French savoury pastry
Flamiche () is a French savoury pastry, originating in the north-west France. It dates to medieval times and originally was a kind of galette, but in its modern version is a tart made with leeks and cream.
Etymology.
Two possible derivations have been advanced for the word "flamiche": either that it comes from , 'flame', as the dish was traditionally cooked in a wood-burning oven, or that it is a corruption of – Flemish (the dish being native to north-west France, close to the border with Flanders).
History.
The term dates from medieval times. Jean Froissart's "Chronicles", dating from the 14th century, mention people eating "a little torte in the manner of a "flamiche" or beignet to comfort their stomachs". In his "Dictionarie of the French and English Tongues" (1611), Randle Cotgrave applies the term to "a cake made of butter, cheese, flower, and yolkes of egges".
The 18th-century scholar Legrand d'Aussy described the "flamiche" as it was made in his time: "It is a kind of galette made with baker's dough. It is rolled out with a rolling pin and put in the oven while the wood is burning. As soon as it has been thoroughly heated, it is taken out of the oven and spread with butter. It is eaten as soon as it comes out of the oven". In his "Encyclopédie méthodique" (1782) Jacques Lacombe describes a "flamiche" as "A kind of pastry made with salty fatty cheese, butter, eggs, flour &amp; seasoning. The dough is cut into thick pieces of two fingers, and baked in the oven".
Modern version.
As late as the 1880s there is no mention of leeks in the definition in the : "Name, in some provinces, of a pastry made of cheese, butter and eggs", but in 1910 a French journal described a "flamiche" as "a flour dough, buttered inside with leeks cut into small pieces", originating in Péronne, Somme. In (1938), Prosper Montagné wrote, "Nowadays the name "flamiche" is given to a kind of leek tart made in Burgundy and Picardy." In 1998, Simon Hopkinson wrote of "La Flamiche aux Poireaux: a buttery leek pie – a famed speciality of Alsatian cookery". Montagné does not specify the type of pastry to be used; Hopkinson uses puff; Elizabeth David suggests a crumbly shortcrust; Anne Willan uses a yeast dough similar to that used in pizzas. Clarissa Dickson Wright specifies a brioche dough, and although her recipe contains leeks, she comments that "flamiche" "can be filled with whatever you like".
Notes.
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References.
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