Cancoillotte and sweets from the Vosges

In Lure, the star product is obviously the cancoillotte, whose history is inseparable from the Franche-Comté region. The name comes from Latin! It is a very old dairy product, probably over 2000 years old. Originally, we find the Latin expression “concoctum lactem”, literally, “concocted milk”. But what is surprising is that without the Comté cheese, the cancoillotte would probably not have existed…

It depends on the geographic location of the regionbetween the Jura mountains, where the peasants made the county, and the plain of the Saône, where they made butter. skimmed milk what remained was given to the animals. But some have noticed that this material could be quite suitable for human food. From there, we started transforming it into cheese, which had to be heated to eat it. We also had to improve its textureadding butter, wine… before pouring it into a jar to keep it for days, even weeks!

Obviously, it’s a poor man’s cheese, modest but stuffy, sold in local markets. But at the end of the 19th century, it developed and appeared in Parisian creameries.

Vosges sweets are also renowned outside his native region. It is one of the jewels of French confectionery, with a very particular taste, truly impregnated with the fir trees of the summits of the Vosges massif…

Originally, a Vosges pharmacist, André Deudon. In 1927, he had the idea of ​​making a mixture of honey, eucalyptus and fir essential oil to treat sore throats. It was all the smarter as fir honey in the Vosges was abundant and renowned! Its brown color and flavor powerful are due to the fir branches that the bees forage in an area with a protected geographical indication. On the other hand, when it comes to sweets, the dosage of sugar, honey and essential oil is a jealously guarded secret recipe! Once the mixture is complete, it is cooked and poured in the form of plates, which will harden and which will be cut to make candies.

Vosges sweets are found everywhere to the point that they were even present in New York on the Christmas market, 3 years ago ! But beware of imitations: the real Vosges candy has nothing to do with the La Vosgienne brand, which has been manufacturing confectionery in Spain and even Turkey since the end of the 1980s, with no relation to fir resin. and local honey… Only the artisanal confectionery of Plainfaingin the Hautes-Vosges, continues to make it according to the good old method… the one with real fir tree aromas that take your breath away when you bite into it!

Finally, the Vosges sweets are a bit like cycling: a matter of endurance and tactics, where you have to have substance – and breath – to last!


source site-35

Latest