Walliser Roggenbrot AOP
Product description
Round sourdough bread made of minimum 90% rye flour with a crisp crust
Weight 500 g or 1 kg
Registration
29.01.2004
contact
Association du Pain de seigle valaisan
Maison du Paysan
Case postale 96
1964 Conthey
T 027 345 40 10
walliserroggenbrot(at)agrivalais.ch
www.walliserroggenbrot.ch
walliserroggenbrotaop
walliserroggenbrotaop
Geographical Region
The geographical region is the canton of Wallis. The production of the cereal (rye and wheat) and its processing to flour and bread must take place in the geographical region.
Production
The flour used for the production of Walliser Roggenbrot AOP/PDO must be a wholemeal flour which contains at least 90 per cent rye and maximum 10 per cent wheat. The cereal are cultivated in an environmentally compatible way. Rye and wheat flour, yeast, salt and water are the only used raw materials. All ingredients are kneaded to a homogenous dough. After being mixed, the dough must rest in boxes until its volume has approximately doubled. Subsequently pieces of dough weighing approximatively 600 g resp. 1200 g are weighed, formed to a pointed cone and turned around in flour. After that the pieces of dough are left to rest until distinct cracks appear. To reinforce the cracks the ends are slightly flattened by hand before baking. The Walliser Roggenbrot PDO is baked in hearth ovens. Temperature and duration of the baking (about an hour) depend on the Know-how of the baker.
History
The cultivation of rye in Europe dates back to the Bronze Age. The processing of rye to bread in the Alps was documented by Pliny the Elder. Scripts testify the importance of the rye bread already in 1209: Rye bread was the main ingredient of the daily sustenance in the Wallis villages. The continental climate and the light and dry soils present favourable conditions for the rye cultivation. The rye is the only cereal adapting to such extreme production conditions and highly placed locations. In the Wallis villages the oven used for the collective bread baking was activated only twice or three time a year. Therefore, products had to be well preserved, just as the Walliser rye bread. It can be enjoyed together with cheese, just as well as dried meat and a glass of Dôle or Goron.