Gingerbread and blackcurrant

The full story

According to tradition, gingerbread came from Flanders with the Dukes of Burgundy: its arrival in the 14th century is credited to Margaret of Flanders, wife of Duke Philip the Bold. Dijon’s gingerbread is a cake of wheat flour and honey, flavoured with cinnamon, ginger, star anise, coriander and clove. Its making follows old steps: a mother dough first rests for about a fortnight, then comes the “braquage”, when candied fruit or almonds may be added. It is also used for the nonnette, a small round cake traditionally filled with orange marmalade, whose name is said to recall the nuns who made it in their convent.

The Mulot & Petitjean house brings together several lines of gingerbread makers. At the end of the 18th century, Barnabé Boittier, son of a gingerbread maker, improved the recipe and made the family business prosper. Louis Mulot took over in 1838, then his son passed it on to his son-in-law, Louis-Auguste Petitjean, himself a maker. According to the house, the name Mulot & Petitjean dates from 1901, when Auguste Petitjean married a Mademoiselle Mulot. Dijon had fourteen craft gingerbread makers in 1940; only one remains. Its factory at 6 Boulevard de l’Ouest houses a trail on its history, and in March 2012 the house received the Entreprise du patrimoine vivant (Living Heritage Company) label.

Blackcurrants, for their part, have been grown in France since the 16th century, at first for their medicinal virtues. In the 18th century, blackcurrant bushes grew at the ends of the vine rows of the Côte de Beaune and the Côte de Nuits, and were used for ratafia, berries steeped in alcohol. The crème de cassis of 1841 was inspired by it, with added sugar and a different method. Its success led to more planting, notably of the Noir de Bourgogne variety, and growing spread further at the end of the 19th century, during the phylloxera crisis. Two geographical indications now protect the liqueur: Cassis de Dijon since 2013, and Crème de cassis de Bourgogne since 2015.

White wine with cassis is older than its name: according to Bourgogne Tourisme, a café waiter invented it in the early 1900s, and Canon Kir made it popular by giving it his name. As mayor of Dijon, he offered it to every visitor he received in the ducal kitchens, and it was on National Assembly letterhead that he wrote, in 1951, the letter granting the use of his name. Kir has since been a registered trademark, and its recipe calls for a Burgundy white wine, preferably Aligoté. Gingerbread and crème de cassis can be tasted today in Dijon’s covered market.