The Best of Burgundy: Poulet de Bresse
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photograph by Christopher Hirsheimer The squawks are varied, loud, and constant at the Monday poultry market in Louhans. This is no tourist stop; it’s basically a long dirt parking lot lined with trucks and vans, in front of which stretch rows of tables and stacks of metal and handmade wooden cages. On sale here, for food but also sometimes as pets, are ducks, geese, turkeys, guinea fowl, pigeons, rabbits, even guinea pigs—but the stars of the market are the region’s most famous birds, the famed poulets de Bresse. These are a unique breed, grain-fattened in the region of Louhans, plump and flavorful and more expensive than most fowl. Bresse chickens were first acclaimed by gastronomes only in the mid-19th century, but today they are often considered a quintessential symbol of French cuisine—not least because their red wattles, white feathers, and blue feet echo the colors of France’s flag.
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