Is it true that in the 19th century the French used buckwheat only as livestock feed?

There is often a story on blogs about an alleged dialogue between Emperor Alexander III and the French ambassador. If you believe this story, the diplomat, seeing buckwheat among the dishes, was surprised and noted that in France they only feed it to livestock. We decided to check how plausible this story is.

The story of the skirmish between the Russian emperor and the French diplomat is regularly found in blogs. At one of the receptions, the French ambassador asks Alexander III: “Your Majesty, is it true that they eat buckwheat in Russia?” “Yes, really, but what?” - says the emperor. “And here in France they only give this crap to cattle.” Alexander III, scratching the back of his head, asks the ambassador: “Monsieur, is it true that in France they eat frogs?” - “Yes, but what?” - “And here in Russia, even cattle don’t eat this disgusting stuff.” On VKontakte fast The title “Outplayed and Destroyed” was read by 574,000 people and liked by 10,000 people. In one of the blogs in "Zen" this story dialed 23,000 views. On Facebook in the “From Russia with Love” community recording shared by more than 500 subscribers, This story also appeared in blogs on the radio "Satellite"

The first mention of buckwheat as an agricultural crop is found in French sources in 1460: it was grown in the village of Pontobo in the north-west of what is now France. Then the number of references grows: in 1497, buckwheat was written about in the chronicles of the city of Rennes, calling it “black wheat.” About this writes historian Michel Nassier in his work “The spread of “black wheat” in France in modern times.” At first, buckwheat was grown mainly in Brittany, then by the middle of the 16th century this crop gained popularity in other regions of western France. Not the most fertile lands were sown with buckwheat, where wheat did not grow.

At first it was about livestock feed. The researcher cites an excerpt from the chronicles in which the canon of Le Mans tells how the townspeople managed to escape hunger in 1546 by baking bread from acorn and buckwheat flour. But by 1700, buckwheat flour was included in the daily diet of residents of several French regions. The main reason is the unpretentiousness of this culture. Buckwheat produced the same amount of flour as rye, and significantly more than oats and barley.

Nassier's work gives prices for buckwheat grains - in the 17th century it was much more expensive than oats, and therefore, the researcher believes, it becomes obvious that they buy it for themselves, and not for livestock. Historian Jean Meyer in the book “Breton nobility of the 18th century” writes that the cultivation of buckwheat is one of the key reasons for the economic rise of Brittany in the 18th century. In the more fertile provinces of France, buckwheat was actually sown to feed livestock, writes historian Isabelle Vouette. At the same time, she clarifies that we are not talking about grains, but about the hay left after mowing. 19th-century agronomist Gustave Eze mentions buckwheat in his book Forage Plants. But the consumption of buckwheat grains as food by people became more common by the 18th century.

Rarely, but the most common way of eating grains in Russia occurs: boil, pour in milk, add butter. A similar recommendation dating back to 1795 is given by Isabelle Vouette. But most often in Brittany, buckwheat was ground with hand mills, then galettes were baked from it - unleavened flatbreads similar to pancakes.

By the end of the 18th century, wheat flour began to displace other grains from the daily diet - Fernand Braudel, in particular, wrote about this in the first volume of his work “Material Civilization, Economics and Capitalism,” calling what was happening “the white bread revolution.” But in Brittany and certain settlements in other regions of the country, buckwheat flour and products made from it remain an integral part of life. In 1862, the daily diet of a resident of the city of Glenic in the south of France (province of Aquitaine) included 500 g of buckwheat flatbread, 1 kg of rye bread, a liter of soup, half a liter of milk, 250 g of vegetables and 125 g of cheese.

The area sown with buckwheat decreased sharply only in the 20th century - by 1955, the area occupied by this agricultural crop decreased up to 10,000 hectares. However, Breton buckwheat pancakes (flatbread) became part of the cultural and gastronomic heritage of the region in the second half of the 20th century.

Thus, the statement that in France in the 19th century buckwheat was “given only to cattle” is incorrect. In the province of Brittany and in some individual cities of France, buckwheat grains have been eaten since the 17th century and were considered an important part of the diet.

Not true

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