The Tourteau Fromagé is a form of cheesecake and it was created in the 19th century in the Poitou-Charente region. The story goes that it is the result of an accidently burned cake, the top of which ironically helped to keep the cake very fresh inside. Somehow it just seemed to catch on in popularity after that!
The word tourteau could either derive from the word ‘tourte’ meaning pie or it could come from the crab: Tourteau the shell of which the finish cakes resemble. The word ‘fromagé’ obviously means it includes cheese of some sort.
The traditional Tourteau Fromagé is unique to the Poitou Charente region including Deux-Sèvres, Vienne (Haut-Poitou), the north of the Charente, the west of the Haute-Vienne and even the Vendée (Bas-Poitou) and may also be the only cake of its kind on the French culinary scene being hardly known outside of this area.
The cake’s recipe is fairly rustic and makes use of both salt and cheese. It will also most likely be made of goat cheese as around 70% of the goats in France are raised in the Poitou Charente region. The other ingredients will be eggs, flour and sugar. The cake is baked for a while in a very hot oven giving it its distinctive charcoal textured top and then temperature is lowered for the rest of the baking time. The end result is a spongy yellow cake with a dark called Tourteau Fromagé.
