Goyère au Maroilles (Strong Cheese Tart)
Hot tart filled with melted Maroilles bound with cream and egg, on a leavened pastry. The most pungent cheese of the North, tamed by heat into a powerful and comforting cream.
Hot tart filled with melted Maroilles bound with cream and egg, on a leavened pastry. The most pungent cheese of the North, tamed by heat into a powerful and comforting cream.
Do not let its aroma frighten you, I pray: what your nose takes for roughness is only the honest work of surface ferments, cousins of those I grow in Petri dishes. In our region, on ducasse Sunday, we could not conceive of the celebration without this goyère fresh from the oven, the Maroilles all runny on its leavened crust. Cut it hot, accompany it with a glass of amber beer, and you will see: the fragrant beast becomes a velvet.
- •Aged Maroilles — a good piece (characterful cheese)
- •Leavened sourdough pastry — a base (crust)
- •Cream — a ladleful (creamy binder)
- •Eggs — two or three (binder)
- •Butter — a knob (richness)
Goyère au Maroilles (Strong Cheese Tart)
Hot tart filled with melted Maroilles bound with cream and egg, on a leavened pastry. The most pungent cheese of the North, tamed by heat into a powerful and comforting cream.
Why this dish? A specialist in microorganisms, Calmette lived in the land of Maroilles — that red cheese aged by surface ferments, scientific cousins of the microbes he cultivated. The goyère, a hot Maroilles tart, reigned on the tables of ducasses and kermesses in the Lille region.
Do not let its aroma frighten you, I pray: what your nose takes for roughness is only the honest work of surface ferments, cousins of those I grow in Petri dishes. In our region, on ducasse Sunday, we could not conceive of the celebration without this goyère fresh from the oven, the Maroilles all runny on its leavened crust. Cut it hot, accompany it with a glass of amber beer, and you will see: the fragrant beast becomes a velvet.
Ingredients (period version)
- Aged Maroilles — a good piece (characterful cheese)
- Leavened sourdough pastry — a base (crust)
- Cream — a ladleful (creamy binder)
- Eggs — two or three (binder)
- Butter — a knob (richness)
Ingredients
- Maroilles — 300 g (characterful cheese)
- Bread dough or leavened pastry — 300 g (tart base)
- Thick crème fraîche — 15 cl (creamy binder)
- Eggs — 2 (binder)
- Butter — 20 g (richness)
- Pepper — to taste (seasoning (little salt, the cheese is salty))
Method
- Roll out the leavened pastry in a buttered mould and let it rise slightly.
- Remove the orange rind from the Maroilles, cut the cheese into pieces.
- Beat the eggs with the cream and a grind of pepper.
- Distribute the Maroilles over the pastry, pour the egg-cream mixture on top, dot with butter.
- Bake at 200 °C for 25-30 minutes, until the surface is golden and puffed.
- Serve hot, cut into slices, with a green salad and an amber beer.
How it was made : The goyère (sometimes 'flamiche au Maroilles') was the village festival tart of Hainaut and Avesnois, the land of Maroilles aged since the Middle Ages in abbeys. It was baked in the communal bread oven on ducasse day.
The contemporary twist : Make individual bites in muffin tins for an appetizer — each guest their own 'culture' of Maroilles.
Albert Calmette · Charactorium
