L’ail

SHOULD WE HAVE dealt earlier with garlic in this study of the country cooking? Seventy-five per cent of our recipes include at least one clove of garlic, while la gasconnade calls for half a kilo of it. The quantities could seem excessive but not so to the people of the Haut Languedoc, the Quercy and the Périgord. They are great lovers of this flavouring, not caring for bland food. If challenged, they will mention the medicinal properties of garlic, recommending it as an aid to digestion and a cure for colds, apart from its ability to improve the memory and the gift of the gab. So they put a clove or two into most soupes, pâtés and meat dishes, while the garlic soup of Languedoc, I’aigo boulido, contains little else.