Chabrot

Faire chabrot or faire chabròl is an ancient Occitanian custom whereby at the end of a soup or broth, one adds red wine to the bowl to dilute the remnants and brings it to the lips to drink in big gulps.[1]

Chabrot

Preparation of chabrot
Alternative names	faire chabròl, fà chabroù, godala, godaille, goudale
Course	at the end of the soup
Region or state	Occitanie
Serving temperature	tepid, lukewarm
Main ingredients	red wine in oily stock
Cookbook: Chabrot   Media: Chabrot

History

A grape picker from Provence performing chabrot

Chabrot was usually performed with soups such as bréjaude or garbure.[2] This action required use of a traditional container used for serving soups, such as a deep, spherical bowl or dish.[3] This container usually had no handles, was made of clay, in a dome form and somewhat narrow.[3] This practice was very popular historically. It is still practised today notably among older people in the countryside.

People from Périgord perform fà chabroù, in Limousin one performs chabrot, while in Provence, Frédéric Mistral explains that cabroù comes from the Latin capreolus. To faire chabrot, therefore, is "to drink like a goat." In Poitou and in Saintonge, the word "godaille" is also used. In Gascon, they use the term godala (likely a metathesis of goulade, "gulp"[4]).

The practice may have arisen in places where food was scarce but wine was plentiful (and perhaps of low quality), as it ensures that essentially all the soup is consumed but some small amount of wine is likely to go to waste.

This practice appears to have existed north of the Loire: in the last volume of Chronique des Pasquier, Georges Duhamel writes of a longstanding practice, "It was a custom of my father," which was called champorot and was chabrot.

Modern usage

Chabrot in the past

Chabrot today

Chabrot continues, notably in the Southwest of France. Jean Rebier (1879-1966), founder of the revue Lemouzi, describes the practice of chabrot as still relevant, "The soupe is regularly followed by a nice chabròl." Just as the ethnologist Albert Goursaud, deceased 1975, still talks about in the present, in his book The traditional rural society of Limousin: ethnography and folklore of Haut-Limousin and Basse-Marche published the year after his death. In his work, he distinguishes lost traditions from those that continued at the time he wrote it. Chabrot was performed commonly, at least in the countryside, just until the middle of the 20th century.

Catalan Jaume Fàbrega, born in 1948, indicates in Cuina del país dels càtars that while young, he witnessed at home lo cabròt.[5] Roland Manoury, musicologist and poet of Auvergne, created a march of glory for chabrot that is traditionally accompanied by accordion. Its refrain asserts:[6]

À la soupe! À la soupe! Voici l'heure du chabrot. Nous, on a le vin en poupe Quand on a le bouillon tout chaud On verse un' rasade De vin rouge bien costaud. Si, de plus on est malade Pour guérir, faisons chabrot.	To the soup! To the soup! It's time for chabrot. We have wine astern When we have stock all hot We pour a glassful Of strong red wine If, moreover we are sick To recover, perform chabrot

Today, chabrot is considered an old and rural gesture, but on certain occasions it can be performed in all environments, in a spirit of connivance and friendliness. During a meal between gastronomists, Philippe Faure-Brac, best sommelier (wine steward) in the world in 1992, owner of « Bistrot du Sommelier » in Paris, and member of GJE,[7] rose and asked for permission to perform chabrot with the rest of his cream of mushroom soup and some 1998 Cheval Blanc. Pierre Lurton, director of the societies of châteaus of Yquem and Cheval Blanc, replied by pouring the bottom of his glass into the soup. Everyone did the same. This modern version of chabrot consisted of tasting the mixture with a spoon, but no one drank directly from the dish.[8]

• Chabrot in the old days
• 
  Chabrot in the Baronnies
• 
  Chabrot in the Alpes-de-Haute-Provence
• 
  Chabrot in Ardèche
• 
  Chabrot in the Hautes-Alpes
• 
  Chabrot in the Cévennes
• 
  Chabrot in Vercors

See also

• The dictionary definition of chabrot at Wiktionary

Notes

1. La société rurale traditionnelle en Limousin, pp. 265-266.
2. La société rurale traditionnelle en Limousin, p. 112.
3. La société rurale traditionnelle en Limousin, p. 111.
4. Simin Palay, Dictionnaire du gascon et du béarnais modernes, CNRS, 1980
5. La cuina del país dels càtars, pàg. 154, Jaume Fàbrega, 2003, Ed. Cossetània. ISBN 84-96035-80-8
6. "Roland Manoury, Faisons chabrot" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2015-06-07. Retrieved 2015-03-30.
7. Le Grand Jury Européen Archived March 3, 2011, at the Wayback Machine
8. "Faire chabrot au Cheval-Blanc avec Philippe Faure-Brac et André Lurton sur le site lapassionduvin.com". Archived from the original on 2016-03-13. Retrieved 2015-03-30.

References

• (in French) Albert Goursaud, La société rurale traditionnelle en Limousin : ethnographie et folklore du Haut-Limousin et de la Basse-Marche, V. I. 1976. Éd. G.-P. Maisonneuve et Larose, ISBN 2-7068-0611-7