Volaille de Bresse

Appearance & taste

The animals have a fine skeleton and delicate skin. The slaughtered bird is fleshy, with well-developed breast fillets, and so well fattened that the backbone cannot be seen. The skin is clear, without feather stubs, tears or discolouration. A clean ruff of feathers is left on the upper third of the neck. According to the specification, as “fat poultry” it is long and very finely built and easy to tell apart from the ordinary cereal-fattened chicken, which is larger and more compact.

Plucked, with head and feet but without the intestines (“effilé”), a poulet weighs at least 1.3 kg, a poularde 1.8 kg and a capon 3 kg. Capons come onto the market only from 1 November to 31 January. They are always, and poulets and poulardes on request, sewn tightly by hand into a cloth of linen, hemp or cotton. Afterwards the bird is elongated, the wings and legs lie against the body, and the meat is firm. According to the specification, this lets the fat penetrate the muscles better, which makes the meat tastier. Only poulets may be cut up and frozen.

Production

Selection, multiplication and hatching, rearing and slaughter take place in the Bresse. In the starter phase of up to 35 days, at least half of the feed is cereals. After that the animals live on grass runs and eat mainly what they find there: grass, insects, small molluscs, earthworms. In addition they get milk, dairy by-products and cereals from the area; maize makes up at least 40 % of the ration, protein at most 15 %. Genetically modified plants are excluded. Altogether almost 90 % of the feed comes from the Bresse.

Finally, the animals are fattened in fattening cages (“épinettes”) in a dark, quiet and ventilated room: poulets for at least ten days, poulardes for three weeks, capons for four weeks; rice may be added to the feed. They are slaughtered late, when fully grown. For sewing into a cloth, the legs and wings are pressed against the body and the cloth is sewn up with 15 to 20 stitches from the middle towards the head and the tail. Each animal bears a ring from the rearing farm on its left foot, a seal with the word “Bresse” at the base of the neck and a label, and poulardes and capons also a seal.

Origin & history

The Bresse is a marshy, gently undulating plain with very clayey, impermeable soils from periglacial deposits and a humid climate. The hardy local breed is well adapted to this environment; the producers have kept it pure. It is the only breed recognised for the designation of origin.

Maize came to the Bresse at the beginning of the 17th century and became the basis of poultry feed. Over the centuries a mixed farming system of grassland, cereal growing, poultry and cattle developed that still exists today. According to the specification, fattening with low-protein feed and plenty of maize made possible the fat poultry on which the reputation of Volaille de Bresse is founded. Sewing into a cloth is customary mainly for the festive season at the end of the year; the producers have kept it up despite the great effort involved.