The Somme tourist board

Hochepot (hotpot) is a general term for meat and vegetable dishes cooked in stock. Le caqhuse is a cut from a leg of pork, surrounded with onions and roasted in the oven. It is eaten cold.

Le pâté de canard (Duck pâté) is a speciality of the Amiens region. It is in fact a whole duck, slow-cooked in spices and its own fat then wrapped in pastry. Amiens became famous for this dish when the Marquise de Sévigné raved excitedly after tasting it. The region’s farmers offer many other duck-based products, such as foie gras and rillettes (a type of coarse pâté).

On the subject of meat, let’s not forget the salt meadow lamb . These sheep graze beside the sea and their meat takes on a distinct and agreeable flavour. Salt meadow lamb has its own quality certificate – “Le label Estran – mouton de pré sale” - so consumers can buy with confidence. The coastal climate and the salt and iodine-rich grass which is the sheep’s main diet, give the meat its special qualities: Tender, melt-in-the-mouth meat, needing nothing added during cooking; a natural product from a land regularly bathed by the tidal seawater. Every year, from around the end of September to the beginning of October, in a flock migration like no other, the sheep leave their natural reserve on the Maye estuary to return to the salt marshes at the bottom of the North bay.