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The key Norman ingredients, cider and cream, are combined to make this delicious chicken dish from the Pays d’Auge. Chicken pieces and mushrooms are sautéed in butter, then braised in a sauce of cider, Calvados and cream. Other classic Norman dishes served in a sauce of cider and cream are côtes de veau (veal cutlets) and filet de porc (pork fillet).

Annette Poulard (1861–1931) was the patronne of a hotel on Mont-St-Michel (see La Mère Poulard, Mont-St-Michel). The exact recipe for her famously perfect omelettes, available at any time of the day to hungry visitors who had crossed the bay on foot or by horse and cart, is not known. We do know, however, that she never let the butter brown, beat the eggs vigorously in a copper bowl, possibly separating the yolks and whites first, and stirred continuously as she cooked them in her long-handled pan.

An enormously popular dessert, both at home and in restaurants, this regional speciality dates back to the days when spices, brought back to Honfleur and Dieppe by merchant ships from the East, first became popular. Local housewives discovered that a flavouring of cinnamon was the perfect partner for pudding rice baked with cream, and teurgoule was born.

This hearty fish stew was originally concocted in Dieppe as a way of using up the many different types of fish, as well as shrimps and mussels, that were readily available. Like teurgoule , it is lightly flavoured with spices.

Occupying pride of place amongst the catch brought back by Normandy’s fishermen is the magnificent Dover sole, in French, sole Normande . It is equally delicious cooked simply, with butter (à la meunière ), or, as in Dieppe, with shrimps and mussels in a creamy velouté sauce – or prepared in countless other ways.

Tasting much better than it sounds, canard à la Rouennaise refers to ducklings that have been dispatched by smothering; as a result, the blood is prevented from escaping, giving a strong flavour to the meat. Traditionally, the bird is stuffed, then served in a sauce made of its own liver and blood.

A popular country dish in Normandy, tripe from the excellent local cattle is cooked simply à la mode de Caen with onions, calf’s feet, Calvados and cider, while in Ferté-Macé it is made into little bundles en brochette (on skewers).

There are many ways to cook this speciality of Elbeuf, but the two essential ingredients are quail and leeks. The variety of leek cultivated in the Seine and Eure Valleys is known as monstrueux (literally, “monstrous” – they are short and fat), and their distinctive flavour perfectly complements the quail.

Most often found in cake shops rather than in restaurants, these individual, melt-in-the-mouth pastries are each filled with a whole small apple or pear, peeled and cored and flavoured with cinnamon.

This famous Norman speciality – or rather indulgence – refers to a shot of chilled Calvados thrown back between courses to aid digestion. The word trou means “hole”: the shot of calva , Normans fondly believe, creates a hole for more food.