical speciality.
2. It must be of historical and/or visual interest, either architecturally or environmentally.
3. It must possess the facilities to accommodate visitors and sell the product on-site.

The Guérande salt marshes were considered so exceptional that they were included in a list of 10 top French pilot sites!

The second major sea salt production area is the l'île de Ré.

The first salt ponds were created in the 12th and 13th Centuries but all records were destroyed during the religious wars. Evidence shows that their were salt ponds on l'île de Ré in the 15th Century and expansion continued well into the 19th Century when 1500 hectares of land, more than 18% of the island, was in salt production.

Salt was an essential commodity, salting being the main form of food preservation in the Middle Ages. Ships would put into port on the island to collect salt as they travelled across the Atlantic fishing and trading. It was however salts success that became its eventual undoing.
The trade in salt became such an important industry that in the middle ages a tax was levied on salt production. The tax was called the Gabelle and was in existence from the late Middle Ages until 1946 when it was abolished. The word Gabelle comes from the Italian word gabella or tax, which in turn comes from the Arabic word qabāla, which represented 6% of annual royal revenue.

In 1343 a decree was passed by Philippe VI of Valois, which brought about the tax on salt. Although the law was abolished in 1790 a tax on salt continued until the end of the Second World War.
The tax raised thirty centimes a kilo in 1814, which was raised to forty centimes for every kilo of salt sold in 1818. With the start of the Second Republic in 1848 the tax was reduced to ten centimes but by the time it came to an end tax on salt was being levied at 1.43 France per kilo.

The effect of the tax was to make Spanish and Portuguese salt more affordable and caused the eventual demise of salt production in France.

Recently with an upsurge in cooking, cookery and all things edible, the sea salts of Guérande and the l'île de Ré have once again become popular and are available to all at a reasonable price and at the moment free of tax.