Archive for the ‘butter’ category
-
Something else Isigny is famous for…
Saturday, December 25th, 2010
At the end of every year, it is common to see oyster sellers outside the entrances to French supermarket entrances. Everywhere you look, there will be tables piled high with France’s favourite seasonal seafood: marquees filled with boxes of oysters of all sizes destined for new year celebrations. Depending on the region, the sellers will [...]
-
Snow can spread faster than butter…
Monday, December 20th, 2010
The snow currently falling across Europe is a timely reminder that butter was once a cold weather product. Before the days of universal refrigeration, it was harder to keep butter from going rancid or melting. Not impossible, but a sufficient challenge to ensure it remained the prerogative of rich households. Where available, a buttery or [...]
-
Cream combination to top Xmas pud
Tuesday, November 23rd, 2010
Christmas comes but once a year, so the saying goes, but the memory of a real English Christmas pudding is enough to last a lifetime. This dark, dense and fruity dessert deserves a better fate than to be drowned under a dribbling custard jug. For the adventurous, it should arrive at table swathed in the [...]
-
Croissant competition winner
Wednesday, October 28th, 2009
Congratulations to Aurélian Russias, winner of this year’s national Competition for the Best Croissant made with Isigny AOP Butter. A student at the CFA in Livron, he came all the way from the Drôme, one of the the first 83 départements established after the French revolution, part of what is now the Rhône-Alpes region. The [...]
-
Who will turn out a winning croissant?
Monday, October 12th, 2009
This weekend (October 17) sees the first national edition of Isigny Sainte-Mère’s annual search for the best croissant made with Isigny AOC butter. Over the past four years, the contest has gradually turned from a regional cook-off to a national contest with regional heats, staged during the summer months. The contestants are all students at [...]
-
Isigny AOC butter turns its hand to tourage
Saturday, October 10th, 2009
To make a perfect layered pastry takes a special butter combined with constant turning and rolling, known as tourage. To prepare a leavened pastry, such as a croissant, the pastry is rolled out by hand, spread with butter, folded in thirds, turned through a right angle and rolled out again. And again. And again. And [...]
-
The roots of an AOC
Tuesday, September 22nd, 2009
There is a saying in Normandy that ‘the water makes the grass and the grass makes the milk.’ Research that was carried out to make the case for an Isigny AOC found that Isigny’s milk is rich in proteins and casein. The Normandy cows play their part and represent a high proportion of the regional [...]
-
Bread and butter work
Saturday, August 29th, 2009
One of the building blocks of many French meals is a tartine, otherwise known as a piece of bread and butter. Depending on the quality of the bread and the butter used, it can range from simple to sublime. Isigny Sainte-Mère’s master buttermaker, Daniel Courd’homme, makes a point of tasting the butter and cream every [...]
-
Postwar reconstruction
Monday, June 22nd, 2009
As the liberating armies moved on to Caen and Paris, the Isigny dairy farmers returned to developing their cooperative. There were just 28 of the founder members who had survived the war: they were joined by a further 208 new members. As the war drew to a close, the Bessin exceeded a previous 1938 high [...]
-
Isigny visits Paris for Concours général agricole
Monday, May 25th, 2009
As well as receiving trade visitors from Paris, in 1934 the Isigny dairy cooperative started to enter its products for the Concours général agricole (CGA), France’s annual national food and farming contest. This competition was set up by the French state in 1870 and is reserved for agricultural products, either in their original state or [...]
