Gastronomy : Normandy cuisine from starter to dessert

Many products of Normandy gastronomy are famous through the world : oysters, cider, mutton from the salty meadows of the Bay of Mont Saint Michel and obviously the camembert… Merely with a good wine from Bordeaux or roasted, camembert is so delicious !

This is an overview of traditional recipes from upper and lower Normandy: seafood, cheese, pastries !

The salty meals from Normandy cuisine

Starters

In Normandy, we can cook apple and camembert as a starter as well as a desert or main dish:

Camembert and Andouille de Vire Puff Pastry 

Even tastier served with some cooked apples.

The Norman omelette

The most famous of the omelette is l’omelette de la Mère Poulard in Mont Saint Michel.

The Normansalad

All the local products in a salad

The camembert pie

Do not forget the cider to drink with.

Sea food

The Normandy coastline measures no less than 600 kilometers, or 370 miles ! Freshly caught, raw, cooked or cooked; here are some traditional seafood recipes from Normandy.

The Norman mussels

The Cotentin lobester

The whelks

The Granville scallops with the Isigny cream

Cotentin hoisters cook with pommeau

Meat and fish dishes

We are lucky to have a wide and diversified Nature thanks to the wealth of Earth and Sea. That’s why our cuisine offers as many traditional meats dishes as fish dishes. You will notice how important are dairy products in our recipes!

Veal chop Norman style

Poule au blanc: hen cooked with local vegetables and cream

Normandy braised beef

The lamb of the salted meadow

The sole meunière

Les tripes à la mode de Caen

Fish cooked with cider (bearded, tiled, sea bream)

The Norman Escalope

Among the local products we use almost every dish are the dairy products: cream, cheese and butter ! The most famous designation is Isigny Sainte Mère. This designation is protected and the products only come from Bessin and Cotentin.

In Normandy, a meal without cheese does not exist !

Thanks to our dairy cows for the butter and cream, but also for the cheese.

In Normandy, we speak about camembert is all our heart. There is a touristic Normandy cheeses route.

There are 33 Norman cheeses. Did you know about them ? Boursin, Brillat-savarin, Camembert de Normandie AOC, Pavé du Plessis, Livarot AOC, Neufchâtel AOC, Petit Suisse and Pont-l’évêque AOC…

To apply the cliché, a good cheese goes hand in hand with a fresh baguette and a good red wine.

You can discover the cheese making in several farms and small factories. They also sell directly their products.

Sweet cooking: Normandy cakes, pastries, drinks and sweets.

Cooking recipes of Norman desserts

Well, it’s true that the apple is dear to our heart and our desserts. But not only… here are the famous and favorite desserts of the Normans:

Apple and Caramel salted butter stuffed pancake

Norman apple pie

The Teurgoule, the Norman rice with milk

Tarte tatin cooked with Calvados

Trou Normand

Drinks and alcohol Normandy

Drinks and digestives also take part of the Norman heritage. Natural, often organic and from fruits, you can stop in the farms and directly buy the local products.

• Apple juice
• Cider
• Pommeau : apple aperitif
• Poiré: pear aperitif
• Calvados: apple liquor
• L’Embuscade: coktail with Calva, bier and other ingredients
• Kir normand : cider and blackcurrant liquor

Sweets and biscuits

• Toffes from Isigny sur mer
• La maison du biscuit’s Financiers
• Cara’meuh
• Deauville’s shortbreads

Other gift ideas to bring back from holidays: