Dave Hatfield

The French don't eat that much butter. Only rarely do they use it on bread. Butter based sauces & sauteeing are for special meals not everyday. They don't use much saturated fat; they use olive oil (lots of studies on the benefits of that) and goose or duck fat. (again, a 'good' fat.). They prefer their meats very lean and eat a lot of chicken, pork, duck, very lean sausage and offal. Beef is very lean in fact too much so for my taste. Lamb is very popular, but not eaten in large quantities due to cost. They do eat a lot more cheese than in the USA, but again not in large amounts at one time & almost always as part of a meal. Also, they normally don't eat bread with their cheese (the exception being strong blue cheeses which are normally eaten with bread & perhaps a bit of butter.) Desserts are a treat and, again, not always eaten & when eaten usually in small portions. Fruit is probably the most common dessert. I think another factor in French slimness & health is the fact that whenever & wherever possible lunch is the main meal of the day. In our area most shops close for 2 hours at lunchtime. People have a proper meal & time to digest it then go back to work. Dinner is a much smaller & simpler meal. Here I'm talking about in the country & outside the large cities, not Paris, Lyon, Toulouse, Lille & so forth. Many local restaurants do much more trade at lunch than at dinner. I could go on, but suffice it say that its different & that it seems to work for the French.

I can't really tell you just how popular Montignac is in France. The French are not nearly as "faddy" (is that a word?) about their diets and its not a subject that comes up when we talk to our friends. Also, the GI thing is so close to a normal French diet that they don't have to do much to be on it. Its interesting that where we live in the South West the local diet features lots of GI, but also lots of fats (in fact a great cookbook on the regional cusine is called "Goose Fat & Garlic") and, of course, wine. The life expectancy around here is just about the highest in the Western world. So much for the latest fad. So much for the latest nutritionist's ideas. IF we followed that stuff we'd all starve. So, as I said in my previous post just more or less follow Montignac , live well & ENJOY a long life.

I don't get it??? Difference in expectations? Different nights? Guess I'll just have to find out for myself.

I've been on Montignac , mostly, for nearly 15 years. It works! It's only when I fall off the wagon, so to speak, mostly in the states where there are sooo many simple carbs around that I gain weight. In France its just not a problem. We eat lots of meat protien, complex carb vegetables and cheese. Very few simple carbs. ( unfortunately this means we have to avoid croissants, pain au raison & bageuttes.- most of the time anyway.) The French eat this way which may be why french women stay slim. Go for it. As far as I'm concerned this is the best way of eating I've ever come across. Its healthy & sustainable over time.

John- Thanks for the compendium. We're going to the Basque Pyrenees in mid-September hoping to miss the main tourist season yet still have everywhere open. We're staying at the Chilo & will eat there for a couple of nights. The compendium has opened up some new possibilities for other dining. Thanks again.

Its true that the Corsicans like their cheeses strong. I'm told without having tested it myself that they actually tone the cheeses down for export! The mind boggles. I remember years ago leaving a camembert in my car coat pocket & forgetting it. Delicious when I found & ate it, but I had to throw the coat away due to the smell. I'm also told that brin d'Amour means a "bit of love" & that brin also means "sprig" refering to the herbs its coated in. True or not it sounds good.

I heartily agree with Rachel. However, a good (i.e.cheap) source of French electrical goods like mixers, coffee grinders,expresso machines & the like is at: www.rueducommerce.fr If its electrical or electronic they probably have it & their shipping costs are very competitive. They recently shipped over night to me here in the sticks. Our local postlady stopped me as I went through the village the next morning at about 09:30 to give me my package. That's service!

Yes to both questions. Getting to the beurre stage takes anywhere from 2-4 weeks depending upon storage temperature. Because I don't really have a good cool place for storage (I'm working on it) I usually buy at the stage I want from my favorite cheese guy at Limogne market. Just so happens that I had a couple of these around. This is a Rocamadour. Same cabecou type of cheese, but at the beurre stage. Note that there's a bit of rind & the inside is soft and just beginning to be runny. (this cheese did not last long after having it's picture taken.) Here's it's label. You can see that Rocamadour is an AOC controlled cheese. The village of Rocamadour is very famous & very touristy, but still a beautiful place to visit. Its about 40 miles north of us. In actuality Vaylats where this particular cabecou was made is less than 10 miles away. The Rocamadour label specifies both an area of origin & a particular way of making the cheese. It would take someone with a lot more experetise that I to give you the details. Your crottin de Chavignol come from quite a bit further north. A bit south of Orleans. A proper one is older than a cabecou. In fact I'm told that 'crottin' means horse or mule dung in the Frankish language of the 15th century. (you really needed to know that, didn't you?) An excellent cheese & a very well known one in France with quite a bit of folklore attached to it.

Your biggest problem may not be cost at all. The US has some pretty draconian import laws concerning what food can be imported. If its food type things you're thinking of I'd check that our before anything else. I still smart from having a couple of innocent dry French sausages confinscated as I went through customs in NY a few years ago.

Here's one of our very local cheeses. Cabecou. ( Cabécou to give it the proper accent.) By the way, cabeque simply means 'little chevres' in Occitan the old language of the region. This is THE cheese of the old Quercy region of France. I bought this box of six today. These are slightly unusual as they're somewhat larger than your average cabeque. Here's a picture of the label. You can see that they're raw milk and come from a farm near Caylus. Caylus being about fours miles West of us. The goats graze on the 'causses de Quercy' which are rocky plateaus with very poor soil lots of scrubby oaks & more than a few truffles. These cabeque are at the frais stage which means that they are very young & crunbly. Further aging takes them through the cremeau, moelleux, and beurre stages. Frais will be about 48 hours old, cremeau between 5 & 8 days and so on. Older yet are the tres secs . After that you get cabeques wrapped in leaves, soaked in eau de vie and so on. They're delicious at all stages, but I guess my favorites are at the beurre stage. I usually buy a few of these (about a buck apiece) every Sunday at Linogne market. They don't last long!

No salt. Add more soy sauce for saltiness. I also add lots of rubbed rosemary & minced garlic. By the way on the ratatouille I forgot to say that it should be cooked on a cookie sheet.Just stred out all of the chopped ingredients in a single layer. You don't want it to steam which is what will happen in a deeper pan. I'd think at least 2 cookie sheets worth for 10 people.

Janice Thanks for the info. Sounds like we'll have a good time. I guess with 6 of us we'll be our own company if necessary. I'm going to pass your message along to our friends in the hope that it will encourage them to walk further so as to better enjoy the food. I'll post a trip/restaurant report when we get back. Thanks again Yank

You can do the mustard if you like with 7 hour. Use the Julia Child marinade mentioned in one of the posts. (Dijon mustard, soy sauce, S&P, rosemary leaves, garlic.) My personal preference for 7 hour is the simple anchoy & rosemary, but the JC marinade will be great. Lightly chopped. Think of each morsel as a forkfull. See my previous post for a list of veggies, but feel free to add, subsract or change depensding upon what looks good in the market. The olive oil coating. (just pour some oil on the cut up veggies in a bowl & mix well with your hands.) is important. A hot oven 375 -400F is best. Add the chopped basil about 10 minutes from the end of cooking. Takes about 40 minutes. Does not need to be served hot. Room temperature or above is fine. Good luck Yank PS: We all expect a full report on your success!

Birds of a feather , so to speak. I'm with you on both counts. After the 7 hour version butterflied on the BBQ with Julia's marinade is a favorite. My only complaint is that you don't get the dripping for gravy on the BBQ. That's why I do it in the oven using 'conventional' heat a lot of the time. Nice thing about the ratatouille is that it's good at any temperature so your timing becomes easy. This time of year I use: shallots, zucchini (courgettes), cherry tomatoes, green & yellow peppers, eggplant (aubergine) & garlic. Plus as you point out fresh basil at the end. All smeared with some good olive oil, S&P and a touch of herbs de provence. I've enjoyed this thread so much that I think I'll do leg of lamb, etc this coming weekend as well. We have kids & grandkids coming so it will be a perfect meal for them. Rustic apricot tart for dessert. (see my blog below for the recipe) Have to think of a good appetizer. ??? Suggestions?

Like you we haven't lived in the Uk for a while. Last time we did we lived not too far from Oxford. "The Trout" just outside the city was a great standby. Pub/ restaurant & did take reservations for the restaurant side. Not great, but adequate food as I recall. Great location on the river with swans & so forth. Very well known in the area so maybe one or more of your friends can give/get an update.

Lamb is my favorite meat & I've been cooking legs for many years. Here's a pretty much fool proof method that always wows even the non-lamb lovers. Start in the morning of the day you're going to serve the lamb. 1) read the eGullet culinary institute course on slow cooking meats. 2) Debone the leg end, but leave the shank end as is. This helps both the cooking & the carving. 3) Salt, pepper, a little minced garlic & a little rubbed rosemany should be placed in the boned cavity. Then tie the boned portion back togetherr with kitchen string. 4) cut 3-5 slashes about 1/2 inch deep across the outside leg end on a diagonal. In each slash place an salted tinned anchovy. (Never fear, they add a great flavor & your guests can have a great time guessing, mostly wrongly, what your secret magic ingredient is.) Add a generous amount of freshly ground pepper & some more rubbed rosemary leaves. NO salt as the anchovies take care of that. 5) Here's the only tricky part. Pre-heat an oven to 425 F. Put the lamb in for about 20 minutes to brown. Take the lamb out of the hot oven & place it in an oven at 160 F. The tricky part is getting both temperatures. If you have 2 ovens then you're in great shape. If not then just let the browned lamb rest while you get the oven temperature down to 160 F. DO NOT leave the lamb in while the oven cools down; it will cook too fast. 6) Roast at 160 F for 7 hours. Once you reach 61/2 hours timing is no longer important. Anothe hour or even more will be Ok. This makes life much easier when it comes to bringing the meal together. 7) Let the lamb rest out of the oven for 15-20 minutes before carving. As an option (but one your guests will love) make a gravy. Carefully pour off most of the fat, but not all, from the roasting tin. Then put the roasting tin over high heat on the stove. Deglaze with a good dollop of red wine. Make sure you scrape all the bits off the sides & bottom. Let boil until the wine is reduced to 1/3 of its original volume. Take the tin off heat & as soon as it quits boiling add lots (8-12 oz) of heavy (35%) cream. Back on heat stirring constantly. Reduce to about 2/3 rds of original volume. Pour gravy into a sauce boat & enjoy. Lamb done this way is absolutely delicious & has the great advantage of simplicity. Don't know what you're serving with it, but a couple of recommendations are: Roast ratatouille & roast potatoes cooked in duck fat with Herbs de Province & lots of sea salt. STORY: Last time I served this & there were 10 of us; the guests at one end of the table used up most of the gravy. (they'd had it before) not realizing that that was all there was for everybody. Fortunately Tom who is a professional chef was there. He & my wife went back to the kitchen & whipped up more gravy using olive oil, red wine, lamb stock cubes, some leg trimmings & more cream. It was amazingly good all things considered & our guilty guests were saved. Everybody wanted to try the 'concoction', but the guilty paries weren't allowed. Great party! edited for typos. wish I was better at it or the eGullet had a spell checker.

Absolutely right! Some of you may remember that there were a few cases of listeriosis in England during the early 90's. Of course, raw milk cheeses were blamed. Investigation showed that the culprits were factory produced cheeses made with pasteurised milk. That factories just wern't keeping their hygeine up to scratch. Such is the stupidity of some laws & some medical opinion.

I'm a bit confused. When we left Rhode Island to move to France in 2002 we could still get some French raw milk cheeses at Wholefoods. Not very many, but at least a few. Have the laws changed since then? A pity, if so.

If you like the cantal & sharp cheeses then try to get some laguiole de albrac or better yet some salers. They all come from the Auverne. The main difference is the breed of cow the milk comes from & the length of aging. All wonderful. Sorry, should have said: Grand Albrac.

Bleu - Any more info? Round ashed ain't a great description. Any idea where it comes from? One source on the web said midi-pyrenees, but that's a pretty big area. Can you narrow it down? I'm asking because it looks great & I love goat cheeses.

In some ways I envy you Paris. You get everything early. Many of the items you mention are not yet 'in season' in the provincal South West. Pears? Cepes? Quince? Almonds? We just have to make do. I'll try to get to the market in Villefranche de Rouergue tomorrow & see whgat's there.

Chufi, you're right. Thanks. You are braver than I. Amazing. Where were you in Yorkshire? My sister-in law lives there. More importantly where did you buy the cheeses?

Here's a discussion topic; traditional cheeses vs modern cheeses. As I look at the cheese scene in France & the Uk I see lots of 'new' cheeses. Some seem really new & others new local variations of the old well established standards. Some of the new cheeses are awful in my opinion, Montsalvy for instance, others are very good I think. For example; St Augur. One the other hand the same company has totally wrecked what used to be one of my favorite blue cheeses, Blue de Bresse. At the same time many of the traditional cheeses have suffered from sloppy making and over production. For example; there's brie & then there's brie! I'd love to hear the opinions of others and your experiences both good & bad. Maybe we can can up with a multinational list of edible cheeses & their producers.

Yes, you eat them. They are somewhat mellower from aging in the cheese, but still have a very pronounced aroma, which is why this cheese is not to everyone's taste! from the looks of it, I would guess it's a quite young gouda-style goats cheese. It should be rich, smooth, buttery and tangy. Please report when you've opened it up! ← Went to their website, but this cheese wasn't mentioned. Really cusious now. Do Tell.

There is a link but it's not very helpful as to content. No 19 just arrived in my boite aux lettres which I'll be noting end of the week. And as someone above has said, these guys see themselves as food writers not critics, they come from journalistic backgrounds/education. ← John, if I've done it right your link does lead to the list of 150 by going: here Haven't had time to study it or the publication yet, but will. The whole discussion is fascinating. I may chime in if I find something worthwhile to say. In the meantime I'll leave it to the passionate hippies emeritus