Bottle for secondary fermentation
Champagne’s traditional-method bottle holds wine through its second fermentation and subsequent maturation on lees. At tirage it has a crown cap and internal insert; bottle formats and specifications vary.
Equipment · Fruit deseeding tools
Prepared goose quill
Plume d’oie taillée en biseau
A goose feather cut at a bevel and soaked before use, its hollow shaft guiding currant pips out one by one while the berry remains whole.
A feather prepared to deseed currants
The prepared goose quill is a feather tool used in Bar-le-Duc to remove pips from currants for the town's distinctive whole-fruit preserve. Its working end is a small bevel cut across the hollow feather shaft. That matters because this is not a conventional quill pen: it is a hollow, feather-shaped implement whose tapered end makes a fine incision and whose channel receives the pips as they are drawn out.
The method is designed to keep each currant recognizable rather than turn the fruit into pulp or strain out its seeds after crushing. The operator works berry by berry, removing the pips while leaving the skin and flesh substantially intact. The feather is therefore a precise tool for a narrowly defined task, not a general-purpose spoon, knife or strainer.
Bevel, soak and hollow shaft
Before work begins, the feather is cut at a bevel and soaked in water; no soak duration or water temperature is defined. During deseeding, one hand steadies an individual currant while the other guides the prepared tip into its skin. Pips are eased out one at a time and slide through the hollow shaft; the flap of skin can then be laid back over the small opening. The sequence preserves the berry's form and texture.
The operation depends on a careful touch, not leverage or speed. A regional guide compares about an hour and a half per kilogram for an experienced worker with fifteen hours for a novice. Those figures illustrate the skill and labor required in the local process; they are not a guaranteed rate for every worker, fruit or tool. A press, sieve or kitchen knife would not do the same job without changing how the fruit is opened or handled.
A living Bar-le-Duc technique
The documented modern practice is at Maison Dutriez in Bar-le-Duc, in the Meuse department of France. The earliest date associated with the confection is 1344, and local heritage tradition describes the goose-quill method as unchanged since the fourteenth century. That date is for the preserve and its method, not an individually dated feather; it does not establish that today's tool is identical in every detail to one used then.
The technique does not specify a standard quill length or diameter, feather supplier, or after-use cleaning and storage routine. It does describe soaking the bevel-cut feather before use. The documented role is hand removal of pips from individual currants in this Bar-le-Duc preserve tradition; the item is not established here as a general-purpose tool for other fruits or regions.
History
Local heritage accounts date the earliest mention of Bar-le-Duc currant preserve to 1344 and describe the goose-quill deseeding method as unchanged since the fourteenth century. This is a claim about the preserve and its technique, not a surviving feather or a direct 1344 record naming this tool. The prepared quill is documented in present-day use at Bar-le-Duc by Maison Dutriez.
Equipment details
SizeThe sources inspected do not give a standard length or diameter for the feather tool.
PowerHand or animal power The operator holds and moves the quill by hand while stabilizing each currant; no powered mechanism is described.
How you get oneNot established The material is a goose feather, but the sources do not identify a current supplier, maker or route for obtaining a prepared quill.
CareThe producer describes cutting the feather at a bevel and soaking it in water before use. The sources do not specify a soak duration, water temperature, or after-use cleaning and storage routine.
Made of
- Goose feather with a hollow shaft — Tool body
The shaft is cut at a bevel to form the working end. No species beyond goose, standard length or diameter is specified.
Limits
This is a precision hand tool used on currants one at a time, not a bulk seed screen or a mechanical destoner. A local heritage guide gives example processing times of about 1.5 hours per kilogram for an experienced worker and 15 hours for a novice; these are not universal performance specifications.
Source →The sources identify no standard feather length, diameter or maker, and the historical date applies to local preserve tradition rather than an individually dated quill.
Source →Places
Bar-le-Duc
Documented use · Locality evidenceCurrent use is documented at the Maison Dutriez in Bar-le-Duc. The date 1344 applies to local preserve history and does not independently date the feather tool.
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Sources
Maison DutriezEquipment · Method · History
Le caviar de Bar-le-DucThe quill is cut at a bevel and soaked in water before use.
The operator removes currant pips one by one, sliding them through the hollow feather shaft; the berry incision is covered again with a flap of skin.
The producer dates the earliest known mention of Bar-le-Duc preserves to 1344 and claims the process has not changed since then.
Cited in: A feather prepared to deseed currants; Bevel, soak and hollow shaft; A living Bar-le-Duc technique
Meuse AttractivitéEquipment · Method · Geography
À la Lorraine - Maison DutriezThe goose feather is cut at a bevel, and the worker uses it to open the berry and remove its pips without destroying the fruit's form.
The regional tourism record places the current Maison Dutriez at Bar-le-Duc and says the local process dates from the fourteenth century.
The page gives a local estimate of about 1.5 hours per kilogram for an experienced worker and 15 hours for a novice; these are examples, not universal rates.
Cited in: A feather prepared to deseed currants; Bevel, soak and hollow shaft; A living Bar-le-Duc technique
Musée barrois, presented by Meuse Grand SudEquipment · Method · History
Pot de confiture de groseilles avec son couvercle (Juin 2026)The museum's June 2026 object entry says the Bar-le-Duc currants are deseeded with a bevel-cut goose feather and describes this as requiring care and patience.
It reports the town's preserve history from 1344 while distinguishing the modern Maison Dutriez as the remaining family producer.
Cited in: Bevel, soak and hollow shaft; A living Bar-le-Duc technique
La Dépêche du Midi; Jean-Christophe Verhaegen / AFPEquipment · Method · Image
La confiture de groseilles de Bar-le-Duc: une friandise de luxe faite à la plume d'oieThe article's attributed photograph shows Anne Dutriez holding a goose quill to remove pips from a currant, while its caption describes preserving the berry.
The article reports that this hand movement takes practice and distinguishes a reported origin story from established historical fact.
Cited in: A feather prepared to deseed currants