Flammekueche

Flammekueche (Alsatian), Flammkuchen (Standard German), or tarte flambée (French), is a speciality of the region of Alsace,^[1] German-speaking Moselle, Baden and the Palatinate.^[2] It is composed of bread dough rolled out very thinly in the shape of a rectangle or oval, which is covered with fromage blanc or crème fraîche, thinly sliced onions and lardons.

Flammkuchen – fresh out of the oven

Flammekueche

Alternative names	Flammkuchen, Flàmmeküeche, Flammkuche
Place of origin	Upper Rhine Valley (Alsace, France; Baden and the Palatinate, Germany)
Main ingredients	Bread dough, fromage frais or crème fraîche, onions, lardons
Variations	Au Munster, gratinée, forestière, sweet
Cookbook: Flammekueche   Media: Flammekueche

The name of the dish varies in local dialects: it is called Flàmmeküeche,^[3] or Flàmmaküacha in Alsatian, or Flammkuche in Lorraine Franconian (compare Standard German Flammkuchen). All these names translate as "(pie) baked in the flames". In Alsace, the French name tarte flambée is the most common name for the dish, while it is known as its Alsatian name "flammekueche" in the rest of France. Contrary to what literal translation would suggest, 'tarte flambée' is not flambéed, but cooked in a wood-fired oven.^[4]

Varieties

There are many variations of the original recipe in terms of the garniture. The standard variations are:^[4]

• Gratinée: with added Gruyère cheese;
• Forestière: with added mushrooms;
• Munster: with added Munster cheese;
• Sweet: dessert version with apples and cinnamon, or blueberries, and flambéed with Calvados or another sweet liqueur.

History

The dish was created by farmers from Alsace, Baden and the Palatinate who used to bake bread once a week. The Flammekueche was originally a homemade dish which did not make its urban restaurant debut until the "pizza craze" of the 1960s. A Flammekueche would be used to test the heat of the farmers' wood-fired ovens. At the peak of its temperature, the oven would also have the ideal conditions in which to bake a Flammekueche. The embers would be pushed aside to make room for the cake in the middle of the oven, and the intense heat would be able to bake it in one or two minutes. The crust that forms the border of the Flammekueche would be nearly burned by the flames.^[5] The result resembles a thin pizza. The Alsatian term is the original, much older one, having been used by peasants for centuries before being calqued into French as tarte flambée in an 1894 cookbook.^[6][7]

See also

• List of bread dishes
• Zwiebelkuchen
• Lángos
• Food portal