We're all very sophisticated now with our wine-drinking and our familiarity with the AOC guarantee - of place of origin and quality - but it seems that it is not only wine which is given this stamp of approval. Dammit, you can get the AOC for a nicely-presented, ready-for-the-oven chicken. Now it's a very special bird and anyone who has holidayed in France will be familiar with the term: poulet de Bresse. Bresse being an area in the eastern part of the country: bocage, i.e. mixed woodland and pasture, and according to one writer, often shrouded in mist. Good for the grass. And, right enough, the illustration in a magazine shows a large field receding into the distance, with the very green grass bearing a scattering of maybe a score of white fowl. Free range, indeed. Maize and poultry, cattle and cheese-making. But chiefly this prize poultry: pullets, cocks, specially fattened pullets and capons. (The turkeys are also AOC.)
Anyway, between the maize and the milk and the grass and the tasty insects of the hedgerows, no wonder the birds have a flavour. December is the month when the producers engage in a competition among themselves. They present their best produce in a linen cloth. And what preparation. The birds have been fed on yellow maize, but at competition time it is important that the skin be pale, white or ivory. So the maize is stopped. Rice may be substituted. Some of the producers have secrets that they keep to themselves. One woman, it is said, seems almost to live with her charges. She keeps them in view all the time and even talks to them. (Not unusual.)
When it comes to presenting the birds for judging, owners go over the skin, after plucking and, with tweezers, make sure that there are no little downy hairs. And they clean the beak and the nails of the claws. Then dry the few feathers left around the head and neck. A book may have been written around all this poulet de Bresse championship. The best are really for prize occasions, as one recipe shows: for the ingredients include a litre of thick creme fraiche (a litre!), bags of mushrooms, lashings of wine, all to serve four persons. (Just one poulet.) And don't forget that the area has its Bleu de Bresse cheese.