Uncover the fascinating historical past of French truffles and sweets beginning with a basic cake whose origins are, to say the least, a little bit uncommon. Marmoutier Abbey exterior Excursions was well-known for its delicacies within the 16th century and someday, the nuns had been busy making ready a feast for the visiting archbishop when, as Jean-Camille Fulbert-Dumonteil wrote in France Gourmande: ‘Immediately, an odd, loud, rhythmic, extended noise, just like the dying moan of an organ, then the dying wail of the breeze sighing within the cloisters, struck the indignant ears of the nuns with astonishment.’ The nuns all turned to stare at Sister Agnès, who in her embarrassment, tripped and let fly a spoonful of her chou pastry dough right into a pot of boiling fats, and the doughnut-like pet de nonne, ‘nun’s fart’ was born.
Dana Facaros investigates the confectionary chronicles of France.
Uncover the fascinating historical past of French truffles and sweets
In all probability solely the French would so joyfully commemorate a prodigious breaking of wind (or make up such a very good story about it!). And there have been different moments of serendipity:  there’s the sister who left the apples on the range till they caramelized and invented tarte Tatin, the apprentice who accidently dropped mint within the lozenge dough and created Bêtise de Cambrai bonbons, and a malfunctioning machine in Margaux that tangled up the chocolate bâtonnets meant to go inside pains au chocolate and produced as an alternative to Bordeaux’s first ‘vine cuttings’, Sarments de Médoc.
French truffles impressed by a motorcycle race, marvellous women and popes
However apart from blissful accidents, France’s pâtissiers and confiseurs have typically been impressed by occasions or folks, in order that (if you already know the story) there’s a little bit of historical past in each chunk; Escoffier’s Pêche Melba, created in 1892 for Australian soprano Dame Nellie Melba after her triumphant efficiency of Lohengrin is now served world wide.
And lots of candy souvenirs are virtually solely French, beginning with the Savarin, the syrup-soaked ring cake invented in 1845 by Arthur and Auguste Julien in honour of the ‘father of French gastronomie’ Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin. We owe the favored bike wheel-shaped Paris-Brest to Louis Durand who in 1910 concocted the primary ones when he heard the biking race was passing in entrance of his store (now renamed Paris Brest) in Maisons-Laffitte (Yvelines).
The aristocratic women of the Listing (1795–99) celebrated their escape from the guillotine by dressing in flimsy white robes and massive hats. Generally known as the Merveilleux, their transient day in vogue’s solar is recalled by the eponymous meringue and whipped cream pastries from Flanders, better of all from Aux Merveilleux in Lille.
Avignon remembers its medieval popes with Papalines d’Avignon: darkish chocolate balls stuffed with Origan du Comtat liqueur, wrapped in white chocolate tinted cardinal crimson. For Palm Sunday, Valence’s Suisse biscuits formed and embellished like Swiss Guards, recall how they protected Pope Pius VI after Napoleon kidnapped and despatched him to Valence, the place he died in 1799;  Maison Guillet is legendary for them.
Historic French truffles impressed by royalty, plus a cat, goat and canine
While you journey round France, native bonbons make nice souvenirs (who actually wants one other fridge magnet?) In Angoulême’s Chocolaterie Duceau, hunt down Marguerites, daisy-shaped goodies named after Marguerite d’Angoulême, the sensible sister of François I. In Nevers, head to Au Négus for a field of Négus de Nevers—smooth chocolate and occasional caramels in a tough sweet coating named after the Négus (Ménélik II, emperor of Abyssinia) who visited Nevers in 1902.
In the identical 12 months in Nantes, Charles Boho invented fruity Rigolettes Nantaise, immortalizing his cat Rigolette who was in flip named after his favorite opera, Rigoletto. Within the French Alps, the Dahu, the mountain goat with one set of legs longer than the opposite, leaves milk chocolate-covered raisin poop, the Crottes de Dahu — stable proof for les enfants that the Dahu actually exists, accessible in most memento retailers.
A grimmer story impressed the darkish chocolate and praline Crottes du Chien de Montargis made by Douceurs Montargris. In 1371, Aubry de Montdidier, a favorite of Charles V, was strolling within the woods when he was assassinated by a jealous knight, Robert Macaire. The king’s search celebration discovered Montdidier’s canine scratching the bottom over his grasp’s shallow grave. They introduced physique and canine again to court docket, when the canine, the one witness to the homicide, attacked Macaire. The king then ordered a duel between the person (armed with a membership) and the canine (who had a barrel to cover in). The canine received, Macaire confessed and was hanged.
When Russia was à la mode
For a few centuries Russia and France had been greatest buddies, regardless of Napoleon attempting to take Moscow. When Tsar Alexander III turned up in Paris for the 1855 Exposition Common, he was honoured with an almond and hazelnut cake dubbed the Russe.
In 1893, a confiseur in Chartres got here up with praline goodies in Swiss meringue that he named Mentchikoff after Peter the Nice’s favorite, Prince Alexandre Danilovitch Mentchikoff—who was seemingly the son of a pastry chef. In 1905, simply earlier than Diaghilev’s Ballets russes had been to take France by storm, rich Russians in Biarritz impressed chocolatier Jacques Damestoy to named his new chocolate caramels Kanougas (after Kalouga, a city in Russia), that are nothing lower than the ‘world’s most interesting caramel’ in keeping with the New York Occasions. His descendants make them on the Maison Pariès.
Candy victories and romance
On 17 June, 1434, throughout the Hundred Years’ Struggle, the locals of Mont Saint-Michel despatched the besieging English troops of Thomas de Scales packing so rapidly they left behind two bombards nicknamed Michelettes, their form and title echoed in striped cigarettes russes (Russia once more!) full of chocolate ganache. The St Michel firm sells them throughout France.
You’ll have to go to Montauban, nonetheless, to search out Boulets de Montauban (chocolate-covered toasted hazelnuts). Pissed off by his lengthy siege of Protestant Montauban of 1610, Louis XIII requested his astrologer what to do. He steered scaring town into surrendering, so Louis ordered 400 cannons to fireplace their boulets at Montauban on the identical time. Within the silence that adopted, the Montalbanais laughed so laborious the king may hear them. Therefore the expression ‘Faire les quatre cents coups’ (which accurately means to provide 400 blows however means – to reside a wild life!)
Then again, the Boulets de Metz, balls of darkish chocolate crammed hazelnut items and almond paste with a contact of Grand Marnier had been invented within the Thirties and named after a  very impolite tune, L’Artilleur de Metz (a few soldier who mooned on the enemy).
Different bonbons evoke extra tender emotions. Meals historians might argue over the origin of the title of Aix-en-Provence’s well-known Calissons (candied melon, blanched almonds and orange zest) however probably the most charming has it that Good King René’s confectioner invented them in 1454 for the King’s bride Jeanne on her wedding ceremony day, and she or he exclaimed ‘di calin soun!’ (‘they’re cuddly!’ in Provençal).
In Pau, hunt down Coucougnettes (roasted almonds coated in darkish chocolate, then rolled in raspberry, ginger and Armagnac-flavoured marzipan) on the Maison Francis Miot, which had been awarded the Greatest Bonbon prize in 2000. The title comes from coucougner, the southwest French phrase ‘to pamper a beloved’, referring to Pau’s native son Henri IV, the ‘Vert Galant’ who avait coucougné at the least 57 recognized mistresses and fathered an estimated 24 youngsters.
Dana Facaros has lived in France for over 30 years. She is the creator of French Meals Decoder app: all the things you need to learn about French meals, and co-author of the Bradt information to Gascony & the Pyrenees and plenty of information books to France.
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