The rebirth of "Gros Jacquot Blanc

Pulses are back in the spotlight for their nutritional and economic benefits. A godsend for the Soissons bean, which had almost been erased from the Aisne's agricultural and culinary heritage.

Philippe Toinard Published on 11/18/25 at 5:00 PM

some of France's white beans, such as haricot tarbais, mogette de Vendée, coco de Paimpol and haricot lingot de Castelnaudaryde Vendée, the coco de Paimpol or the haricot lingot de Castelnaudary, a component of cassoulet, which obtained an IGP in 2020 after... 19 years of waiting. This record will be beaten in 2023 by the Soissons bean, for which an application was submitted in 2003. Twenty years of patience for a handful of producers, defenders of the largest of beans who had joined the cohort of forgotten ones: the Comtesse de Chambord bean, the cornille or the coco de Pamiers.

From agony to consecration

At the beginning of the 20th century, Soissons bean production was sluggish. A handful of farmers and individuals continued to plant them to meet meager demand. Yet the bean is as much a symbol of Soissons as the vase or Clovis, and we know for a fact that it has been grown in its birthplace in the Ailette valley for at least 200 years. Over the decades, in a department where livestock breeding and field crops have taken precedence over other forms of production, it has become increasingly difficult to find. so much so, that by the end of the 20th century, the "gros jacquot blanc" had become a bean-shaped confection with a melting caramel heart wrapped in dark chocolate or nougatine coated in white chocolate. An elected official from Soissons took matters into her own hands. She created the gastronomic confrérie des compagnons du haricot de Soissons, and in 2003, the Soissons Bean Cooperative was born. Only a few dozen people believed in the project, and the way it worked was simple. The cooperative owns the seed, and the growers plant, harvest, dehull and dry the beans before delivering them to the cooperative, which grades, sorts and sells them.

Tiny surfaces

Of the forty or so pioneers of the revival, today only 18 are members of the cooperative. The bean's fate hangs by a thread. The reason: uneven production spread over ten hectares, 14.4 tonnes in 2019 but only 7 the previous year. The current president of the cooperative, Géraldine Toupet, a grower in Parcy-et-Tigny, believes in it like a rock, even though she knows that this is not the way to make a living. It's a supplementary income, like that of Benoit Vandenbussche in Beugneux, who has a few ares in the middle of his wheat, beet, barley and rapeseed fields. And it's more or less the same for all the growers who devote 500 hours of work per hectare per year on small surfaces, because the Soissons bean doesn't require much space on the ground. The reason? It's a vine that grows to over 2 metres.

From spring to winter

For growers, it all starts with sowing at the end of April in soil that's neither too acidic nor too chalky. Then it's time to install the stakes and staple nets to them. A few weeks later, the plant will naturally cling to the net and climb up. Summer is the time for weeding between the rows and at the foot of each plant. At the end of September, the grower cuts the plants to stop the sap from rising. The pods are then formed. As the weeks go by, the foliage changes color from green to yellow, and the pods dry out without falling off. All that's left is to harvest by hand when the weather's fine. If it starts raining, the moisture content of the pods becomes too high, making drying more complicated. Placed in paloxes, the pods are transported to a dry area before being put through a shelling machine.

at this stage, the moisture content is between 20 and 30%. Drying is essential to bring the level down to between 15 and 16%. Once this figure has been reached, the beans are sent to Ferme de Vauxrains in Vaudesson, where they are graded and sorted. In the first stage, the small beans (the required minimum size is 17 mm) are discarded and fed to the livestock. The right sizes are then sorted by hand. Yellow, broken, stained and crumpled beans are not retained. Of those that survive, the first part is bagged in 250 g or 500 g packs, the second is sent to a canner who prepares them to be reheated or eaten cold. Finally, a third part is sold in bulk to processors who create their own recipes.

Is the Soissons bean saved? Not totally, despite the recent PGI, even if its future is much brighter than at the beginning of the century, thanks to the recent craze for legumes and the restaurateurs and grocery stores who are putting it back on the map.