Mattentaart

Break the thin pastry lid and a filling containing fine curd grains appears; in the mouth, you notice the gentle tang of milk. Belgium’s mattentaart is a small round pastry in which matten, made from cow’s milk, is turned into a filling with eggs, sugar and other ingredients. It is representative of Geraardsbergen in Flanders and is called tarte aux matons in French. Artisans in the town have long made the matten produced by farmers into pastries.

Making curds from milk and enclosing them in pastry

Tangy buttermilk is added to warmed milk, with a little vinegar if necessary, to make it coagulate. The curds are gathered in a cloth and hung to drain off the whey and remove moisture. The filling of mattentaart uses these curds, not grated hard aged cheese. The curds are finely ground and mixed with egg yolks and sugar, and egg whites whipped separately are then added for lightness. Some formulas also add the aroma of almond.

Because the fat content and condition of matten also vary with the season, artisans adjust the amounts of egg and sugar and the way of mixing. Matching the weights of the ingredients is not enough; adjustments suited to their condition are needed. The filling is placed in pastry dough lining a tin, the top is covered and the edges are sealed tightly, egg is brushed on, and a small cut is made in the center with scissors. As the area around this steam vent opens, a flower-like shape forms at the top, and you can enjoy the textures of well-baked pastry and moist milk filling.

A cut mattentaart. White curd filling is visible beneath the pastry. Photo: Sandra Fauconnier, 2005-02-06, location unknown. Original image / CC BY 4.0. Original size, no additional processing.

From records of curds and pastries to a town specialty

On farms, milk, which was difficult to keep, was separated into curds and whey for use. A hospital in Geraardsbergen has records of purchasing matten curds in the 16th century. As for mattentaart as a pastry, the town set quality rules for its sale in 1665, and Maria Theresa confirmed those rules by decree in 1752.

It was around the end of the 19th century that this pastry, previously baked at home and on farms, came to be made in large numbers in the town’s bakeries. It appears not only at fairs, birthdays and celebrations but also on the table after funerals. In the late 1970s, a trade association was formed in the area of production, and since 1980 a “Mattentaart Day” with demonstrations in the town square has also been held, making the method public.

A traveler who walked around Geraardsbergen wrote of seeing several bakeries displaying mattentaart along Brugstraat, which runs from the town square toward the station, and in the shopping street beyond it. It is a pastry you can find in the town’s shopfronts, not only on festival days.

16th-century cheese tarts and today’s mattentaart

The early-16th-century Een notabel boecxken van cokeryen is often cited as a cookbook containing recipes (the proportions of ingredients and the methods) that preceded mattentaart. However, the “brown tart” found there is made by mixing soft cheese, or hard-boiled egg yolks, with cardamom, ginger, cloves, nutmeg, mace, sugar and other ingredients. The cheese tart printed next to it combines ground cheese with eggs, butter and sage; after baking, holes are made in it and it is soaked with butter.

These old tarts include spices or sage, whereas in today’s mattentaart, whipped egg white is mixed into the matten and the filling is enclosed in pastry above and below. Although they have in common that they are tarts using milk and eggs, their ingredients and methods differ.

Area and method for the protected name, and mattentaart in general

“Geraardsbergse mattentaart” (mattentaart of Geraardsbergen), registered in 2007 as an EU protected geographical indication (PGI), is a name whose area of production is the city and neighboring Lierde. The milk and matten are produced in this area, and the steps of making the filling and wrapping it in dough also take place within the area. On the other hand, the flour and butter used for the pastry may come from outside the area.

The wrapped, unbaked pastries may also be frozen and finally baked outside the area. Meanwhile, mattentaart in general has spread to the Flemish Ardennes and elsewhere. In Gibecq, within the municipality of Ath in the French-speaking region, there are also farmers who make tarte aux matons as their own product and sell it directly. The generic name mattentaart includes such farm pastries, but the protected name is limited to pastries for which the origin of the ingredients and the location of the production steps are specified.

Glossary