Tourteau Fromagé
Tourteau Fromagé
There is always something of interest at the Sunday Market in Amboise. For instance, one stall holder has a mound of what looks like burnt cakes reminiscent of one of those mediaeval feasts by Bruegel.
The Notice says Tourteaux Fromagé. What looks like a dark chocolate crispy top on closer inspection is more like charcoal. Perhaps Tourteau Fromagé Brulé would be a better description?
It turns out that tourteau fromagé is a traditional French cheesecake, hardly known in France. Fromagé means ‘with cheese’, tourteau is probably tourte (pie)’. Although it may refer to its shape which resembles the shell of a tourteau, a brown crab.
Le tourteau fromagé first appeared in Deux Sèvres, Poitou-Charentes in the 1800s at weddings. According to legend, the burnt top was an accident. In 1974 the Confrérie du Tourteau Fromagé was formed to protect the original (accidental) recipe.
During WWII Georges Bégué, French officer in the SOE suggested transmitting coded messages to agents in France hidden among personal messages, sketches, songs and jokes. Tourteau fromagé was the code name for Deux-Sèvres resistance fighters. Radio Londres, broadcast by the BBC to occupied France, was in French. Each one started with the first four notes of Beethoven's 5th Symphony which correspond to the dot-dot-dot-dash of the Morse code letter V for Victory. Because messages were in code, not cipher, Germans could not understand them so jammed them.
The cake, made with goat’s cheese, eggs, flour and sugar is put in a very hot oven until it has its distinctive charcoal textured top. The temperature is then lowered for the rest of the baking time. If you have around fifteen euros and fancy yourself as a patissier, the tourteau fromagé mould is available from Amazon France.
Post by Pamela, photography by Mark.
