Cinnamon of Bordeaux

The grooves is small a Gâteau, speciality of the of Bordeaux, with soft and tender paste, scented with the Rhum and the Vanille, and covered with a thick caramelized crust . It also is called grooved, cannelet, canelet, millas-canelet, millason and is perhaps also the canaule (or canaulé or canaulet) which was consumed at the 17th century in Bordeaux. The name comes from the Gascon canelat which means groove. In form of small Cylinder striated, approximately five centimetres in height and five centimetres of Diameter, it crusty and is caramelized outside, marrowy inside.

History

Ladies of Annonciade

The legend wants that cinnamons were born at the time of the unloading of the boats of flour on the quays of Bordeaux. But more probably, it cinnamon would have been invented at the 18th century by the nuns of the convent of Annonciades, with Bordeaux, today convent of the Mercy under the name of canela woods or groove. These first canela woods do not resemble cinnamons yet: they are small cakes of very thin paste rolled around a stem of cane and fried to the Saindoux.

During the recent refitting of this convent, an archaeological excavation campaign was carried out. Among the many objects recovered and dating from the modern period none resembled a mould with grooved. Moreover, one kept the trace of repairs of the kitchen ustensils, and one does not find null trace of any moulds with grooved. One can thus question this filiation.

In fact the small cake is completely related to the history of Bordeaux and of the wine, indeed a big step in the wine making is called joining . It consists in filtering the wine ferments some with traditionally egg white assembled in snow. This expensive process was still used by good number of castles and this stage saw all the personnel of the castles breaking eggs and separating the white from the yellows which were given to the little sisters of the poor which would have made the cake.

Canauliers of Bordeaux

With Limoges one knows the canole, a speciality consisting of a bread made with flour and egg yolks. It is possible that it is the same product that one sells in Bordeaux since the 17th century under the name of canaule, whether one also finds written canaulé or canaulet. One consumes some of such quantity that craftsmen specialized in his only manufacture, they bear the name of canauliers. These craftsmen become enough powerful to organize themselves in Corporation and to obtain statutes which the Parliament of Bordeaux in records 1663. The statutes of the corporation very precisely define what they are authorized to make. Thus they can make bread-blessed, canaules, retortillons and of scalded, but they is impossible for them to use mixtionnée paste, i.e. in the composition of which enters of milk and sugar, ingredients reserved to the pastrycooks whose corporation was moved by the competition of the canauliers.

A war between the canauliers and the pastrycooks follows on the use of the mixtionnée paste. A stop of the Council of State returned to Versailles the March 3rd 1755 devotes the victory of the canauliers over the pastrycooks.

The corporation of the canauliers thrives then so much so that an edict of 1767 limit to eight the number of the controls authorized for the city. It also more severely regulates the access to the profession.

But this number of Masters canauliers was never respected. And in 1785 one did not count less thirty-nine canauliers in Bordeaux, from which ten were installed in the only Saint-Seurin suburb. The Révolution removes all the corporations but not the occupation of canaulier, the directories however continue to announce the shops of the canauliers and bakers in bread-blessed, even into full Terreur.

Is these canaules or canoles the ancestors of our grooved modern, besides whether some spell cinnamons or canelets? That seems probable for the etymology. On the other hand no text, inventory of shop, or files of the corporation, do not refer to the moulds and even less with the shape of the moulds in which were cooked these canaules.

For the history of the ingredients, this cake is directly resulting from the port activity of Bordeaux.

the Vanilla and the Cane sugar arrive by boat of the remote islands.
the Egg yolk is a by-product of the wine activity of the Quartier of will chartrons: the wine was stuck to the Egg white , to be clarified before forwarding.

The eclipse of the 19th century and the explosion of the 20th century

During the 19th century the canauliers disappear from the list of the craftsmen of Bordeaux.

In the first quarter of the 20th grooved century reappears, even if it is difficult to date with precision its return. An unknown pastrycook gives to the mode the antique receipt of the canauliers. He improves it while adding to his paste of rum and vanilla. It is probable that its current form comes from the vague homophony with the word groove.

The modern name of grooves is late and mysterious. The greedy Guide of France of Gault and Millau of 1970 does not mention it. It is only in 1985 that a brotherhood of grooved of Bordeaux is created and removes second “N” of the name in order to better affirm her identity. Name grooves becomes a collective mark, deposited with the National institute of the industrial property by the Brotherhood. Cinnamon meets a great success and ten years after the deposit of name, one counts 800 manufacturers in Aquitaine and 600 in the Gironde. In 1992 the cinnamon consumption in the Gironde is evaluated to 4,5 million units.

Good use of cinnamon

Cinnamon is consumed with the breakfast, tasting and in dessert. Declined in many forms (format buffet , Cinnamon of Gold scented to vanilla, format stopped …) its use diversifies. He is in particular appreciated at the time of liqueur-like wine tastings.

Cinnamons traditional are generally sold by six or ten.

It is to better serve the small one grooves in the cocktails, the means in the teas and the large one as a dessert at the end of a meal. The drink imports little, grooves it as well adapting with champagne as the and all kinds of wines.

It is light and practical to transport because of its solidity. In the event of fall during the way, it becomes deformed little and a light replanning returns its initial aspect to him. Greediest and less quite high, small cinnamons per pair devour. It is badly seen to eat large cinnamons using a cover, nevertheless when they are been useful in dessert that is still the best means of not coating the caramel fingers.

A cinnamon receipt of Bordeaux

Ingredients

Preparation

Cooking

The Councils

Source

the inventory of the culinary inheritance of France , Aquitaine volume, Albin-Michel/National council of the arts of cooking, 1997

See too

cinnamons and the trade of canaulier on the site of metiers-aquitains.org
Personal site of one impassioned of cinnamons
illustrated Manufacture of grooved Of Bordeaux at the Lenôtre School - in English

Random links: