Teurgoule from Normandy

I’m being a little unfaithful here to my native Lorraine but I give you here a typical recipe from where Joan of Arc was burnt at the stake (well not really because this is from Lower Normandy (Basse Normandie) and not Upper Normandy!)

;-)

But when you’re fond of it and it’s made with raw full-cream milk… and if you’re a gourmand you won’t be able to resist the temptation to eat it and above all to bring it back with you from Normandy.

The photo below was taken in Cambremer a couple of weeks ago of the stand of Odile and Jean-Marie GASSON from the Les Pâtis farm in Mery-Corbon. They’ve got a website www.fermedespatis.com and would welcome you with pleasure on any of your future trips to Normandy!

Yum! Yum! It’s not like the rice puddings you got in your childhood, which I used to HATE! But rice that has literally melted into milk and cinnamon with sugar, salt and perhaps a little vanilla… Its secret: cooking it for a long, long time and very, very slowly…

 

Here’s the recipe given on the Confrérie de la Teurgoule et Fallue de Normandie website :

 

Teurgoule : Rice with Normandy milk

Preparation : 10 minutes   Cooking time : 9 hours

2 litres raw full-cream milk
150g round rice
200g white powdered sugar
1 pinch of salt
2 teaspoons of powdered cinnamon

Put rice in bottom of an earthenware dish of 2 litres capacity.
Add powdered sugar, salt and cinnamon and whip together.
Pour milk gently so that the rice remains right at the bottom of the dish.
Place in a very hot oven (260°C) then lower to 110° after one hour.
After 2 hours’ cooking, lower the temperature further to 50° and leave to cook for a further 5-6 hours.

But Teurgoule recipes there are hundreds! Just for the pleasure, look at the website of a nice young Normandy woman, Anna D. tropgourmande.canalblog.com

But where did Teurgoule come from?

Pirates from Normandy regularly brought back these two ingredients from their sea battles when they pillaged Spanish vessels. Thus the peasants would mix in a pot, rice, cinnamon and good raw Normandy milk … and certainly at the time also honey rather than sugar (or nothing at all!) and then allow the pot to cook all night in the hearth.

The women also used to take advantage of the end of baking their bread by putting their teurgoule to cook in the ovens as they cooled down.

And why “Teurgoule”? Two origins are suggested:
1. The strange taste of cinnamon without sugar made the Normans pull a long face
2. the greedy ones did not allow the pot to cool before enjoying the contents and thus burnt their tongue and throats..

Just try and pronounce it. You’ll pull a nasty face when you do so!

But be careful not to get hooked on this delicacy from the Pays d’Auge!

Comments

[Saigon & Baygon Inc.]

I proudly state that there is a pot of Teurgoule in my oven right now as I type this comment; the sweet smell of cinnamon has filled the air and I can't wait to taste it in a few hours!!!
Unfortunately I tried a slightly different recipe that had been lying around the house for a year, and then I looked it up on the web and found this post... But that's OK, there's always going to be a next time!

Saigon