Heitz Sender: Ian

Couldn't agree with you more. The derivation - as if you didn't know, is from a Trou Normand, a tot of calvados in the middle (not near the beginning or end, as I've had in otherwise perfectly sensible places) of a long meal to help make some space! Well, with the desire to cut down alcohol consumption, and because some people don't much like strong alcohol (especially the rough old stuff sometimes served in a Trou Normand) some chefs started playing (very successfully IMO) with a very alcoholic sorbet. I remember a "Marc de Gerwurztraminer sorbet" served in Alsace to this day. Well, it wasn't long before the object of the exercise was forgotten and it became "de rigueur" to serve a sorbet. The alcohol was forgotten and the sorbet became sweeter ans sweeter. As you so rightly say, " a gustatory monstrosity".

We make this ourselves - it's dead easy if you have access to magrets from fatted ducks - and often serve it as part of an "buttiette anglaise" of local ham and salami.

You might be interested to know that it goes pretty well with a dry white sauvignon blanc from Bergerac.

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