Grand Est (Alsace, Champagne-Ardenne, Lorraine)

French toast but made with brioche

Round doughnut filled with pastry cream, jam or marmalade and topped with powdered sugar or sugar glaze

Bredele are biscuits or small cakes traditionally baked in Alsace and Moselle, France and parts of Southern Germany, especially during the Christmas period. Many varieties can be found, including new ones, so that assortments can be created. They can include anisbredela (cake with egg white and aniseed) butterbredle, schwowebredle (orange and cinnamon), spritzbredle, small pain d'épices and spice cakes that are made with sugar rather than honey. Baking Bredeles at Christmas is popular in Alsace. The tradition is for each family to bake its own, and then offer them as a Christmas gift to neighbours. The word comes from Low Alemannic German, where it means Christmas cookies.

An éclair is a pastry made with choux dough filled with a cream and topped with a flavored icing. The dough, which is the same as that used for profiterole, is typically piped into an oblong shape with a pastry bag and baked until it is crisp and hollow inside. Once cool, the pastry is filled with custard (crème pâtissière), whipped cream or chiboust cream, then iced with fondant icing. Other fillings include pistachio- and rum-flavoured custard, fruit-flavoured fillings, or chestnut purée. The icing is sometimes caramel, in which case the dessert may be called a bâton de Jacob (lit. 'Jacob's staff'). A similar pastry in a round rather than oblong shape is called a religieuse. The word comes from the French éclair, meaning 'flash of lightning', so named because it is eaten quickly (in a flash); however some believe that the name is due to the glistening of the frosting resembling lightning. The éclair originated during the 19th century in Lyon, France where it was called pain à la Duchesse ('Duchess-style bread') or petite duchesse ('little duchess') until 1850. The word is first attested both in English and in French in the 1860s.

A Gugelhupf (also Kugelhupf, Guglhupf, Gugelhopf, pronounced [ˈɡuːɡl̩.hʊp͡f, -hɔp͡f, ˈkuːɡl̩-], and, in France, kouglof [kuɡlɔf], kougelhof, or kougelhopf, is a cake traditionally baked in a distinctive ring pan, similar to Bundt cake, but leavened with baker's yeast. There are three main types: cocoa; plain with a hint of vanilla and lemon zest; and a marbled combination of the two. It is especially popular as a traditional cake in Central Europe. In the cuisine of the Pennsylvania Dutch it is known as Deitscher Kuche .

Le macaron de Boulay est un petit gâteau moelleux à l'amande, spécialité de la commune de Boulay-Moselle. Il est vendu en boîtes de 500 ou de 250 grammes. L’histoire de ces macarons débute en avril 1854, date à laquelle Binès Lazard, négociant en vins, qui tient le Café National à proximité de la mairie, et fabrique également le pain azyme pour la pâque juive, finalise avec son épouse la recette des macarons et les distribue à la demande,. Bien que le secret de fabrication soit jalousement préservé, une familière de la maison livre la recette à sa cousine qui ouvre une boutique concurrente à Boulay, les Macarons Koch, qui cesseront leur activité en 1966,. Les deux entreprises coexistent durant une centaine d'années et commercialisent leurs macarons dans la traditionnelle boîte de carton rouge imprimée de lettres noires.

Macarons de Nancy are a traditional French treat made from a simple mixture of sugar, egg whites, and ground almonds, originating from the city of Nancy during the French Revolution. They are known for their crunchy exterior and soft, sticky interior, and the original recipe remains a closely guarded secret.

The madeleine or petite madeleine ([pə.tit mad.lɛn]) is a traditional small cake from Commercy and Liverdun, two communes of the Lorraine region in northeastern France. Madeleines are very small sponge cakes with a distinctive shell-like shape acquired from being baked in pans with shell-shaped depressions. Madeleine-style cookies are popular in a number of culinary traditions.

St. Nicholas bread, a brioche

A mendiant is a traditional French confection composed of a chocolate disk studded with nuts and dried fruits representing the four mendicant religious orders. Each of the ingredients used refers to the color of monastic robes. Tradition dictates that raisins stand for the black-robed Augustinians, hazelnut for the brown and white habit of the Carmelites, dried fig for the brown-robed Franciscans, and almond for the Dominicans' white robes. They are usually produced during Christmas. The recipes for this confection have diverged from the traditional combination of nuts and fruits to incorporate seeds, fruit peels, and other items.

A pithivier is a round, enclosed pie usually made by baking two disks of puff pastry, with a filling stuffed in between. It has the appearance of a hump and is traditionally decorated with spiral lines drawn from the top outwards with the point of a knife, and scalloping on the edge. It is named after the French town of Pithiviers, where the dish is commonly assumed to originate. A small mound of filling is positioned at the centre of the underneath layer of pastry, rather than spread on it, so as to prevent it from leaking during baking. The pie is traditionally finished with a distinct shine to the top of the crust, by brushing on an egg wash beforehand, or by caramelising a dusting of confectioner's sugar at the end of baking, or both. It is similar to the galette des rois made for Epiphany made in the northern half of France although the pithivier is made all year round.

Wild blueberry pie

Mirabelle plum pie

Cheese tart, made with farmer's cheese and crème fraiche in a pate brisée crust

Sugar pie is a dessert in northern French and Belgian cuisine, where it is called tarte au sucre. It is also popular in Canada. Various type of tarte au sucre are made. Some are a leavened dough topped with beet sugar or brown sugar, others have a crust containing a homogeneous sugar mixture which is similar to caramel after baking. The French Canadian version of the dessert sometimes uses maple syrup.

Plum cake refers to a wide range of cakes usually made with dried fruits such as currants, raisins, sultanas, or prunes, and also sometimes with fresh fruits. There is a wide range of popular plum cakes and puddings. Since the meaning of the word "plum" has changed over time, many items referred to as plum cakes and popular in England since at least the eighteenth century have now become known as fruitcake. The English variety of plum cake also exists on the European mainland, but may vary in ingredients and consistency. British colonists and missionaries brought the dried fruit variety of cake with them, for example, in British India where it was served around the time of the Christmas holiday season. In America's Thirteen Colonies, where it became associated with elections, one version came to be called election cake. Plum cakes made with fresh plums came with other migrants elsewhere, in which plum cake is prepared using plum as a primary ingredient. In some versions, the plums may become jam-like inside the cake after cooking, or the cake may be prepared using plum jam. Plum cake prepared with plums is also a part of Ashkenazi Jewish cuisine, and is referred to as Pflaumenkuchen or Zwetschgenkuchen. Other plum-based cakes are found in French, Italian and Polish cooking. The term "plum cake" and "fruit cake" have become interchangeable. Since dried fruit is used as a sweetening agent and any dried fruit used to be described as "plums", many plum cakes and plum puddings do not contain the plum fruit now known by that name. The term "plum" originally referred to prunes, raisins or grapes. Thus the so-called plums from which English plum puddings are made "were always raisins, not the plump juicy fruits that the name suggests today."

Beer is an alcoholic beverage produced by the brewing and fermentation of starches from cereal grain—most commonly malted barley, although wheat, maize , rice, and oats are also used. The grain is mashed to convert starch in the grain to sugars, which dissolve in water to form wort. Fermentation of the wort by yeast produces ethanol and carbonation in the beer. Beer is one of the oldest alcoholic drinks in the world, the most widely consumed, and the third most popular drink after water and tea. Most modern beer is brewed with hops, which add bitterness and other flavours and act as a natural preservative and stabilising agent. Other flavouring agents, such as gruit, herbs, or fruits, may be included or used instead of hops. In commercial brewing, natural carbonation is often replaced with forced carbonation. Beer is distributed in bottles and cans, and is commonly available on draught in pubs and bars. The brewing industry is a global business, consisting of several dominant multinational companies and many thousands of smaller producers ranging from brewpubs to regional breweries. The strength of modern beer is usually around 4% to 6% alcohol by volume (ABV).

Champagne is a sparkling wine originated and produced in the Champagne wine region of France under the rules of the appellation, which demand specific vineyard practices, sourcing of grapes exclusively from designated places within it, specific grape-pressing methods and secondary fermentation of the wine in the bottle to cause carbonation. The grapes Pinot noir, Pinot meunier, and Chardonnay are used to produce almost all Champagne, but small amounts of Pinot blanc, Pinot gris (called Fromenteau in Champagne), Arbane, and Petit Meslier are vinified as well.

Gewürztraminer is an aromatic wine grape variety, used in white wines, and which performs best in cooler climates. In English, it is sometimes referred to colloquially as Gewürz (/ɡəˈvʊərts, ɡəˈvɜːrts/ gə-VOORTS, gə-VURTS; although this is never the case in German, because Gewürz means "herb" or "spice"). In English and French it is usually written Gewurztraminer (without the umlaut). Gewürztraminer is a variety with a pink to red skin colour, which makes it a "white wine grape" as opposed to the blue to black-skinned varieties commonly referred to as "red wine grapes". The variety has high natural sugar and the wines are white and usually off-dry, with a flamboyant bouquet of lychees. Indeed, Gewürztraminer and lychees share the same aroma compounds. Dry Gewürztraminers may also have aromas of roses, passion fruit and floral notes. It is not uncommon to notice some spritz (fine bubbles on the inside of the glass). Gewürztraminer's sweetness may offset the spice in Southeast Asian cuisine. The German name Gewürztraminer literally means "Spice Traminer" or "Perfumed Traminer", and is attested in Germany from the 16th century. This grape variety is a mutation of the Savagnin blanc, also named Traminer in South Tyrol (region situated in northern Italy).

Plum liqueur

Ratafia is a broad term used for two types of sweet alcoholic beverages, a flavouring essence whose taste resembles bitter almonds, later to a ratafia flavoured biscuit, a biscuit to be eaten along with ratafia, and later still, to a cherry variety. The Oxford English Dictionary lists the word's earliest date of use as 1699. Ratafia liqueurs are alcoholic beverages compound liqueurs or cordials made by the maceration of ingredients such as aromatics, fruits, in pre-distilled spirits, followed by filtration and sweetening, the flavouring ingredients being merely infused in it. Ratafia may be flavoured with kernels , lemon peel and spices in various amounts (nutmeg, cinnamon, clove, mint, rosemary, anise, etc.), typically combined with sugar. Other flavourings can be used, such as vegetables and fresh herbs.

White wine is a wine that is fermented without undergoing the process of maceration, which involves prolonged contact between the juice with the grape skins, seeds, and pulp. The colour can be straw-yellow, yellow-green, or yellow-gold. It is produced by the alcoholic fermentation of the non-coloured pulp of grapes, which may have a skin of any colour. White wine has existed for at least 4,000 years. The wide variety of white wines comes from the large number of varieties, methods of winemaking, and ratios of residual sugar. White wine is mainly from "white" grapes, which are green or yellow in colour, such as the Chardonnay, Sauvignon blanc and Riesling. Some white wine is also made from grapes with coloured skin, provided that the obtained wort is not stained. Pinot noir, for example, is commonly used to produce champagne.

Grey wine from Lorraine

Baeckeoffe is a casserole dish that is typical in the French region of Alsace, situated on the border with Germany. In the Alsatian dialect, Baeckeoffe means "baker's oven". It is a mix of sliced potatoes, sliced onions, cubed mutton, beef, and pork which have been marinated overnight in Alsatian white wine and juniper berries and slow-cooked in a bread-dough sealed ceramic casserole dish. Leeks, thyme, parsley, garlic, carrots and marjoram are other commonly added ingredients for flavour and colour. Alsatian people often eat this dish for a special occasion, such as Christmas.[citation needed]

The woodcocks are a group of seven or eight very similar living species of sandpipers in the genus Scolopax. The genus name is Latin for a snipe or woodcock, and until around 1800 was used to refer to a variety of waders. The English name is first recorded in about 1050. According to the Harleian Miscellany, a group of woodcocks is called a "fall". The genus Scolopax was introduced in 1758 by the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus in the tenth edition of his Systema Naturae. The genus name is Latin for a snipe or woodcock. The type species is the Eurasian woodcock .

Puff pastries filled with chicken and mushrooms in a bechamel sauce

Deep-fried carp

Choucroute garnie is an Alsatian recipe of sauerkraut with sausages and other salted meats and charcuterie, and often potatoes. Although sauerkraut is a traditionally German and Eastern European dish, when Alsace became part of France following the Westphalia peace treaties in 1648, it brought this dish to the attention of French chefs and it has since been widely adopted in France. There is no fixed recipe for this dish[citation needed] – any preparation of hot sauerkraut with meat and potatoes could qualify – but in practice there are certain traditions, favourite recipes, and stereotypical garnishes that are more commonly called choucroute garnie than others. Traditional recipes call for three types of sausage: Morteau sausage or Montbéliard sausage, Strasbourg sausage and Frankfurt sausage. Fatty, inexpensive or salted cuts of pork also often form a part of choucroute garnie, including ham hocks, pork knuckles and shoulders, back bacon and slices of salt pork. Other recipes call for pieces of fish or goose meat, but this is far less typical.

Chicken with a Riesling sauce

A cordon bleu or schnitzel cordon bleu is a dish of meat wrapped around cheese , then breaded and pan-fried or deep-fried. Veal or pork cordon bleu is made of veal or pork pounded thin and wrapped around a slice of ham and a slice of cheese, breaded, and then pan-fried or baked. For chicken cordon bleu, chicken breast is used instead of veal. Ham cordon bleu is ham stuffed with mushrooms and cheese. The French term cordon bleu is translated as "blue ribbon". According to Larousse Gastronomique, the cordon bleu "was originally a wide blue ribbon worn by members of the highest order of knighthood, L'Ordre des chevaliers du Saint-Esprit, instituted by Henri III of France in 1578. By extension, the term has since been applied to food preparation to a very high standard and by outstanding cooks. The analogy no doubt arose from the similarity between the sash worn by the knights and the ribbons (generally blue) of a cook's apron."

A Dampfnudel is a dumpling eaten as a meal or as a dessert in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, and in France (Alsace-Moselle). It is a typical dish in southern Germany. There are Dampfnudel city gates in Freckenfeld and Kandel, two towns in the Rhineland-Palatinate, in western Germany, very near the border with French Alsace.[citation needed] It is reputed that, during the Thirty Years' War, Swedish troops arrived at Freckenfeld and demanded ransom. Master baker Johannes Muck, with his wife and apprentice, made 1,286 Dampfnudeln to feed the soldiers, who then spared the village from further extortion and pillage. The Dampfnudeltor (Dampfnudel gate) even features on the coat of arms of the municipality of Freckenfeld. Dampfnudeln are made from a dough composed of white flour, water, yeast, salt, butter or margarine, and sometimes also eggs and a little sugar. The dough is formed into balls about the size of an egg, left to rise and then cooked in a covered pot, preferably a high-rimmed iron pan with a lid, either in a mixture of milk and butter (the Bavarian style) or salt water and fat (the Rhineland-Palatinate style) until a golden-brown crust forms at the bottom after the liquid has evaporated. The tops remain white.

Doner kebab or döner kebab[a] is a dish of Turkish origin made of meat cooked on a vertical rotisserie. Seasoned meat stacked in the shape of an inverted cone is turned slowly on the rotisserie, next to a vertical cooking element. The operator uses a knife to slice thin shavings from the outer layer of the meat as it cooks. The vertical rotisserie was invented in the 19th-century Ottoman Empire, and dishes such as the Arab shawarma, Greek gyros, Canadian donair, and Mexican al pastor are derived from this. The modern sandwich variant of doner kebab originated and was popularized in 1970s West Berlin by Turkish immigrants. This was recognized by the Berlin-based Association of Turkish Döner Manufacturers in Europe in 2011.

Ham baked inside a pastry crust

Boiled cured pork belly and puy lentils

A pithivier is a round, enclosed pie usually made by baking two disks of puff pastry, with a filling stuffed in between. It has the appearance of a hump and is traditionally decorated with spiral lines drawn from the top outwards with the point of a knife, and scalloping on the edge. It is named after the French town of Pithiviers, where the dish is commonly assumed to originate. A small mound of filling is positioned at the centre of the underneath layer of pastry, rather than spread on it, so as to prevent it from leaking during baking. The pie is traditionally finished with a distinct shine to the top of the crust, by brushing on an egg wash beforehand, or by caramelising a dusting of confectioner's sugar at the end of baking, or both. It is similar to the galette des rois made for Epiphany made in the northern half of France although the pithivier is made all year round.

Stew of pork, cabbage, carrots, leeks, turnips, sausage, potatoes

Pumpkin soup

Spätzle , Spätzla or Spatzen, called nokedli ([ˈnokɛdli]) in Hungarian, are a type of Central European egg pasta typically served as a side for meat dishes with sauce. Commonly associated with Swabia (hence Swabian spaetzle) and Alsace, it is also found in the cuisines of southern Germany and Austria, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Hungary, Vojvodina, Banat, Slovenia, Lorraine, Moselle, and South Tyrol. It may be served as a side dish or with other ingredients like cheese and onion as a main dish. Spätzle are egg-based pasta of an irregular form with a rough, porous surface. The glutinous dough is put directly into boiling water or steam and the form varies between thin and thick, elongated and short. Spätzle is cooked for the first time during the fabrication. The moist dough is either pressed through a perforated metal plate or it drips through this plate into the boiling water. Other ways to prepare Spätzle are more applicable for domestic use. A similar round shape, simplified in production, is native to the pre-Alpine Allgäu regions of Bavarian Swabia and Baden-Württemberg as Knöpfle. Spätzle is the Swabian and Alsacian diminutive of Spatz, thus literally 'little sparrow'. Some linguists derive it from the word “clump”, meaning dough which tends to form clots. In Switzerland they are called Spätzli or Chnöpfli, in Hungarian Nokedli or Csipetke, in Slovenian Vaseršpacli or vodni žličniki and in Ladin Fierfuli. The Slovak Halušky (Hungarian: Galuska) is also similar.

Flammekueche , Flammkuchen (Standard German), or tarte flambée (French), is a speciality of the region of Alsace, German-speaking Moselle, Baden and the Palatinate. 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. The name of the dish varies in local dialects; it is called Flàmmeküeche, or Flàmmaküacha in Alsatian, or Flammkuche in Lorraine Franconian – compare (Standard) German Flammkuchen. All these names translate as "pie baked in the flames". Contrary to what the direct translation would suggest, tarte flambée is not flambéed but is cooked in a wood-fired oven.

Onion tart

Poultry reared in Alsace, Grand Est, France

Poultry reared in Grand Est, France

Poultry reared in Haute-Marne, Grand Est, France

Wiener schnitzel , sometimes spelled Wienerschnitzel, is a type of schnitzel made of a thin, breaded, pan-fried veal cutlet. It is one of the best known specialities of Viennese cuisine, and one of the national dishes of Austria. The designation Wiener Schnitzel first appeared in the 19th century, with the first known mention in a cookbook from 1831. In the popular southern German cookbook by Katharina Prato, it was mentioned as eingebröselte Kalbsschnitzchen (roughly, "breaded veal cutlets").

Andouillette is a French coarse-grained sausage made from the intestine of pork, pepper, wine, onions, and seasonings. Andouillettes are generally made from the large intestine and are 7–10 cm (2+3⁄4–4 in) in diameter. True andouillettes are rarely seen outside France and have a strong, distinctive odour coming from the colon. Although sometimes repellent to the uninitiated, the scent is prized by its devotees. When made with the small intestine, they are a plump sausage generally about 25 mm (1 in) in diameter.

Hard candies flavored with bergamot orange, from Lorraine, Grand Est, France

Biscuit rose de Reims , is a pink biscuit found in French cuisine, made pink by the addition of carmine. Originating in Reims, Biscuit rose de Reims is a product of the Biscuits Fossier company.[citation needed] It is customary to dip the biscuit in champagne or red wine. The biscuit was created around 1690 in Reims. A baker wanted to make the most of the heat in the bread oven between the two batches, so he had the idea of creating a special dough; baking it twice, which is where the name "biscuit" or "bis-cuit" meaning "baked twice" in French. The biscuit initially was white. In order to add flavor to it, a pod of vanilla was introduced into the recipe. This vanilla left brown traces on the biscuit. In order to hide them, the baker decided to add a natural color based on cochineal, a scarlet dye, to disguise his mistake. From this sequence of events, the Biscuit Rose de Reims was born. The biscuit is oblong in shape, and is lightly sprinkled with caster sugar. Enthusiasts for the biscuit included King Charles X, Leopold II of Belgium, the Russian czar, and the Marquise de Polignac. It is commonly dipped in the following liquids to bring out its flavor: It quickly[when?] became a great success in terms of confectionery throughout France. The original recipe of the famous "Biscuit Rose" is still kept secret by Fossier's confectioners. Despite the basic ingredients that include eggs, sugar, flour, and vanilla, the traditional French recipe demands special mastery and daintiness.

White pudding pork sausage, from Rethel, Grand Est, France

Chaource is a French cheese, originally manufactured in the village of Chaource in the Champagne-Ardenne region. Chaource is a cow's milk cheese, cylindrical in shape at around 10 cm (3.9 in) in diameter and 6 cm (2.4 in) in height, weighing either 250 g (8.8 oz) or 450 g (16 oz). The central pâte is soft, creamy in colour, and slightly crumbly, and is surrounded by a white Penicillium candidum rind. The cheese has been made in its namesake village since at least the Middle Ages. Cheese is still manufactured there, ranging from small cheese makers to industrial-scale production further away. It is only made in a tightly controlled area in the départements of Aube and Yonne.

Choucroute garnie is an Alsatian recipe of sauerkraut with sausages and other salted meats and charcuterie, and often potatoes. Although sauerkraut is a traditionally German and Eastern European dish, when Alsace became part of France following the Westphalia peace treaties in 1648, it brought this dish to the attention of French chefs and it has since been widely adopted in France. There is no fixed recipe for this dish[citation needed] – any preparation of hot sauerkraut with meat and potatoes could qualify – but in practice there are certain traditions, favourite recipes, and stereotypical garnishes that are more commonly called choucroute garnie than others. Traditional recipes call for three types of sausage: Morteau sausage or Montbéliard sausage, Strasbourg sausage and Frankfurt sausage. Fatty, inexpensive or salted cuts of pork also often form a part of choucroute garnie, including ham hocks, pork knuckles and shoulders, back bacon and slices of salt pork. Other recipes call for pieces of fish or goose meat, but this is far less typical.

Fresh cream made from pasteurized skimmed milk, produced in Alsace, Grand Est, France

Cooked and pressed cheese made from unpasteurized cow's milk, from east central France

Fromage blanc is a fresh cheese similar to cream cheese originating from the north of France and southern Belgium. The name means "white cheese" in French. Fromage frais ("fresh cheese") differs from fromage blanc in that, according to French legislation, fromage frais must contain live cultures when sold, whereas with fromage blanc, fermentation has been halted. Fromage blanc can be served either as a dessert similar to yogurt, frequently with added fruit, spread on bread, usually over or under jam, or used in savoury dishes. In many Western countries, fromage blanc is sold in supermarkets alongside yogurts.

Small sausage

Ham from Ardennes, Grand Est, France

Landjäger is a semidried sausage traditionally made in Southern Germany, Austria, Switzerland, and Alsace. It is popular as a snack food during activities such as hiking. It also has a history as soldier's food because it keeps without refrigeration and comes in single-meal portions. As a meal, landjäger sausage can be boiled and served with potatoes and fresh greens. According to the Swiss German Dictionary, the name Landjäger was possibly derived from the dialect expression lang tige 'smoked for a long time, air-cured for a long time.' The humorous reinterpretation in the sense of 'mounted police' may be inspired by comparing the stiffness of sausages with the perceived military rigidity of a police officer. The Alsatian and French names for smoked air-cured sausage, Gendarm and gendarme, are apparently translations of the folk-etymologized German name. "Jäger" should be remembered as a direct, simplified translation from German, meaning "hunter." This could explain the sausage's renewed popularity in the more northern and German-settled parts of the United States. Dedicated hunters consider landjägers as food for hunters taking game to carry on the traditions associated with a lifestyle from previous generations of hunters. A very similar semi-dried sausage known as salamino cacciatore (translation: "hunter's sausage") is traditionally produced in Central and Northern Italy. Landjäger sausages are made of roughly equal portions of beef and pork with lard, sugar, red wine, and spices, such as caraway, black pepper, coriander seed, and garlic. They are each 15–20 cm (6–8 in) in length, made into links of two. Before smoking and drying, they are pressed into a mold, which gives them their characteristic rectangular cross-section of about 2+1⁄2 cm × 1 cm (1 in × 1⁄2 in). Typically, a pair of Landjäger weighs about 100 g and contains about 516 kcal. In Austria, Landjäger is sometimes made using horse meat.

Langres is a French cheese from the plateau of Langres in the region of Champagne-Ardenne. It has benefited from an Appellation d'origine contrôlée since 1991. Langres is a cow's milk cheese, cylindrical in shape, weighing about 180 g. The central pâte is soft, creamy in colour, and slightly crumbly, and is surrounded by a white Penicillium candidum rind. Langres cheese is known for its vibrant orange rind, achieved through the use of annatto, and its concave dent known as the "fontaine." It is a less pungent cheese than Époisses, its local competition. It is best eaten between May and August after 5 weeks of aging, but it is also excellent March through December. Production in 1998 was around 305 tons, a decline of 1.61% since 1996, and 2% on farms.

Cherries from Metz

Miel d'Alsace is a honey from France that is protected under EU law with PGI status, first published under relevant laws in 2005. The PGI status covers several varieties of honey produced in Alsace, namely silver fir honey, chestnut honey, acacia honey, lime honey, forest honey, and multi-flower honey. To be given the PGI designation, the hives producing the honey must be installed in Alsace. In addition, silver fir honey is given a perimeter of the Alsatian slopes of the Vosges and Jura mountain ranges. Chestnut honey must be gathered in the hills south of the Vosges, in the forests of Brumath and Haguenau. Lime honey must come from the forests of Hardt, Upper Rhine. While the honey collection areas are defined, extraction can take place outside of these areas, provided that traceability is ensured. Traceability of the honey is ensured through record keeping of labels, which are then checked against harvest declarations and stocks. Also, 30 percent of all Miel d'Alsace undergoes microscopic analysis to ensure proof of origin. According to official regulations, "Each type of honey develops its own physico-chemical and organoleptic characteristics, which are defined in the specification and correspond to the floral diversity of the region. The diversity of Alsatian honeys stems directly from the diversity of the prevailing ecosystems. Alsace comprises several areas: an area of mountains covered with softwoods, an area made up of hills and plateaux with vines, meadows and beech and chestnut forests, and a plain consisting of cropped land and meadows. The resulting diversity of ecosystems hence allows harvesting to take place from early spring to early autumn, providing a wide variety of products."

Honey made with honeydew, from Vosges, Grand Est, France

Plums grown in Lorraine, Grand Est, France

Munster , Munster-géromé, or (Alsatian) Minschterkaas, is a soft cheese with a strong taste and aroma, made mainly from milk first produced in the Vosges, between the Alsace, Lorraine and Franche-Comté regions in France. The name "Munster" is derived from the Alsatian town of Munster, where, among Vosgian abbeys and monasteries, the cheese was conserved and matured in monks' cellars. "Géromé", a variant from munster, comes from the Vosgien patois pronunciation of the town of Gérardmer, located on the Lorrain side of the Vosges mountains, where it originates. This cheese originated in the Admodiation, an area on the top of the Vosgian mountains of France, named "Chaumes" or "Les grandes Chaumes" (comitatus Calvomontensis). Calvomontensis is the Latin for a mountaintop without woods.[citation needed] As early as 1371, and possibly before, these territories were occupied by cattle herds driven by men, called "marcaires" (from the Alsatian "Malker", Milker in English), pastured there between May and September. When the herds returned to their valleys, the cattle herdsmen first paid the fees and tithes to the religious and political owners of the summer pastures or simply financiers of these migrations. During feudal times these owners possessed all goods, living creatures, rights of pasture and cattle. Those who herded were known as serfs.[citation needed]

A mushroom or toadstool is the fleshy, spore-bearing fruiting body of a fungus, typically produced above ground, on soil, or on its food source. Toadstool generally denotes one poisonous to humans. The standard for the name "mushroom" is the cultivated white button mushroom, Agaricus bisporus; hence, the word "mushroom" is most often applied to those fungi that have a stem (stipe), a cap (pileus), and gills (lamellae, sing. lamella) on the underside of the cap. "Mushroom" also describes a variety of other gilled fungi, with or without stems; therefore the term is used to describe the fleshy fruiting bodies of some Ascomycota. The gills produce microscopic spores which help the fungus spread across the ground or its occupant surface.

Pâté baked inside a flaky pastry dough

Durum wheat pasta from Alsace, France

Head cheese or brawn is a meat jelly or terrine made of meat. Somewhat similar to a jellied meatloaf, it is made with flesh from the head of a calf or pig (less commonly a sheep or cow), typically set in aspic. It is usually eaten cold, at room temperature, or in a sandwich. Despite its name, the dish is not a cheese and contains no dairy products. The parts of the head used vary, and may include the tongue but do not commonly include the brain, eyes or ears. Trimmings from more commonly eaten cuts of pork and veal are often used, and sometimes the feet and heart, with gelatin added as a binder. Variations of head cheese exist throughout Europe and elsewhere, with differences in preparation and ingredients. It originated in Europe, perhaps ancient Romania. A version pickled with vinegar is known as souse. Historically, meat jellies were made of the head of an animal, less its organs, which would be simmered to produce a naturally gelatinous stock that would congeal as the dish cooled. Meat jellies made this way were commonly a peasant food and have been made since the Middle Ages. Earlier brawns heavily featured spices and herbs, but beginning in the eighteenth century, the amount of seasoning was reduced. Contemporary brawn now features minimal spicing, usually sage, and perhaps a little lemon juice. Head cheese recipes may also require additional gelatin, or more often need to be reduced to set properly. The English term head cheese is a calque derived from the Dutch word hoofdkaas, which literally translates to 'head cheese'. The term hoofdkaas can be divided into hoofd ('head') originating from the animal heads commonly used to prepare the dish, and kaas ('cheese') describing the texture, which resembles that of cheese.