French · Savoy · side

Farçon de Tarentaise

Farçon de Tarentaise reads sweetness 6.7, richness 6.6 and umami 5.8 on Palate's 0–10 flavor X-ray — a French · Savoy side, about 4 hr 19 min. Measured from the recipe itself: ingredients and technique.

The flavor X-ray — six axes, 0–10

The measured notes (of 18)

Sweetness 6.7 · Richness 6.6 · Umami 5.8 · Salinity 5.6 · Fruity 4.6 · Smoke 3.7 · Sourness 1.6 · Warm Spice 1.6 · Earthy 1.5 · Nutty 1.4 · Floral 1.0 · Bitterness 0.9

What's in it (13)

Time & effort: about 4 hr 19 min (3 hr 29 min active) · effort: involved

Nutrition (per 100 g, engine-estimated): 144.9 kcal, 5.6 g protein, 6.8 g fat, 19.1 g carbs

Dietary: Contains meat · Contains dairy · Contains egg — engine-derived; double-check anything allergy-critical.

How it's cooked (9 steps)

  1. A farçon is a valley dish and every Savoyard valley makes its own. The Tarentaise version is the sweet-savoury one: grated potato, cream and eggs, studded with dried fruit and lined with bacon, cooked for hours in a covered mould. Meeting sugar and prunes inside a bacon crust is startling the first time and entirely deliberate — mountain cooking put sweetness where the calories were needed.
  2. Soak the prunes and raisins in the kirsch with 2 tablespoons of warm water for 30 minutes.
  3. Grate the potatoes on the coarse side of the grater, then pile them into a clean cloth and wring hard over the sink, twisting until no more liquid comes. Do this in two batches and be ruthless — this is the whole difference between a farçon that sets into a sliceable cake and a wet grey mess. Let the drained potato water stand a minute, pour the water off and scrape the white starch from the bottom of the bowl back into the potato.
  4. Beat the eggs with the cream, milk, sugar, salt, pepper and nutmeg, and stir them into the potato with the drained fruit and any kirsch left in the bowl.
  5. Butter a 1.5 litre charlotte mould or deep cake tin heavily and line the base and sides with the bacon rashers, overlapping them slightly and letting the ends hang over the rim.
  6. Pack the mixture in, pressing down firmly to drive out air pockets, and fold the overhanging bacon ends over the top. Cover the mould tightly with buttered foil.
  7. Stand it in a roasting tin, pour boiling water halfway up the sides and bake at 150°C (300°F) for 3 hours. The bain-marie is doing real work: it caps the temperature at 100°C so the eggs set to a custard instead of curdling, and it lets the potato cook through without a crust forming too early.
  8. Test with a skewer through the centre — it should meet no resistance and come out hot. Let it stand 20 minutes, then turn it out onto a warm plate so the bacon is on the outside, and cut it in thick wedges. It is served alongside a roast or with a green salad, and it reheats well in a slow oven.
  9. Substitutions: eau-de-vie de poire can stand in for the kirsch.

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Every number above is Palate's engine-measured estimate, computed from this recipe's ingredients and techniques — not human-tasted ratings or reviews.