Quiche au Lard

QUICHE AU LARD

Bacon Tart

Sunday morning and the hubby and I needed brunch, so I turned to The French Cookbook for my first antique recipe: Quiche au Lard, or for those of us who speak English, Bacon Tart.

Well, good thing we didn’t have any plans on Sunday! French cooks must LOVE to wash dishes. Since we’re only a family of two right now, I don’t have that many mixing bowls, pans, or other implements. Unfortunately for me, though, French cooking involves a ton of steps and multiple cooking vessels and utensils.

First, I had to make the pastry for the quiche crust. Pastry dough is simple enough:

Pate Brisée/Pastry for Tarts

1 ¾ C flour
1 tbsp sugar
¼ tsp salt
½ C butter
4-6 tbsp cold water

Mix dry ingredients together in a bowl. Using a pastry blender (or a fork), cut in the softened butter until mixture crumbs.

Mix in 1 tbsp of water at a time until the dough gathers into a ball.

I don’t know what it is about dough, but if you

look at it, you just know when it’s right.

  Isn’t it beautiful?

Roll the dough out on a floured surface. Be sure to maintain circular shape during flattening. Roll out to 1/8 in thick. Loosen pastry from surface with knife or spatula. Lay pastry over pie pan and shape to fit.

After shaping the pastry to my pie pan, I had some extra pastry bits leftover. Since I hate to waste, I turned them into twists, coated them in egg wash, and sprinkled them with cinnamon – yum!

Next came the frying, cutting, and mixing to make the tart fillings:

Quiche au Lard/Bacon Tart

6 slices bacon or salt pork
6 oz (1 ¼ C) Gruyére or Swiss cheese
2 C milk
3 eggs
½ tsp salt
¼tsp nutmeg
1/8 tsp pepper

Cut bacon slices in half, brown, and set aside. (I like to keep the drippings from my bacon in a ceramic mug in the fridge – you never know what you might need it for!)

Cut cheese into cubes and set aside. Scald milk. Beat eggs together with seasonings. Slowly add milk to eggs, stirring vigorously to avoid scrambling the eggs.

Arrange bacon slices in bottom of pastry shell and arrange cheese cubes on top of bacon. Pour milk/egg mixture over bacon/cheese to fill pastry shell.

Bake at 450oF 10 min. Reduce heat to 350oF and bake 25 min longer. Serve immediately.

 

I have a confession to make. I overcooked my quiche. On purpose. I just can’t stand the look of gooey, runny, undercooked eggs! So I cooked it at 350oF for more like 45 min to 1 hour before it was set to an acceptable level where I would be willing to eat it. But boy, it’s really good! The cheese got all melty and yummy, the bacon adds just enough of a savory note, and the pastry is beautifully flaky. We enjoyed the quiche and some Pea Soup for brunch, and again warmed up the next night for dinner. Delicious, and a resounding first successful foray into the antique recipes!

 

Have a question or a request? Put it in the comments below and I’ll be sure to respond. Fröhe essen!