Pounti comes from the Cantal-Aveyron border — Pays de Salers, Châtaigneraie. It is farm food turning a kitchen full of common things into one bake: leftover chard from the kitchen garden, a cured-but-fresh prune from the orchard, the household pork. The name comes from Occitan pount or pounti, related to the verb meaning to put together or pound. While the dish itself is old, the modern prune-studded version only took its current form in the late 19th / early 20th century — dried prunes were scarce and costly before then, so earlier pounti was leaner and often made without meat or prunes. It belongs to the wider tradition of farçous, terrines, and pâté-cakes that fill the Massif Central rural repertoire.
Cantal-Aveyron border farmhouse bake — Pays de Salers, Châtaigneraie. The name comes from Occitan pount, related to put-together. Eggs and flour are the matrix; chard releases water during the bake, so leaves must be wilted dry first or the slice slumps.
A slice the colour of pâté with green flecks of chard and a band of dark prunes through the middle. Texture is between meatloaf and cake — dense from the pork, lifted by the egg and flour, slightly cake-soft. The chard is mineral and grassy; the prunes are unexpected sweet shocks against the meat. Eaten warm at lunch or as supper. Cold, it firms up and slices like terrine — leftovers improve the next day.
The proportions are critical. Eggs and flour are the matrix that holds chopped meat and chard together; too little flour and it slumps, too much and it goes bready. The chard releases water during baking — drying the leaves before mixing keeps the slice cuttable. Prunes are macerated to soften them just enough that they don't stay leathery in the bake but don't disintegrate either; un-soaked, they turn to dry pellets in the centre.
Variations
Salers version (heaviest on pork); Châtaigneraie version (more chestnut flour in older recipes); Aveyron variant uses raisin instead of prune; modern Aurillac bistros sometimes serve a chilled terrine slice as a starter.
On the Palate
Where Pounti sits in the French flavor cloud
Ingredients
Serves 6
How it's made
5 steps · 30 min active + 50 min waiting
- 120 min
Soak 150g pitted Agen prunes in 100ml warm Madiran or strong tea for 20 minutes. Drain, keep whole.
Watch outSoak the prunes until plump and yielding — under-soaked they bake into dry leathery pellets in the center of the loaf.
- 28 min
Wash 300g Swiss chard (leaves and small ribs); slice into 1cm ribbons. Finely chop 1 large onion and a small bunch of parsley (30g).
- 38 min
Whisk 4 eggs with 250ml whole milk, 150g flour (sifted), 5g salt, 2g black pepper, pinch nutmeg until smooth. Stir in 350g good-quality ground pork (20% fat) plus 100g ground pork belly.
Watch outWhisk the egg-flour-milk base smooth before folding in meat — this matrix binds everything; too thin and the slice slumps, too much flour and it bakes bready.
- 45 min
Fold in chard, onion, parsley. Pour half the batter into a buttered 25×11cm loaf tin. Push prunes evenly across the surface. Top with remaining batter — prunes should be in a horizontal layer.
- 550 min
Bake 50 minutes at 180°C until firm to a pressed finger and a skewer comes out clean. Rest 15 minutes; turn out. Slice 2cm thick. Serve warm with a salad of frisée and walnut oil.
Watch outIt's done when a pressed finger springs back and a skewer comes out clean — the chard sheds water, so an underbaked center stays wet and won't slice.
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