French · Alsace · appetizer

Flammekueche (Tarte Flambée)

Flammekueche (Tarte Flambée) reads richness 7.4, umami 7.0 and salinity 6.2 on Palate's 0–10 flavor X-ray — a French · Alsace appetizer, about 1 hr 25 min. Measured from the recipe itself: ingredients and technique.

The flavor X-ray — six axes, 0–10

• Umami & Savory — 7.9 / 10
• Sweet & Fruity — 2.2 / 10
• Sour & Bright — 3.3 / 10
• Bitter & Earthy — 4.5 / 10
• Rich & Fat — 7.9 / 10
• Aromatic & Spice — 3.8 / 10

The measured notes (of 18)

Richness 7.4 · Umami 7.0 · Salinity 6.2 · Smoke 4.3 · Allium 3.5 · Sourness 3.3 · Funk & Ferment 2.8 · Sweetness 2.0 · Nutty 2.0 · Warm Spice 1.9 · Bitterness 0.9 · Earthy 0.8 · Heat 0.5 · Fruity 0.5 · Floral 0.5 · Herbaceous 0.5

What's in it (12)

• all-purpose flour — 250 g
• water — 140 g
• yeast — 3 g
• salt — 5 g
• sunflower oil — 14 g
• fromage blanc — 200 g
• creme fraiche — 100 g
• bacon — 200 g
• onions — 300 g
• freshly grated nutmeg — 1 g
• freshly ground black pepper — 3 g
• sunflower oil — 14 g

Time & effort: about 1 hr 25 min (25 min active) · effort: medium

Nutrition (per 100 g, engine-estimated): 122.8 kcal, 5.2 g protein, 3.1 g fat, 18.6 g carbs

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

How it's cooked (8 steps)

1. This was never a recipe so much as a way of testing the bread oven. The farmer's wife tore off a scrap of the week's bread dough, rolled it thin, dressed it with what was in the dairy and the smokehouse, and slid it into the oven to see whether the heat was right for the loaves. It cooked in the time it took to say so, and it was eaten standing up.
2. Mix the flour, yeast, salt, water and the tablespoon of oil into a soft dough and knead 8 minutes until smooth. Cover and leave 1 hour; it should rise but not double. This dough is barely leavened on purpose — a puffy base is a pizza, and a flammekueche should be a cracker with a soft middle.
3. Put a heavy baking sheet or a baking stone in the oven and heat it as high as it will go, 275°C (525°F) or more, for a full 30 minutes. Domestic ovens are the limiting factor in this dish; whatever your top temperature is, use it.
4. Whisk the drained fromage blanc with the crème fraîche, the nutmeg and the pepper until smooth. It should be thick enough to sit where you spread it, not run. No salt — the bacon brings all of it.
5. Divide the dough in two. On a floured sheet of paper, roll each piece out to a thin oval about 2 mm thick — thin enough to see the paper through in places. Do not aim for a neat shape; the ragged oval is the correct one.
6. Spread the cream mixture over each base in a thin layer to within 1 cm of the edge, then scatter over the raw onions and the raw lardons. Both go on uncooked. They cook in the oven's blast and the onion keeps a slight bite, which is what makes the tart taste of Alsace rather than of a quiche.
7. Slide the paper onto the hot sheet and bake 8 to 10 minutes, until the edges are blistered and blackened in places and the underside is dry and crisp. Those black patches are not a failure — the name means flame tart.
8. Eat it immediately, cut into strips with scissors, with a glass of Sylvaner or Alsatian beer, and put the next one in while people are still eating the first.

Dishes with a similar flavor shape

• Sarma (Sour Cabbage Rolls with Smoked Ribs) — Serbian
• Żurek (Sour Rye Soup) — Polish
• Loaded Baked Potato Soup with Crispy Bacon — American
• Loaded Baked Potato Soup — American
• Kalua Pork — American · Hawaiian

Keep reading: what richness, umami, salinity mean in the flavor lexicon · the world's cuisines, by flavor.

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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.