Always makes me laugh when traditional local recipes, which used to be the stapple diet of ordinary 'man' or even the 'poor' - go all posh with ridiculous prices.
Recently talked about 'raclette' a dish served in all posh ski resorts at exhorbitant prices, in another thread. In the old days, actually well into the 20C- farmers from the Alps would be up in the mountains year round- and perhaps only come down to the market in the valley once or twice a year. They would be stuck up there al winter- without availability of fresh food- hence all the pickling of veg, gherkins, onions, etc, grown during the Summer, bottling and also pickling of cabbage (sauerkraut) and salting, smoking or drying of meat- and the storing of cheese and lots of potatoes, and of course local white wine. Meals in winter consisted of an endless combination of the above- with 3 main favourites, raclette, fondue and tartiflette. Really poor man's fare, and must have been so boring after a while. Now all 3 dishes are expensive mainstays of ski resorts menus- and I always find it funny- as few of the tourists are aware of the history and tradition behind them.
'racler' means to scrape- and any noun with 'ette' at the end means 'a little version of' (like maison for house, and maisonette for a hut)- so raclette means a 'little scrape'. Potatoes would be boiled, and the cheese placed on a stone by the fire, and when hot scraped onto the potatoes, and served with any pickled veg.
Tartiflette is a dish made of boiled potates mixed with 'lard' = fat smoked bacon, onions, and a bit of cream (cream was of course not a posh ingredient on a farm). Most of the cattle would be slaughtered in the autumn, as it was impossible to keep them in winter, no space and not enough fodder- and just a few kept to keep them in milk in winter and start again in Spring- one cow was kept with its calf tied up in a corner of the barn- close enough that she could smell it and hear it- but not close enough for it to suckle- so she would continue to produce milk (a cruel necessity)- and the cattle would be kept below the main châlet to insulate from the cold!
Ooops, sorry, it turned out longer than intended.
Your local stories about local 'peasant' food would be interesting, thanks.
