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Lorraine Tilbury's avatar

This type of gangster des rois was also served all over the French southwest too. I was studying there back in those non-internet days in the late 1970s, and that was the only galette I knew. I was astonished to discover a whole different kind of galette in the North!

The "bean" was a small round plastic object that was usually a smiling moon, nothing like the plethora of ceramic cartoon & movie characters we can get in galettes today. I used to save them with the paper crown and send them to my French mom who left France in 1957. She enjoyed getting little reminders of her home country in the mail. 🙂❤️

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Michael Procopio's avatar

I never made the connection between the galette and Saturn before! I'm much more familiar with the more garish King Cakes of New Orleans with their plastic babies hidden inside, which makes me wonder...Saturn is the Roman version of Cronus, who famously swallowed all his children save one (Zeus) immediately after birth. Cutting him open to find them feels much more Brothers Grimm than mythological. Then again, being slavishly faithful to the original story and employing powerful emetics when serving dessert to one's guests does seem much less appetizing. Happy New Year, Jamie.

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