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The physical boundaries of La Bourgogne begin to the south east of Paris and to the north of Lyon. It is divided into
four departments, the Yonne, the Côte d'Or, the Saône et Loire and the Nievre. The
region is known for its wines and haute-cuisine.
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Agriculture The Burgundy region is home to the world famous
poulet de Bresse chicken, considered
by most food connoisseurs to be the best tasting chicken in the world.
The white Charolais cattle, which can be seen in the green pastures on the hill slopes, bred to give a remarkable quality of beef, the most important ingredient of boeuf Bourguignon. The varieties of cheese are abundant, in all shapes and sizes, strong in character or mild and fresh. The art of mustards (Dijon), Cassis, and even ginger breads are other secret ingredients for a refined cuisine that are produced in the region. Wines
Wines include those introduced by the Romans and mastered by the monks at Nuits Saint George, creating names like Volany,
Pommard, Gevery and Corton. The vineyards spread for miles across the sloping south facing hills, with many producers
still using the traditional methods, oak barrels and years of aging in the coolness of vaulted cellars.
The vineyard of the Côte d'Or, the Côte de Beaune and Châblis yield some of the world's most venerated wines. |
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Cuisine The cuisine of Burgundy is known for its richness, due in large part to two factors: the region's heavy red wines and
its possession of one of the world's finest breeds of beef cattle, the Charollais. The wines are used in the preparation
of the sauces which earn a dish the designation of à la bourguignonne. Essentially, this means cooked in a red wine sauce
to which baby onions, mushrooms and lardons (pieces of bacon) are added.
The classic Burgundy dishes cooked in this manner are boecuf bourguignon and coq au vin. Another term which frequently appears on menus is meurette, also a red wine sauce but made without mushrooms and flambéed with a touch of marc brandy. It's used with eggs, fish and poultry as well as red meat. Snails (escargots) are hard to avoid in Burgundy, and the local style of cooking them involves stewing for several hours in the white wine of Chablis with shallots, carrots and onions, then stuffing them with a butter of garlic and parsley and finishing them off in the oven. Other specialities include the parsley-flavoured ham (jambon persillé); hams from the Morvan hills cooked in a cream saupiquet sauce; calf's head (tête de veau, or sansiot); a pauchouse of river fish (that is, poached in white wine with onions, butter, garlic and lardons); a poussin from Bresse; a saddle of hare (rable de lièvre à la Piron); and a potée bourguignonne, or soup of vegetables cooked in the juices of long-simmered bacon and pork bits. |
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