Inside Isigny

Archive for March, 2009

• Butter for barbarians?

  Tuesday, March 31st, 2009

  Pliny the elder despised the barbarians for their use of butter. The Roman writer added: “In France it is in general use, more often among the poor than the rich.” These dismissive words stuck for centuries

• From Normandy to Westminster

  Tuesday, March 31st, 2009

  After ruling what is now Haute Normandie (high Normandy), Rollo was later granted the Bessin, while the other bank of the river Vire, the Cotentin, was being ruled by Breton nobles. When the lord of the Cotentin died without an heir in 933, Rollo’s successor William Longsword was appointed by the French crown to rule [...]

• Milk shunned by the Romans

  Tuesday, March 31st, 2009

  Milk has not always been valued in history: the milk-drinking herdsmen of ancient times sent a shudder down the spines of the Romans, whose cooking used olive oil exclusively. Butter eaters, for Pliny, were beyond the pail: milk was not even considered as food by the Romans until it had been turned into cheese. As [...]

• Butter: worth its salt

  Tuesday, March 24th, 2009

  Normandy’s Viking settlers brought cattle with them in their longboats (drakkars) and an appetite for dairy products. They routinely ate a coarse gruel, later adopted in the British Isles as porridge, as well as

• Butter in a bottle

  Sunday, March 22nd, 2009

  Writing in his Grand Dictionnaire de Cuisine nineteenth century author Alexandre Dumas 1 describes how he always enjoyed a little luxury on his travels: “In all the countries I have visited, I have always managed to make fresh butter every day. I offer my secret Link to Wikipedia article about Alexandre Dumas here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexandre_Dumas#Non-fiction ↩

• Cream rises to the top, naturally

  Friday, March 20th, 2009

  Before the days of centrifuges, milk could be left to stand for 24 hours to let the cream rise naturally to the top. While this can hardly be described as a process, separating the cream and the whey is often the first step in many dairy products.

• AOC accreditation adds up

  Monday, March 9th, 2009

  How many products qualify for AOC 1 status? This week, the French agriculture ministry popped up with a current figure, 561 in all. There is a static page in the left hand menu to explain what AOC stands for. ↩

• Milk: simple by nature

  Friday, March 6th, 2009

  Milk is as simple as the life it supports and it runs as deeply through the Isigny terroir as the water that flows through the landscape. Like water, it reflects the complexity that we put into our view of life.

• Normandy cattle preserve regional look

  Thursday, March 5th, 2009

  Travelling around the Isigny region, the sturdy Normandy cattle are to be seen everywhere. Their ancestors arrived in Viking longboats (drakkars) and their milk has a high protein content, making it ideal for cheese.

• How the sea spread a taste for butter

  Wednesday, March 4th, 2009

  The Isigny AOC is based on an area of land – le pays – around the twin ports of Isigny sur Mer. The historic and strategic importance of what is now a comparatively small town rests on its two ports.