March 9, 2009. Aligot –At long last, I am about to make aligot (pronounced ah-lee-GO), thanks to my friend Linda who makes her own cheese. Last night she came over bearing a chunk of some one-day old cheese. And guess what? Aligot is (traditionally) made using two-day old Cantal cheese. So while we ate a bunch of her young fromage last night (it was a ‘release’ party for our Spudders Crest, 2007 Red Mountain Cab/Merlot), there was enough left-over to make aligot tonight –while the cheese is still two-days old.

Aligot is a fairly obscure concoction, native to the Auvergne region in southern France. My first encounter with it was last year in Paris on rue Mouffetard, and its daily market. One of the cheese shops was making a big pot of aligot out on the sidewalk. I got to taste a bit, and then bought a small tub of it.

Aligot is somewhere between mashed potatoes and a cheese spread. Most of the recipes I’ve encountered are similar. Steamed or boiled potatoes are combined at a ratio of two to one with cheese. A bit of garlic, salt, pepper, butter, and milk are added. All of this is stirred together in a double-boiler until you get a nice smooth, thick consistency, almost to saltwater taffy. It’s most often served as a side dish with meats, though it’s not bad on bread.

So anyway, tonight I will make my first aligot and report back

March 10, 2009. ‘So, Bob, how’d the aligot go (pronounced ah-lee GO-GO)?’ Well, I didn’t get that taffy-like stretchiness I was hoping for, but otherwise, it tastes wonderful. I used David Rosengarten’s recipe. Only problem, with an improvised and rather clumsy double-boiler, my hand slipped at one point, and a bunch of boiling water dribbled into the pot. Took a lot of stirring to burn that off.

My guess is, you really need to use two-day-old Cantal to get the right consistency. By the way, I asked (back on rue Mouffetard) the old fellar stirring the aligot pot if they sold the 2-day-old Cantal by itself, and he shook his head, ‘o non, non, you crazy little American.’ So I don’t know where a home cook would find it.

I do have some store-bought raw milk Cantal (probably aged to around 6 months), which is awesome. Similar to gruyere and tomme de Savoie. Maybe next time I’ll pass on tradition and try making aligot with an aged cheese.