A blazing-hot cheese tart from the Meuse city of Dinant baked on a thin bread-dough base piled with pungent boulette de Romedenne cheese, butter, and a generous tide of whole beaten eggs, rushed to the table straight from the oven.
Dinant, perched on the Meuse and famous as the birthplace of the saxophone and a centre of beaten-copper craft, claims the flamiche as its great hot tart. A folk legend describes a farm woman from the nearby village of Romedenne on her way to the Dinant market when her basket toppled, tumbling butter, eggs, and boulette cheese together; a baker pressed the mixture onto dough for her, and the flamiche was born. The dish's name descends from Old French or Picard 'flamiche', related to 'flamme' (flame) and the flat, fire-baked bread tradition of northern France and Belgium. A brotherhood to guard the recipe and promote the region's culinary heritage was founded in 1956 as the Ordre de la Flamiche; it was renamed the Confrérie des Quarteniers de la Flamiche Dinantaise in 1968 and granted the title Royale in 2006. The tart remains a fixture of the city's September fair.
Scorching hot from the oven, the thin crust crackles beneath a trembling, custardy interior of funky melted cheese and deeply set egg — pungent, rich, and urgent; it collapses quickly, so every bite must be taken at pace.
Boulette de Romedenne is a soft, strongly fermented raw-milk cheese. At 220°C, its proteolytically broken casein melts fluidly into the egg matrix rather than separating, while short-chain fatty acids and ammonia-derived compounds from the cheese's surface microflora concentrate under oven heat, deepening the pungency. The egg proteins (albumen setting at around 60-65°C, yolk at 65-70°C) coagulate rapidly at this high temperature, producing a silky but firm curd-like interior. The thin bread dough undergoes starch gelatinization and Maillard browning simultaneously, forming a crisp base capable of holding the liquefied filling.
Variations
The original cheese is boulette de Romedenne (formerly also called boulette de Surice, from a nearby village); any similar pungent Belgian boulette can substitute. Traditionally paired with red Burgundy, specifically a Savigny-lès-Beaune. Some cooks add a scraping of mustard to the dough before filling.
On the Palate
Where Flamiche de Dinant sits in the Belgian flavor cloud
Ingredients
Serves 8How it's made
7 steps · 20 min active + 30 min waiting
- 110 min
Bring the bread dough to room temperature; let it proof briefly until pliable.
- 25 min
Crumble the boulette de Romedenne cheese into small pieces; cut the butter into small cubes.
- 35 min
Lightly flour the work surface and roll the bread dough very thinly (2-3 mm); line a greased baking sheet or tart pan, letting the edges just overhang.
Watch outRoll the dough to just two or three millimetres — thin enough to crisp under the hot filling; a thick base stays doughy and won't hold the set egg.
- 43 min
Scatter the cheese pieces and butter cubes evenly over the dough surface.
- 55 min
Break all eggs into a bowl, season generously with salt and pepper, beat thoroughly, then pour the egg mixture over the cheese and butter layer.
- 620 min
Bake in a very hot oven at 220°C for approximately 20 minutes until the filling is puffed, set, and lightly golden.
Watch outBake in a very hot oven just until the filling puffs and sets with a light gold top — pull it before it deflates, and rush it to the table hot.
- 72 min
Rush the flamiche to the table immediately and serve piping hot, before the filling deflates.
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