3 ideas
A region's cuisine is best mapped by its dominant cooking fat, such as butter in Normandy, olive oil in Provence, and goose or pork fat in the southwest, rather than by political borders. The fat follows the local farm economy, whether dairy cattle, olive groves or geese raised for foie gras. That choice then shapes the flavour base, the techniques and the character of every dish built on it.
Provincial French cooks decide what to cook after seeing what is fresh and plentiful at the market, not before. A dish made from mediocre substitutes to satisfy a fixed recipe will be worse than a simpler dish built around what is in season. Recipes should therefore be treated as flexible outlines that bend to available produce.
Long, gentle cooking in heavy earthenware or iron pots, as in daubes, cassoulets and pot-au-feu, turns cheap, tough cuts and humble ingredients into deep-flavoured food. The low, even heat and the sealed pot extract gelatine and meld flavours with little attention from the cook. The method emerged from households cooking over banked fires while working the farm.