Local specialties
The aligot
A speciality of Aubrac (Auvergnats and Aveyronnais share this speciality!), aligot was originally the traditional dish of the cowherds. This large potato puree (beware of sensitivities!) mixed with Aubrac tomme and flavoured with garlic - the latter allows the aligot to keep better! - is very copious. The art of the aligot is to know how to make it spin without breaking it. It can be eaten in summer as well as in winter.
The estofinade
This delicious dish, which is a francization of the Occitan word " estofinada
" (pronounced "estofinado"), is eaten mainly along the banks of the Lot. It is prepared with cod, potatoes, walnut oil, garlic and parsley. Strange when you know that cod is not caught in the rivers of the region? Not so much, if we specify that it is the economic exchanges between the Bordeaux region and the Lot valley which led to the discovery of this fish. Indeed, the sailors who went down the Lot to Bordeaux, hung the cod on the trailer of their barges on their way back, and let it drag until it arrived desalted in the country. Legend has it that Paul Ramadier, the former president of the council, deputy mayor of Decazeville and several times minister, used to desalinate his cod by flushing it down his toilet!The farçous
Another gastronomic speciality of the Rouergates, for which each family has its own recipe! There is a distinction between the lean farçou (with herbs, chard or spinach) and the fatty farçou (enriched with bacon and meat). These golden green fritters can be eaten as a starter with a salad, and can also be eaten with your fingertips as an aperitif.
The tripoux
At the end of the 19th century, this traditional dish from the Rouergue region was made by farm women with veal tripe on Sundays before the departure of the "pages" (estate owners) and their servants for mass. It then became a custom, served at meetings between farmers or friends from different backgrounds. This very local dish was essentially preserved by traditionalists and was only found in a few houses where the recipe was jealously guarded. It then owes its fame to the railway, and in particular to the construction of the Toulouse-Rodez railway line which helped to make this speciality known outside Rouergue where it was very quickly adopted as a morning snack. It was the Rodez trade fair in 1966 that confirmed their reputation. Made from veal belly, tripoux have won their letters of nobility on the markets of the Aveyron. Offered for breakfast with a fork (as in Réquista), some maquignons can swallow several of them in the morning to seal the deal. In Aveyron, village festivals have always begun in the morning with a tripoux breakfast.
Note that in the south of the department, trénels are preferred. Even if the appearance seems almost identical, tripoux and trénels are two very different dishes. The latter are prepared with tripe and lamb's belly. A hint of saffron spices up the dish and makes it more refined, which can be enjoyed with a Côtes-de-Millau.Local products
Meat, poultry and game
Aveyron is renowned for its healthy and tasty meat. Lamb, beef and veal have quality labels. They can be found in many butchers' shops and on the tables of several restaurants in the department.
Delicatessen
Charcuterie is another must in Aveyron. Moreover, pigs are still killed on some farms. And in restaurants, sausage, pâté and other delicatessen products are served on boards to share. The more elaborate version of these butcher's skills can be found in several artisanal canning factories which make terrines, mousses and other dishes from duck, goose, wild boar, hare...
Cheese, dairy products
Aveyron is a country of cheeses. Roquefort was the first to obtain an AOC in France. The south has its ewes, its tommes and its pérails; the north, its cows and its Laguiole cheese, accompanied by a new one, the écir (a pérail but made from cow's milk). While the west is rather the ground of the goats which give pélardons towards Camarès and rocamadours towards Villefranche-de-Rouergue.
Fruit and vegetables
There are many small farmers' markets and no one sacrifices quality here. It is on these same markets that you can meet the great chefs of national and international reputation. They come to select their products from the producers themselves. Sébastien Bras of course, but also the Fagegaltier sisters from Belcastel, Truchon in Sauveterre-de-Rouergue, to name but a few. On these markets, there are many local vegetables, many of which are organically grown... In the South at the beginning of summer, cherry producers invade the markets.Sweets
L'échaudé. L'échaudé is the oldest of all the cakes still known in Aveyron. Quoted in a charter dating from 1202, this very old biscuit speciality was also called "panis qui disunher eschandatis" (breads called scalded). It was only later that a craftsman had the idea of adding aniseed to the dough.
The recipe has not changed much since the Middle Ages. The base is a stick flavoured with aniseed, the triangular shape is given by folding the edges and, a poaching in boiling water modifies the texture and the aspect of the preparation. This operation makes the biscuit more digestible, as it loses some of its starch. Once drained, the scalded biscuit is cooked in a very hot oven (preferably wood-fired). The tastes change and become more refined, so nowadays, thinner, richer doughs are also made, in which sugar, eggs or honey are incorporated.
Flaune. It is the typical dessert of the south Aveyron, the flaune (or flône), an adaptation of the Occitan word "flan" or "flau", is made from eggs, sugar, flour and recuite (or brousse), a cheese mousse obtained by heating ewe's milk, a product derived from Roquefort, to 95°C. Scented with orange blossom water, it is placed on a shortcrust pastry and then baked in the oven, under ashes and embers. Depending on the recipe, grated orange and lemon peel and bitter almond powder are added to give it a subtle flavour. This cake of character can be eaten plain, sweetened, with rosehip jam or with local honey.
The fouace. It is a cousin of the fougasse. This cake has its own variations within the department. There is no need to look for the taste of the fouace de Laguiole elsewhere in the department. It is the same with the one made in the south or even in the valley of Marcillac where it becomes more compact and bears the name of soleil. Each baker jealously guards his recipe and only passes it on to the eldest member of the family. A secret that the luckiest ones keep preciously. This delicacy made from brioche dough comes in various forms: round, oval, sun-shaped (Marcillac region) or even fouace coque... It is sometimes decorated with candied fruit on top. For those who would like to try to discover the secret, you should know that the basic ingredients are wheat flour, butter, sugar, eggs, orange blossom, leaven, water, salt... But whatever the recipe, this dessert can be eaten at breakfast or as a snack.
The spit cake. Its preparation is long and meticulous. That's why it was originally eaten only on holidays and special occasions. The dough itself is quite similar to that of the madeleine. The particularity of the cake lies in the way it is baked: the dough is poured little by little onto a solid wooden cone, fixed on a spit, which is turned gently in front of a fire. You have to wait for each "layer" to cook before pouring in more batter, and the result is a cone-shaped cake, irregular in appearance, but which brings back memories of childhood or holidays for every Aveyronnais.
The oil pump. Behind this original name hides in fact a pastry made of bread dough. Prepared in the form of a large flat plate, it combines eggs, oil and flaked almonds that are baked in the oven. The result is excellent and it is advisable to eat it warm or at least lukewarm.
Wines
The wine of Marcillac. Established in Gallo-Roman times and later developed by the monks of Conques, Marcillac wine owes its fame to its unique grape variety. From the Cabernet family, the "Fer de Servadou" is characterised by its reddish-black colour with purplish tints and by its red fruit aroma of raspberry and blackcurrant. Benefiting from the influence of three climates, continental, oceanic and Mediterranean, the terraced vineyards on a limestone and clay soil, after a long vinification, the vines of the "mansois", as this grape variety is also called, give a tannic and robust wine.
Côtes-de-Millau. Long before Roquefort, it was wine that ensured the prosperity of the South Aveyron, especially from Compeyre. Victim of phylloxera in the 19th century, the vineyard collapsed before, but recovered at the end of the 1950s, thanks to the passion of a few men. Today, the Côtes-de-Millau, made from Gamay Noir and Syrah grapes for the red wines, has an AOC label.
