How Tarte Flambée or Flammekueche is made in Alsace

Bread dough, a crème fraîche-based cream, bacon and onions - that's all you need to make THE national dish - alongside the sauerkraut platter - of Alsace, France. Okay, actually a wood-fired oven is also essential, as this is the only way to give the tarte flambée - aka German pizza, Flammekueche, or Flammkuchen - its typical crust. Even if there are variations with Munster cheese, mushrooms or ham tarte flambée is a simple dish. And a social one. Traditionally, you order several, place them in the middle of the table and then everyone simply helps themselves with their hands. Here's all you need to know.

CHAPTERS
00:00 Intro
00:53 Alsace, capital of tarte flambée
01:14 The wood-fired oven
01:34 The dough
02:52 The cream
03:10 The toppings
04:15 Burned bread?
04:42 A social dish
05:21 Outro

CREDITS
Report: Jens von Larcher
Camera: Cédric Tacussel
Edit: Andreas Hyronimus
Supervising editor: Ruben Kalus

#tarteflambee #pizza #flammkuchen
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[MikeSiemens]

I lived in the small town of Altenheim (Neuried) north of Lahr during my time with the Canadian Air Force in the Cold War, mid to late 1980's. Right across the border from Alsace, it featured a well-known restaurant on the main street through town. During the fall for a limited time Flammkuchen with Neuer Wein was on the menu. They had a wood fired oven out the back to bake them up. Folks who knew came from far & wide to visit the little village. The combination of bacon/onion Flammkuchen & sweet Neuer Wein was off the charts delicious! The baking was continuous & the waiter would walk into the room serving by the slice rather than an entire 'kuchen' per table. Similar to marking your coaster with how many beer you've had in a Gasthaus, they kept track of how many slices of Flammkuchen you had. There would be several variations of the standard bacon/onion served & you could choose to pass or partake of the non-standard slices.

[al]

When I was a kid, my Dad used to go to Strasbourg pretty much every year for work. One year my mum and I accompanied him. I honestly don't know how old I was...maybe between 10 and 13. So that's forty odd years ago. I can still very easily bring to mind the delicious flavour and wonderful texture of tarte flambee. Never had it since then but it's a core memory. Someone else said in the comments that it's not anyone's version of pizza, it is its own thing - I totally agree. If you ever get the chance, you must try it!!

[jamesross]

I spent four days in Strasbourg and somehow got invited to a local house party.

I ended up helping in the kitchen and was taught how to make Flamenkuche. It was so delicious! Definitely a tasty alternative to Italian pizza.

[ralphjenkins]

My absolute favorite Alsatian food ❤❤❤

[DrunkenDemon]

I never thought of this dish as either french or german. Its that thing from the elsass region. And its tasty :)

[felixbro]

I'm always bothered by the claim that it's french. Although the variety known as the "alsacian" is a classic and the most famous one, Flammkuchen is not bound to that specific region. It is known all along southwest Germany as well as in Lorraine and Alsace. It's rather a dish of a mixed regional/national heritage than a french one.

[cmpurguy]

Flammekuche is not a pizza, it’s its own thing. And it’s awesome.

[Heintz_H]

I've been half a year away from home, first thing planned when returning in 2 months is to have Flammekueche with the whole family at my grandparents house. We just do them in a pizza oven on sunny days, it's like the alsacian alternative to barbecue in summer. Flammkueche are best enjoyed with Picon beer, a typical beverage of northern france made from orange and roots, that have to be mixed with beer and eventually lemon juice

[normtrooper]

I had this one time at a small cafe. I thoroughly enjoyed it.

[RamziHammoud]

Why people need to compare things. Just enjoy the variety, its richeness

[pazzariatv]

For those who can't get out to Alsace all of the time, Trader Joe's has two that are absolutely wonderful.

[jmorello]

Looks awesome, I would try the mushroom Flambee. 😉

[hypernewlapse]

I am french and this is at best a francogerman dish, not really known or eaten in most of france. I had a great one at Esslingen Christmas market so it is also very popular in schwabia

[brandinoyyc]

ill have to try these some day they look great

[shyamdevadas]

This looks magnificent! The charred parts remind me of New Haven style pizza in the U.S.. Same type of oven and fire. Gotta find some place to have this.

[AB-ddjz]

we don't even call that "tarte flambé" in France, we call that Flamenkuche and I don't think it can be compared to pizza since we eat it during the aperitive or entry of our meal.
Nonetheless it's exquisite but it's difficult to find a traditionnaly made one anywhere out of Alsace.

[buzzo]

Thé French answer to pizza is not Flamenkuchen, it’s Pissaladière..😊

[coffeecake]

Tarte Flambee with cream, camembert, pears and rosemary is phantastic!

[dhies]

When he said better than a pizza, i bet italians were laughing at him😂

[adamabele]

The idea of this dish was to test the heat of the oven. You can get the feeling for the right temperature just by putting in the Flammkuchen. If it burns up in seconds, it is too hot and needs some cool down, if it takes several minutes to get ready, you know you need to put in some more wood. There is no thermometer that can tell you the heat, it is all based on experience. But on the thermometer the temperature would be betwen 380 and 450° C. People baked their bread at a large community oven and this would be served just before the bread goes into the oven to be baked. At this moment you have already spend hours on preparing the bread and take the last break while waiting for the woot to burn down and the heat from the fire to spread evenly into the bricks and get ready for the bread. You can not do it later, because then the burning coal would be removed and the oven already occupied by the bread. So they made the Flammkuchen and had a great meal and then put the bread in the oven. I live in another area in the south west of Germany and we have similar dishes, Zwiebelkuchen, but this uses the remaining heat of the oven, when the bread is done. So it is at a heat of ca. 200° to 250° C and it is also delicious as well, has basically the same ingredients but a thicker dough and bakes for 20 minutes to half an hour or something like that.