flipMogettes with Demi-sel Butter
Mogettes with Demi-sel Butter
Why this dish? This was the dish of Clemenceau's childhood in Mouilleron-en-Pareds. The mogette, a white bean cultivated throughout Vendée, nourished the farms of the bocage. All his life, despite power and Paris, he would claim this peasant and frugal taste.
Fresh or dried white beans, slow-cooked with onion and bay leaf, then topped with a knob of demi-sel butter that melts into the warmth. Creamy, mild, comforting: the dish of the laborer as well as the future minister.
You speak to me of feasts, of clever sauces? Keep them for your salons! I, with my Vendée stomach, have never eaten anything better than our mogettes. We would let them swell for hours on the corner of the stove, with an onion and a bay leaf, nothing more. And when serving, my mother would throw in a good knob of salted butter that melted like gold over the beans — there, young man, is what forges a solid republican. He who eats simply thinks straight.
- •Mogettes (Vendée white beans) — a large bowl for the household (nourishing base)
- •Demi-sel churned butter — a generous knob (binder and signature)
- •Onion — one (aromatic)
- •Bay leaf — one leaf (flavor)
- •Atlantic salt — to taste (seasoning)
Mogettes with Demi-sel Butter
Fresh or dried white beans, slow-cooked with onion and bay leaf, then topped with a knob of demi-sel butter that melts into the warmth. Creamy, mild, comforting: the dish of the laborer as well as the future minister.
Why this dish? This was the dish of Clemenceau's childhood in Mouilleron-en-Pareds. The mogette, a white bean cultivated throughout Vendée, nourished the farms of the bocage. All his life, despite power and Paris, he would claim this peasant and frugal taste.
You speak to me of feasts, of clever sauces? Keep them for your salons! I, with my Vendée stomach, have never eaten anything better than our mogettes. We would let them swell for hours on the corner of the stove, with an onion and a bay leaf, nothing more. And when serving, my mother would throw in a good knob of salted butter that melted like gold over the beans — there, young man, is what forges a solid republican. He who eats simply thinks straight.
Ingredients (period version)
- Mogettes (Vendée white beans) — a large bowl for the household (nourishing base)
- Demi-sel churned butter — a generous knob (binder and signature)
- Onion — one (aromatic)
- Bay leaf — one leaf (flavor)
- Atlantic salt — to taste (seasoning)
Ingredients
- Dried white beans (lingot or coco) — 300 g (base)
- Demi-sel butter — 50 g (binder and signature)
- Onion — 1 medium, studded with 2 cloves (aromatic)
- Bay leaf — 1 leaf (flavor)
- Salt — 1 tsp (at end of cooking) (seasoning)
Method
- The night before, soak the dried beans in plenty of cold water (skip this step if using fresh beans).
- Drain, cover with unsalted cold water, add the clove-studded onion and bay leaf. Gently bring to a simmer.
- Simmer for 1 to 1 1/2 hours over low heat, without boiling vigorously, until the beans are tender but whole. Salt only at the end of cooking (otherwise the skins toughen).
- Drain, reserving a little cooking liquid. Remove the onion and bay leaf.
- Return the hot mogettes to the pot, add the demi-sel butter and a splash of cooking liquid, gently stir until the butter coats the beans. Serve immediately.
How it was made : In Vendée farms, mogettes cooked slowly in a cast-iron pot at the hearth while people worked in the fields. They were eaten with bread rubbed with salted butter, sometimes with a slice of ham. It was the dish of both the poor and the well-off sharecropper.
The contemporary twist : Serve the mogettes warm as a velouté, topped with a drizzle of walnut oil and a few shavings of dried Vendée ham — a nod to "Father Victory" in bistro style.
Georges Clemenceau · Charactorium
