Crapaudine beetroot

Betterave crapaudine

What it is

The name is from crapaud, toad: the skin cracks into rough dark plates as the root swells, and growers call it the oldest beetroot still in cultivation, a claim repeated everywhere and documented nowhere. What is certain is the flesh — dense, low in water, with none of the wet sweetness of a round table beet.

In the kitchen

Roast it whole and unpeeled, buried in coarse salt at 180°C for an hour and a half, or straight in the embers; the skin turns to a shell you crack off. Boiling is the one thing to avoid — the dry flesh takes on water and everything that justifies the price goes into the pan.

Goes with

Fleur de sel de Guérande Goat cheese Walnut Horseradish Butter Sherry vinegar

Same species

Beetroot Chioggia beetroot Isomalt Sea beet Swiss chard Vergeoise

In season alongside

Date Red mullet Ajvar American lobster Arbutus berry Woodcock

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