Bar-Le-Duc

I have written before about a how much I enjoy making jams and jellies, chutneys and pickles, and I have a number of different books, some quite old which I use. I like to find old and unusual recipes, using unusual fruits. One of the books which I often use, and often just look through for the pleasure of reading old-fashioned ways of doing things, is a collection of recipes first published in 1969, called ‘Unusual preserves’. It was published by the Women’s Institute which has always had an excellent reputation for producing first class food, traditional food from the kitchens of its members.

One of the recipes mystified me, not because it was difficult but because of its name ‘Bar-Le-Duc; the recipe in this booklet was for white currant Bar-Le-Duc, which suggested that other fruit could be used. The recipe is ¾ pound loaf sugar to every pound of fruit after stemming (taken off their stems); the words ‘loaf sugar’ indicate is an old recipe from when sugar came in lumps, or loaves. I remember seeing a sugar cone in the folk museum in Cambridge, along with the implements which would have been used to chip bits off… I seem to remember it was wrapped in blue paper…

Bar-le-Duc is the departmental capital of Meuse in France, in Lorraine. it sounds a fascinating small town, with a population of about 15,000 and old buildings in tiny winding streets. The jam or jelly of that name comes from there originally, and apparently the white currants were de-seeded one by one using a goose-quill (800 per 3 ounce jar!); as a result the preserve was very expensive, and still is, apparently, that small 3 ounce jar costing more than €15, more than $40! It is served with game, as is red currant jelly and Cumberland sauce in Britain. It is a very traditional product… with mentions of it first recorded almost seven hundred years ago.

I have found recipes for it using other fruit including gooseberries, but from what I have red these don’t seem the traditional ingredients.

A comprehensive article about it, describing the jam as ‘un rayon du soleil dans un pot’ – a ray of sunshine in a pot, is here:

http://www.nytimes.com/1983/01/30/travel/bar-le-duc-currant-preserves.html