Flammekueche

Flammekueche
Alternative namesFlammkuchen, Flàmmeküeche, Flammkuche
Place of originUpper Rhine Valley (Alsace, France and Baden, Germany )
Main ingredientsBread dough, fromage frais or crème fraîche, onions, lardons
VariationsAu Munster, gratinée, forestière, sweet
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Flammekueche (Alsatian), Flammkuchen (Standard German), or tarte flambée (French), is a speciality of the region of Alsace, the German-speaking Moselle region, Saarland, Baden and the Palatinate. It is composed of bread dough rolled out very thinly in the shape of a rectangle or oval, which is usually covered with fromage blanc or crème fraîche, thinly sliced onions and lardons.

Flammkuchen – fresh out of the oven

The name of the dish varies in local dialects: it is called Flàmmeküeche, or Flàmmaküacha in Alsatian, or Flammkuche in Lorraine Franconian (compare Standard German Flammkuchen). All these variants translate as "(pie) baked in the flames". The German name (rendering Latin panis subcinericeus) appears in Hieronymus Bock's Teutsche Speißkammer (Strasbourg, 1550), denoting unleavened bread baked quickly in ashes or on hot stones.

In Alsace, the French name tarte flambée is the most common name for the dish, while it is known as its Alsatian name "flammekueche" in the rest of France. Contrary to what literal translation would suggest, 'tarte flambée' is not flambéed, but cooked in a wood-fired oven.

Varieties

Historically, toppings varied by region: in the Rhineland it was eaten plain; in the Palatinate and southern Hesse it was spread with plum butter, cream or butter, or topped with bacon or onions; in Alsace it was made with fromage blanc.

There are many variations of the original recipe in terms of the garniture. The standard variations are:

History

Variants of the word appear in Alsatian, Lorraine Franconian, Palatine German, and the dialects of southern Hesse and the Rhineland. In the Palatinate, southern Hesse and the Rhineland, the term denoted a thin flatbread of bread dough baked in the front of the oven on baking day, before the bread. An 1832 handbook on baking describes "so-called Flammkuchen" made from bread dough, baked before the bread and served warm with soup in place of vegetables or meat.

The Flammekueche was originally a homemade dish which did not make its urban restaurant debut until the "pizza craze" of the 1960s. A Flammekueche would be used to test the heat of farmers' wood-fired ovens. At the peak of its temperature, the oven would also have the ideal conditions in which to bake a Flammekueche. The embers would be pushed aside to make room for the cake in the middle of the oven, and the intense heat would be able to bake it in one or two minutes. The crust that forms the border of the Flammekueche would be nearly burned by the flames. The result resembles a thin pizza. The Alsatian term is the original, much older one, having been used by peasants for centuries before being calqued into French as tarte flambée in an 1894 cookbook.[verification needed]

See also

References

  1. ↑ Villegas, Maria (2005). "Tarte flambée". The food of France: a journey for food lovers. Murdoch Books. p. 56. ISBN 978-1-74045-471-1. Retrieved 26 February 2010. tarte flambee.
  2. 1 2 3 Martin, Ernst; Lienhart, Hans, eds. (1899). Wörterbuch der elsässischen Mundarten (in German). Vol. 1. Straßburg. pp. 421–422.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  3. 1 2 Follmann, Michael Ferdinand (1909). Wörterbuch der deutsch-lothringischen Mundarten (in German). Leipzig. col. 164.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  4. 1 2 3 4 Müller, Josef, ed. (1931). Rheinisches Wörterbuch (in German). Vol. 2. Berlin: Fritz Klopp. cols. 545–546.
  5. 1 2 3 4 Pfälzisches Wörterbuch (in German). Vol. 2. 1975. cols. 1420–1421.
  6. ↑ "Petit lexique français-alsacien pour faire les courses : Kommissione màche" (PDF). Olcalsace.org. Retrieved 22 August 2019.
  7. ↑ Bock, Hieronymus (1550). Teutsche Speißkammer (in German). Straßburg. fols. 44v, 45r.
  8. ↑ Bach, Volker (24 August 2022). "Hieronymus Bock on Types of Bread". Culina Vetus.
  9. 1 2 Helga Rosemann, Flammkuchen: Ein Streifzug durch das Land der Flammkuchen mit vielen Rezepten und Anregungen [Flammkuchen: A foray into the land of the tartes flambées with many recipes and suggestions] (Offenbach: Höma-Verlag, 2009).
  10. 1 2 3 Mulch, Rudolf, ed. (1969–1972). Südhessisches Wörterbuch (in German). Vol. 2. Marburg: N. G. Elwert. col. 764.
  11. ↑ Leuchs, Johann Carl (1832). Vollständige Brod-Bak-Kunde, oder der europäische Bäkermeister (in German). Nürnberg. p. 252.
  12. ↑ Rosemann 4–5.
  13. ↑ Reutner, Ursula (25 September 2017). "Manuel des francophonies". Manuals of Romance Linguistics (in French). 22. Germany: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG: 142. ISBN 978-3-11-034821-7.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: periodical has ISBN (link)
  14. ↑ CROUVEZIER, Florian (22 December 2019). "Il était une fois... les origines de la tarte flambée" [Once upon a time... the origins of the tarte flambée]. Pokaa (in French). Retrieved 23 June 2025. Si on en trouve une première mention dans un livre culinaire en 1894, on peut penser à raison que c'est un peu plus tôt, certainement dans le courant du XVIIIe siècle qu'elle est née sous la forme qu'on connaît aujourd'hui. [If we find a first mention of it in a cookbook in 1894, we can rightly think that it was a little earlier, certainly during the 18th century that it was born in the form we know today. (emboldened in source)]