A tour of the meats and delicatessens

With its vast forests, the Loire Valley is a land of game. Wild boar, pheasants and roe deer are just some of the products you'll find on your table, especially in winter. Poultry also plays an important role. They can be found in food halls and local markets. There are several chickens to try out: the saint-sauveur, the poulet jaune fermier de l'Orléanais, which won a gold medal at the Concours général de Paris in 2001, the poulet noir fermier de l'Orléanais, known since the Middle Ages, and the duc poulet fermier de l'Orléanais. Chicken à l'angevine is a must-try recipe, featuring roast poultry served with lardons, shallots and mushrooms. And let's not forget the Anjou goose, which is especially popular at the end-of-year festivities, and which can also be found at three goose fairs, in Brissac-Quincé, Vihiers and Longué Géline de Touraine, with its label, is renowned for the finesse of its meat, as are malvoisine, poule gâtinaise and pintade fermière de l'Orléanais, all of which are sure to delight the taste buds of white meat lovers. Charcuterie is another of the region's star products. A must-try in Touraine is andouillette, a thick sausage made from offal and seasoned with sea salt, pepper and spices. Cooked in Vouvray, a local white wine, it is often accompanied by a variety of vegetables, onions, a green salad or, for those with a sweet tooth, French fries. The hearty rillons are perfect as an aperitif with a good wine, or as a starter with a salad. Note that in Anjou, they're called rillauds, where they're appreciated in gouline, a pie filled with rillauds, mushrooms and shallots. The whole thing is cooked in a sauce made with Anjou tome cheese. For lovers of fresh bread, rillettes can also be enjoyed as an appetizer, and those from Tours are regularly flavored with Vouvray. Further south, in the Berry region, Easter pâté is traditionally eaten during Easter celebrations, but is in fact found in delicatessens all year round. This cake-shaped pie is made from pork meat mixed with parsley and spices, with a whole egg in the middle.

The thousand colours of fruit and vegetables

Fertile soils are ideal for growing fruit and vegetables in profusion. Of course, you'll find everything in the Loire Valley, but when it comes to vegetables, you can't miss out on a few local productions. Sucrine du Berry, a type of squash, can be enjoyed both sweet and savoury. In the Loiret region, beet, asparagus and watercress are grown in large numbers, and can be eaten as a salad to round off a meal, or as a soup to start it off. Now we're off to Maine-et-Loire to talk about mushrooms. While it's easy to think that the button mushroom is grown in the capital, it's actually produced mainly in Anjou, and has been since the late Middle Ages! In fact, it's when it emerges from the fresh galleries of the Saumur region that its white cap is at its most elegant, and tastiest. And while we're on the subject of mushrooms, it's also worth noting that the forests of the Sologne region, in particular, are lush with ceps, chanterelles, sheep's feet and other trumpets of death, all of which are delicious accompaniments to meats in sauce. Touraine also boasts a prestigious mushroom: the black truffle.
As for fruit, cherries, apples and pears are available on the market, but often directly from the farms, which open their doors to sell their harvests. In the Loir-et-Cher region, several tons of strawberries are produced every year. All these tasty fruits are used to make delicious tarts and jams. Excellent jams can be found at markets and bakeries, as well as in local delicatessens.

The Loire and its fish

The Loire and its tributaries are ideal for catching a wide range of fish used to prepare delicious dishes served in restaurants and guinguettes. They're no match for seafood recipes. Pike, carp, pike-perch, catfish and lamprey can be found in traditional or more modern dishes. For example, pike-perch is often served with beurre blanc, and Saumur grey shallots bring out the flavor even more. Another option is to stuff pike-perch with mushrooms and braise it with cheverny. Another classic recipe is carp à la Chambord, a royal dish created in the 18th century, braised in red wine and garnished with truffles. Matelote d'anguille is prepared with a wine such as chinon or bourgueil, butter, onions, garlic, bacon, button mushrooms and lemon. Carp is also delicious, as long as you choose a plump carp and leave it to rest in a bath of vinegar and water once it has been gutted and scaled, to avoid a muddy taste. And young and old alike always enjoy carp fries, where pieces of fish are marinated in beer before being deep-fried. The result: original, crunchy, tasty fries that can be enjoyed as an aperitif, accompanied by a glass of fine Loire white wine.

Breads, spices and condiments

Introduced by Rabelais in his famous Gargantua, fouace is a brioche bun baked in the oven and eaten on the go. It can be garnished with honey or walnuts, but also with savoury products such as rillettes or goat's cheese, in which case it's called fouée. In Touraine, saffron has long fired the imagination of the greatest chefs. This spice, with its yellow-orange color and unique taste, is used as a seasoning or to color dishes. Saffron is used in both savory and sweet recipes. The history of Orléans vinegar is equally impressive! In fact, you have to go back to the Renaissance to see wines travelling along the Loire, only to find themselves stopped in their tracks for one reason or another. This is when they arrive in the capital of Loiret without being able to be consumed, and so are transformed into vinegar. An industry was born, and a number of vinegar makers developed the know-how to guarantee top-of-the-range products. Today, only Maison Martin Pouret continues the tradition of master vinegar makers, and has done so since 1797.

Quality cheeses

Cow's milk cheeses are not the most numerous in the Loire Valley. They include cendré de Pannes, made near Montargis, pithiviers au foin and cendré d'Olivet, which is reminiscent of camembert and comes from near Orléans. The most famous cheeses are goat's cheeses, whose production took off in the 19th century. This was in response to the economic difficulties caused by phylloxera, which had attacked the vines. Today, five goat cheeses have been awarded the AOC (Appellation d'Origine Contrôlée) label. Starting with crottin de Chavignol, named after the small commune in the Sancerrois region, which can be enjoyed both toasted and in salads. Selle-sur-cher has an ashy, flowery rind. Pouligny-saint-pierre is a soft cheese made from whole, raw goat's milk. Its appellation zone stretches from Indre to Indre-et-Loire, via Cher and Loir-et-Cher. Finally, there's Valençay, a cheese in the shape of a truncated pyramid, with a fruity taste and aromas of nuts and dried fruit, and Sainte-Maure-de-Touraine, a log of raw-milk cheese with a rye straw through it, whose origins date back to the ancient Arab invasions that imported the tradition of goat breeding.

Some sweet notes

The Loire Valley also offers the chance to indulge in some sweet delights. In Angers, the plantagenêt is made with a hazelnut cookie, praline cream and Cointreau bavaroise sprinkled with Morello cherries. Still in Anjou, quernon d'Ardoise is a square of nougatine covered in blue chocolate, reminiscent of the schist blocks used to make slate. Pithiviers feuilletés or fondants are well-known recipes in Loiret, while Touraine and Loir-et-Cher celebrate apples with two flagship recipes: tarte Tatin and tarte vigneronne. With fruit macaroons from Orléans, nougats from Tours, beugnons from Berry, pommes et poires tapées from Saumur and Rivarennes and pralines from Montargis, the Loire Valley is a veritable Garden of Eden for gourmets, and you'll never tire of browsing the markets and delicatessens to stock up on the good stuff.

Famous Loire Valley wines

The Loire Valley is France's third largest vineyard. Vines have been grown here for over two thousand years. The history of the region's vineyards can be traced back to some of its most famous figures. For example, Saint Martin founded numerous abbeys around the vineyards. From the reign of Henry II Plantagenet onwards, the wine trade received a major boost, with exports intensifying to England and Northern Europe. The Loire was also a reliable means of transporting wines. The region also boasts ideal conditions for growing grapes. Sunshine and rainfall are measured, and the Atlantic winds, which reach as far as Touraine, help the fruit to ripen. Conservation is aided by the cavities left by the extraction of the tufa stone used to build the chateaux.
Among the many grape varieties grown in the Loire Valley are Sauvignon Blanc, Chardonnay, Cabernet Franc, Gamay, Malbec and Pinot Noir. White wine lovers can turn to sancerre, pouilly-fumé and vouvray for the pleasure of bubbles, and anjou-coteau-de-la-loire for its mellowness. On the red side, chinon, saint-nicolas-de-bourgueil, saumur-champigny and orléans-cléry are all AOCs to be favored. And don't forget the rosés, with touraine-noble-joué and rosé-d'anjou at the top of the list. The Val de Loire vineyards boast 51 appellations and 6 IGPs, spread over 57,100 hectares of vines. A growing number of producers are also taking the plunge into biodynamic viticulture. Wine makes for great bike rides through the vineyards, meetings with winemakers and tastings, as well as gourmet aperitifs on river trips along the Loire. The Loire Valley Wine Route is a great way to discover the region, its wines and its treasures. And don't forget the major events (Vitiloire, Festivini, etc.) and shopping opportunities at the many wine merchants.