Double cream meringue
Fly to Gruyères
In Gruyères, dessert comes down to two things: a meringue and some cream. But not just any cream. The double cream of the Gruyère region is so thick that it stands on the spoon without ever having been whipped. It is served separately, in a tub, and everyone covers their meringue with as much as they dare.
For the cream, all it takes is waiting. Left to rest after milking, the whole milk sees its lightest part, the cream, rise to the surface; this is skimmed off. What is left of the milk goes to the cheese dairy. It takes a great deal: according to a cheesemaker in the town, a thousand litres of milk give only ten of cream. Swiss law sets a minimum of 45% fat for it to be called double; at this cheesemaker’s it exceeds 50%.
The meringue, for its part, calls for patience. The egg whites are whipped with sugar, piped into long shells, then dried rather than baked, at under a hundred degrees: an hour for a soft centre, several for it to crunch all the way through. In the old days, pastry cooks left it in the oven all night.
Together, they also close the great autumn meal of the Fribourg Bénichon.
Sources: Wikipedia, “Meringue” and “Gruyère cream” (English); Le Temps, “La crème double de Gruyère, tout sauf une crème battue” and “Dingues de meringue”.
Finding the chest
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Every site of Gruyères is discovered: the chest is waiting for you near the town.
