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

In blogs, there is often a story about the alleged dialogue of Emperor Alexander III with a French ambassador. If you believe this story, a diplomat, seeing buckwheat among dishes, was surprised and noticed that in France she was only fed cattle. We decided to check how believable such a story is.

The story about the dive of the Russian emperor and the French diplomat is regularly found on blogs. The French ambassador at one of the tricks asks Alexander III: "Your Majesty, is it true that you eat buckwheat in Russia?" "Yes, really, what?" - says the emperor. "And in France we only give this muck only cattle." Alexander III, scratching the back of the head, asks the ambassador: "Monsieur, is it true that they eat frogs in France?" - "Yes, what?" “And in Russia we don’t even eat this muck.” In VKontakte fast Under the heading “I outplayed and destroyed,” 574,000 people read and like 10,000 people. In one of the blogs in Zen, this story Sicked 23,000 views. On Facebook in the community "from Russia with love" Record More than 500 subscribers shared, this story appeared on the blogs on the radio "Satellite".

The first mention of buckwheat as agricultural culture is found in French sources in 1460: it was grown in the village of Pontobo in the north-west of present-day France. Then the number of references is growing: in 1497, they write about buckwheat in the chronicles of the city of Renn, calling it "black wheat." About this Writes Historian Michelles Nassier in his work "spread" Black wheat "in France in modern times." At first, buckwheat was grown mainly in Brittany, then this agricultural culture by the middle of the 16th century gained popularity in other regions of the West of France. The buckwheat was not sown by the most fertile lands, where wheat did not grow.

At first, it was about cattle. The researcher cites a passage from the chronicle in which the canon of Le-Man tells how the townspeople managed to escape in 1546 from hunger, baking bread from the ventricular and buckwheat flour. But by 1700, buckwheat flour was included in the everyday diet of residents of several French regions. The main reason is the unpretentiousness of this culture. The buckwheat was made as much flour as from rye, and much more than from oats and barley.

In the work of Nasers, prices for buckwheat are given - in the 17th century it is much more expensive than oats, and therefore, the researcher believes, it becomes obvious that it is bought for themselves, and not for livestock. Historian Jean Meyer in the book "Breton nobility of the 18th century»Writes that growing buckwheat is one of the key reasons for the economic upsurge of Brittany in the 18th century. In the more fertile provinces of France, buckwheat was really sowed in order to feed cattle, Writes Historian Isabelle Vett. At the same time, she clarifies that this is not about the grains, but about the hay that remained after mowing. The agronomist of the 19th century Hustave Eza mentions buckwheat in his book Fod plants. But the use of grains of buckwheat in food by people by the 18th century is more common.

Rarely, but the most familiar way to eat grains for Russia is found: cook, pour milk, add butter. A similar recommendation dating back to 1795 is given by Isabelle Vett. But most often in Brittany, buckwheat was grinded with hand mills, then baked Galettes from it - fresh cakes similar to pancakes.

By the end of the 18th century, wheat flour begins to supplant the rest of the grain from the everyday diet - in particular, Fernan Brodel wrote in the first volume of his work “Material Civilization, Economics and Capitalism”, calling the “revolution of white bread”. But in Brittany and individual settlements of other regions of the country, buckwheat flour and products from it remain an integral part of life. In 1862, in the daily diet of a resident of the city of Glenik in the south of France (Aquitani Province) Enters 500 g of buckwheat, 1 kg of rye bread, liter of soup, half a liter of milk, 250 g of vegetables and 125 g of cheese.

The sowing areas of buckwheat sharply decrease only in the 20th century - by 1955, the area occupied by this agricultural culture, decreased up to 10,000 ha. However, Breton buckwheat pancakes (cakes) in the second half of the 20th century became part of the cultural and gastronomic heritage of the region.

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

Not true

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