bleudauvergne

I understand your point and think it well made. I also look forward to your opinion once you've had the chance to read the book. ← Great suggestion, Jamie. But please have patience. It went out of print 11 years ago in this country.

You can leave the bacon and jelly on, they're part of it too! Next time weight it just out of the oven and pour off the liquid (which you can use in something else), this will make it more compact and not fall apart when you slice it. Use a nice sharp knife to slice it. Sounds delicious. I have never marinated with red wine, I'd love to know how yours turns out! No doubt it's delicious. btw, what gave you the idea for the ginger?

Yes, thank you. That was very nicely written, and sentiments we can all live by.

Wow, John! What a super looking rental! You must have felt like a movie star! What did you cook in that kitchen? I've been browsing through their list to see if there were others with kitchens.... It looks like there is a whole list of one bedrooms with kitchens.

Here's a question from a home cook who can't get corn syrup. What exactly does it do in making candy like divinity? Is there any acceptable substitution that I can make at home from common ingredients found in the kitchen? Would honey work?

A wine adventure sounds like really a lot of fun! Starting in Dijon. Where is your final stop? Do you already have a list of Chateaux you'd like to visit for tastings? If not restaurants, are there towns where particularly interesting wines or special vinyards are located that would be a worth a stop? Another idea would be to think about where you have good regional cavistes and make those towns destinations on the itineraries. Do you plan to buy and have wine shipped home?

Oh, admire them, if only because nobody plays the French card quite the way the French do. ← Indeed, there is a fine line between implication and accusation. Nice afterthought. I can talk to you about a few of the markets of Provence, because I shop there several weeks a year. In the course of our errands, we shop the Cours Lafayette market in Toulon and a smaller one in the city as well, as well as the market at La Garde from time to time. We find lots of very good fresh local foodstuff in these markets that we would not find elsewhere. Thinking about these markets, I don't recall any of them being 'shot through with mock paysans in rented sabots' anywhere. When someone really wants to see 'mock paysans', they appear - you either see them, or you see, in an environment charged with competition, a choice of local produce and products being offered by people who are in the business of selling them. When you have been to a market a few times, the newness of the sales techniques in this environment becomes secondary. You'll see that what you may label as 'mock paysans' is actually people out making a living. Whether they have the connections and the ability to get exclusive and choice local products is for you to decide. Ignoring the inflamatory way this is worded, I think busboy has raised a good point that deserves an answer. Why is being able to judge the quality of the produce on offer important in being able to make any kind of study the market culture? Because this is where the truth of the market lies. To publish an 'exposé' on the markets requires a certain understanding of the products being sold there. These are products to judiciously choose from, and judging the best products and choosing accordingly is not a passive shopping stroll in which you naively accuse a vendor who invites you to taste his plums that he is fraudlently implying that he picked them himself. (read the exerpt, the author really goes that far.) The reason why this whole accusation of fraud at the markets is offensive to some is that the outdoor markets are not the supermarkets, and to falsely claim that all of the products sold come from the Carrfour logistics center in Nante is harmful slander. Local wholesalers do provide a great service in getting good fresh products to market, and there is nothing wrong with that. To make accusations of fraud, be it indictable or 'barely indictable' means that this very important element of French food culture is under attack of the same slander. And when something this important is under attack, whether through government funded academic 'studies', by sloppy press, or by people who just think it's fun to poke fun, it is necessary to answer. In my view, if my access to fresh local produce was curtailed by for example, a suppresion of funding for certain markets based on 'studies' of this sort, it would be a real tragedy.

Or an excuse to eat in restaurants in Paris, rent a car and do a little touring through the countryside... I have stayed in Self Catering Gites with kitchens.

So much of the concept of the French idyll (a bike or canal boat ride through the countryside, stopping at a market to gather supplies for a picnic) is based on this ripe artifice that it appears, up close, like that amusing pastime of sacred cow tipping. Or merely merde de cheval. ← "Merde de cheval"? (First of all there is no such expression in France. The word is crottin.) Now the lady may be an acceptable anthropologist, but here is the big, pertinent question: can she shop? Is she a skilled shopper? Can she tell small-producer root celery from bleached, calibrated root-celery at first sight and touch? I'd suspect she doesn't. Maybe (as her name would imply) her maid does the shopping for her while she's doing her research. Maybe, in that case, the maid should have helped in the research too. ← Bit unfair, don't you think? Besides, I thought French women were genetically predisposed to shop well. ← Not unfair at all. I too get the distinct impression that the person who did this initial body of research, although a talented and passionate writer, had a very bourgeois tendency blur the idea of a blue collar worker and a rural peasant. She was unable to distinguish the difference and her dissapointment at the reality gave her a start. The bitter and cynical assumption that every gesture by the vendors at the market is by design intended to dupe and trick the patrons into buying "fake goods" clearly comes from her dissapointment at not being able to find any "real peasants". They're all the same to Mme de la Pradelle, who in the end is suprised and shocked to see that some small business owners actually do exercise a certain level of sales technique. Ptit Pois notes and very rightly so that clearly at the time of her research this person obviously could not tell the difference between fresh local produce and industrially produced imports of the kind sold in supermarkets. The local produce, yes, sometimes aquired by vendors from depots where local producers sell them, is not even close to what we find in supermarkets here. The statement (who said it?) that both local outdoor market vendors and supermarkets shop at the same depots is patently false. The logistical channels are not the same. Take a look around. To assume or expect that everything sold at the outdoor rural markets of France is being sold by the people who actually labored in the field indicates that you come from a naive, sheltered existence. To pretend that any business owner referring to goods that he or she sells as their own is unethical is also naive. How many times have you seen an employee of any business say "our products..." how many times have you actually considered that person to be lying? We see that Mme de Pradelle managed to dig up one person who admitted having told a customer that he made a pate himself in order to get her to taste it. He admits that he lied. Does this give any researcher license to spread the blanket over the country of France and say that this person's lack of ethic applies everywhere? Hardly. It was something that really bothered me, reading the exerpt, and the assumptions put forth on this thread. This question came to mind when I went looking for andouillette at Les Halles yesterday. I was asking a woman at the Bobosse stand about the difference between the Beaujolais style and the house "Bobosse" style andouilette, both of which they sell. In her description of the production technique, she said "We wrap the chitterlings like this and then draw them through the casings with a string. The Beaujolais andouilettes are stuffed with ground chitterlings." - Yes, she referred to the product she was selling as her own. Under no circumstance during our transaction did I assume she meant that she herself had actually made the andouilette. It was clear in my mind from the start that she was an employee of the Bobosse company that produces, in the local region, a very nice andouillette. Fake? Not even close.

I was rather horrified with the result (visual, they tasted great!) mainly because I know I can do much better. But these were experiments anyway... Thanks for the comments in any case! Wendy's right, when you are seasoning a terrine you just have to pull out all the stops. Not so much unpredictable, Lori, but different. Cold terrines and especially those with gelatine need salt salt and good sturdy reductions. Loic eventually gave me a nice lecture on the teachings of Herve This on this topic, he's the French version of H. McGee. He had a lot to say about gelatine. I got my husband the books because it keeps him updated on the technologies and he can participate... Something else that comes in handy when you do something with gelatine is to grease your mould. It helps keep things in tact coming out.

I've read post 30 and I'm not sure what you are trying to say. Yes, the producers market at Place Carnot does not do the business of the St. Antoine weekend market, or indeed we had Italians being punished for dressing like peasants to sneak fraudulent goods into certain markets in Torino the 1400s? In any case, there is a whole lot of generalizing going on and the goal seems suspect to me. Anyone can take reality and exagerrate to the limit of truth and hype it with some spin - market vendors, snake oil salesmen, and journalists alike. It's when you get a combination of the three that things start getting obnoxious.

I haven't read the book so I can't say much about this particular study or the quality of the journalism covering it except that what Ptipois very astutely mentions - Anyone with a habit of market shopping and seasonal cooking can idenitfy the producers vs. the vendors at the market. It's just a plain simple fact. There is nothing wrong with vendors getting their produce from various sources, it's what differentiates them from the producers. I mention this on several levels in my eG foodblogs, where for the most part I make a conscious choice to choose from the source when I can. The rule at the St. Antoine market in Lyon is that producers have the right to label their product with the word 'producteur', and vendors of wholesale products do not. Fraud is easily spotted and heavily fined, everyone knows their neighbor, and competition is not going to allow for anyone turning a blind eye to it. I can easily say however, that there are many charming methods the vendors use to display their goods, and it is a source of entertainment. I found it amusing to see that over the years a certain toothless grinned country bumpkin-esque fellow with a nice holler has worked for several different vendors. Does this fool people who know particular markets well? No. This is called sales technique. The art of sourcing your chosen market products for your own kitchen, taking the time to know your market and differentiate the source of your product, learn the stories and know the truth about where your food comes from is a matter of individual choice. This student who researched the summer market at Carpentras and easily obtained anecdotes and evidence that certain sales techniques were working - did what many of us should do ourselves no matter where we shop. On Wednesdays here in Lyon at the Place Carnot there is an evening producers' market. The rule that producers only can sell there is strictly enforced. They are well attended although I can say that because they are out of the way and not at a regular market hour they don't get the traffic that St.Antoine does on the weekends. Only three regular vendors there are also selling their product at St. Antoine. I can count on one hand the number of actual gardeners who come with the occasional chicken or rabbit to the St. Antoine market that I know to be producers. But that doesn't make the market a place of mass fraud, does it? One you have shopped a market for a year or two you know which stalls to go directly to. A quick glance can tell you easily if a new stand on any given day is worth a second look. As for producers, their product varies throughout the year, and the pickings can be slim from time to time. I know for example, that purchasing my celery root from one particular fellow is going to get me a fresh solid tasty root unlike what I get from anyone else, although they might not be regularly sized or shaped. When the season is harsh, the local producers deserve the regular's patronage because the people going to the market with big eyes popping out like they are at some park attraction are going to go straight to the girl in the corset and lace coverlet who has stacked 27 celery roots in gothic pyramydal formations, each root perfectly round and ironically the exact size of the 34DDs nestled in her cotton gossamer. Both local product coming from regional depots and the local producers material will clearly be a completely different product than the stuff coming in from hothouses from abroad. By law, in France, the country of origin has to be marked and especially this time of year (winter) we see many distant countries represented. This is a present-day reality. No myth to debunk.

I did an experiement with gelatine and vinegar, thinking that I could get a kind of vinaigrette effect with the final dish, making the medium for the lentils acidic and then adding the other components, good olive oil, spices and herbs at serving. There were no problems at all with the gelatine setting and with the final appearance in my experiments. However - be warned that the vinager jello tastes pretty awful. My main priority is taste so that idea had to be scrapped. Note, I also did not tap the air bubbles out of this experiment. I sliced my experimental specimens and realized that with the firmer lentils also the idea of a long terrine to be sliced was not a good idea, since the lentils are more firm than the gelatine, and it makes for an uneven cut, even with a very sharp knife. The first thing I did was to soften my gelatine, and then take a little of it to make a clear layer with a ladle or two of some chicken stock I had going. I poured a layer of clear jelly into individual ramekins and put them in the fridge to set. In the meantime, I rolled up and tied chicken breasts with tree ear mushroom (could not find the trumpets) and tarragon. I braised that in wine for about 15 minutes in a hot oven and then sliced them to layer on top of the clear layer of gelatine. In order to pack more flavor into the medium for the lentils, I added some ham to the veal reduction I had on the back burner. After about 15 minutes of simmering, I pureed and strained the ham/veal reduction and added my gelatine. The slices of the rolled chicken went into the individual ramekins over the set clear chicken broth layer, then they were covered with lentils, and topped off with the enriched veal reduction. Lessons learned: 1) Aged vinegar and gelatine make a pretty result but the gelatine robs the vinegar of a certain edge and you're left with a dulled flavor. Something to consider this for are thin layers for color that won't interfere with the overall taste of the dish. 2) For lentils, individual ramekins are probably better because the different textures make it hard to make an even cut. 3) When preparing a gelatine medium for a terrine containing vegetables, remember to use something really flavourful and don't skimp on the salt. The more pronounced the flavor of the broth, the better, because the geltaine can dull the flavor, and being served cold, it needs to be saltier than if would be if served hot. 4) Roll the chicken as tight as possible. I could have done better to flatten the chicken breasts more thinly and to roll more tightly. Tarragon is nice to season the chicken. I will do that again. 5) Make the clear layer at least 1/8" thick. Be gentle when tapping to remove air bubbles, but by all means do tap it down to get air bubbles out. 5) Rocket (Arugula) goes really well with this lentil terrine. I will do this one again and pay more attention to the final effect in the rolls. There are possibilities there.

I have been reviewing this thread and I have to say this looks very good. Bravo, Lori.

You still have not shared the soup recipe.

I say rest for 30 minutes, minimum.

There was this lady who gave me a recipe and she insisted that I had to use a certain brand of sugar to make it turn out right. She said that her daughter in law accused her of 'tweaking' the recipe but that she knew she wasn't using the right kind of sugar. I think that somethimes things just have to be just right to get the same effect sometimes, and sometimes we don't record what it is that has to be just right. We change, our tastes change, the way we taste things physically changes with time too. I have some doozies of recipes that I thought were just the bomb when I was learning to cook, that now just don't pull the same weight anymore. That happens too. Some taste combinations are great once or twice or even a few times, but just don't stand the test of time. What was the soup recipe?

There is also munster, livarot, maroilles and vieux-lille. Plus some incredibly fragrant Belgian cheese I forgot the name of. But époisses (to me) takes on a particularly vicious aspect when it's overdone. Other cheeses I can cope with. Fresh munster is a rare delicacy. ← I know that overdone époisses is definitely disgusting, but even a young one does exude a certain odor that to me smells a bit like dirty diapers, especially when it wafts out of shopping bags. On the way home from the store where I got some a few weeks ago I became suddenly aware that my sack was intruding on the space of others. You know, sitting on the metro and everyone sort of freezes - and sniffs a bit.

I'm afraid if I put truffles in this my husband might have a heart attack from the shock when he learns what I have spent this weeks food budget on. Wendy, your idea does make me think that mushrooms will be good, there is a dried black chinese mushroom that I sliver and add to things for color and crunch now and then. They call it the ear mushroom, I think. Or I could pick up some dried black trumpets for more flavor. Yes, that's it. I think that's what I'll use. Dried black trumpets.

No mind about the lentils, I've been seduced into buying them three times now and each time I am suprised when their color melts away. This is clearly because I am an airhead. Many happy accidents can occur in the kitchen to airheads, now that I think of it. I will make due with the faded lentils. They still have a nice sheen to them and have kept their body, which is good. Suspended in a dark clear liquid they can do well. I think that I will roll the chicken with some unsmoked bacon to add some depth to the flavor in the center a bit. I do want to research that acid/jelly question a little bit more, I have seen a German recipe for a chicken in jelly where he does a wine vinegar reduction and then adds gelatine. And then there's tomato aspic coming at me from the recesses of my mind, very acidic. I want strong flavors in the medium. And something very dark colored, black even, rolled in with the chicken. But what? Black olive tapanade? Any other ideas?

Thank you! I will give it a good swat on the counter, good point. One question, does your chef weigh down the lentil terrine? I have the lentils on and much of their pretty dark color is escaping into the cooking water! I am thinking that a dark colored but translucent medium for the gelatine will work better than a clarified white stock and highlight the color of the lentils which is still pretty. I am wondering if I add acid to the gelatine liquid that this will do anything to the gelatine effect? i.e. a dark aged old vinegar.

We are having guests from out of town, they're coming for the birth of their first grandchild (my sister-in-law's baby), and I don't know what the schedule is going to be, so I have been thinking of things I can serve at the last minute. They are going to be in town I think for at least a few days. This morning I passed a very fashionable traiteur (deli) and they had a pretty lentil terrine with chicken breast in the center. They used brown lentils, not puy lentils, and I think they could have done better to choose a more firm lentil. Since I just picked up a sack of those cute little black beluga lentils I thought I might do a terrine with those. I think using the beluga lentils will give a much better effect than the brown ones, because like the puy they remain in tact very well, and they have a nice sheen and color. Since much of the pleasure of the terrine is in how nice it looks at service, I'm stuck on this idea. I have been looking for recipes and can't find any, so I think what I'll do is prepare the lentils with aromatics like bay and thyme, an onion in the cooking water. Then I'll poach and season the chicken breast, and prepare a gelatine with some white stock which I have clarified. Some of the things I've been thinking about, please chime in if you have any tips to offer: 1) Do I weigh this down? 2) When using the gelatine, should I make a more concentrated mixture? My instinct is to make the gelatine a bit more concentrated than usual. Any tips? 3) Three ideas for the lentil terrine are chicken (cheap), tuna (visual theme with the 'beluga' lentils), or ham hock(classic lentil pairing)? I'm going to do chicken but I want to do tuna some time if this looks pretty. 4) Ideas for a salad and presentation? Mini individual or sliced terrine? What else can I do to maximize the effect?

This is really a great source for info. Thanks Ann. Anyone who is considering a job in commerical import and export of food products could also benefit from this document as well.

Hmm, On the contrary, I think that you all are well on your way. Your decision to do this and the efforts you have made in that direction make you all heros in my book. Keep looking forward. I enjoyed a cigarette now and then, maybe one or two a day over the last 6 months. I didn't know any of you smoked before this blog! Looking at the efforts here and hearing how profoundly this is affecting your lives has made me think twice about the reasons why I was doing it in the first place. It also made me think that even though it hadn't worked its way yet into my way of life, it is a good idea to go ahead and stop before I get hooked. I stubbed out the last one of the pack on page 4 of this blog, and haven't gone to get any more. Thank you for that. You may be saving more people than you know.

How did the dish turn out, Marc?