A gougère (), in

French cuisine French cuisine is the cooking traditions and practices of France. In the 14th century, Guillaume Tirel, a Court (royal), court chef known as "Taillevent", wrote ''Le Viandier'', one of the earliest recipe collections of medieval France. In ...

, is a baked savory

choux pastry Choux pastry, or (), is a delicate pastry dough used in many pastries. The essential ingredients are butter, water, flour and eggs. Instead of a raising agent, choux pastry employs its high moisture content to create steam, as the water in ...

made of choux dough mixed with

cheese Cheese is a type of dairy product produced in a range of flavors, textures, and forms by coagulation of the milk protein casein. It comprises proteins and fat from milk (usually the milk of cows, buffalo, goats or sheep). During prod ...

. There are many variants. The cheese is commonly grated Gruyère, Comté, or Emmentaler, but there are many variants using other cheeses or other ingredients. Gougères are said to come from

Burgundy Burgundy ( ; ; Burgundian: ''Bregogne'') is a historical territory and former administrative region and province of east-central France. The province was once home to the Dukes of Burgundy from the early 11th until the late 15th century. ...

, particularly the town of Tonnerre in the Yonne department. Gougères can be made as small pastries, in diameter; aperitif gougères, ; individual gougères; or in a ring. Sometimes they are filled with ingredients such as

mushrooms A mushroom or toadstool is the fleshy, spore-bearing fruiting body of a fungus, typically produced above ground on soil or another food source. ''Toadstool'' generally refers to a poisonous mushroom. The standard for the name "mushroom" is ...

, beef, or ham; in this case the gougère is usually made using a ring or pie tin. In Burgundy, they are generally served cold when tasting wine in cellars, but are also served warm as an appetizer.

History

While the term currently refers specifically to savory choux pastries, eighteenth and nineteenth century records suggest that it was once an umbrella term for a number of preparations, some composed of just cheese, eggs, and breadcrumbs.Pierre Larousse, '' Grand dictionnaire universel du XIXe siècle'', 1872, ''s.v.'' gougère, though this may be an error The presentation was usually a flat circle, neither a sphere nor a ring. Earlier forms of gougère were more a stew than a pastry, including herbs, bacon, eggs, cheese, spices, and meat mixed with an animal's blood, and prepared in a sheep's stomach. In medieval France, it was a kind of cheese tart or pie. Later, it was unknown outside what is now Belgium, where it became associated with

Palm Sunday Palm Sunday is the Christian moveable feast that falls on the Sunday before Easter. The feast commemorates Christ's triumphal entry into Jerusalem, an event mentioned in each of the four canonical Gospels. Its name originates from the palm bran ...

. But it was also attested in

Auxerre Auxerre ( , , Burgundian language (Oïl), Burgundian: ''Auchoirre'') is the capital (Prefectures in France, prefecture) of the Yonne Departments of France, department and the fourth-largest city in the Burgundy historical region southeast of Par ...

(Burgundy) in the 19th century under the name ''gouere''.Jean-Baptiste de La Curne, ''Dictionnaire historique de l'ancien langage françois'', 187
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/ref>

Name

The word ''gougère'' was formerly spelled ''gouiere'', ''gouyere'',''

Trésor de la langue française The ''Trésor de la langue française'' (; ''TLF''; "Treasury of the French Language"; subtitled ''Dictionnaire de la langue du XIXe et du XXe siècle (1789–1960)'') is a 16-volume dictionary A dictionary is a listing of lexemes from ...

''
''s.v.'' gougère
/ref> ''goïère'', ''goyère'', or ''gouyère''. The modern spelling appears to date from the 18th century. The ultimate origin of the word is unknown.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gougere Cheese pastries French pastries

History

Name

See also

References