rhon

The man behind the counter in the boucherie picked up the coil of saucisse de Toulouse and held up a length for my approval. I nodded even though I was not sure it would be the 300 grams I had requested. With a deft twist, 308 gr landed on the scales, and once again I was impressed by the accuracy shown.

On the long flight home to Australia, I had plenty of time to reflect on our recent trip to France. Food is one of the many reasons people travel to France. The best restaurant, the best croissant, best croque monsieur, best duck confit, best this or that, but best saucisse de Toulouse? Non! I can feel fairly confident in saying that sausages are not high on the list of ' must try' foods for most people. After all, sausages are humble food arising out of a need to use up bits that would otherwise be discarded. However, if you travel as we do and stay in self catering for ten weeks and do not have a budget that allows several meals out each week, the variety of sausages available are a welcome addition to our culinary repertoire. That sounds grander than it is in reality.

High on our list are Morteau and Montbeliard, the wonderful smoked sausages from the Jura. Thick slices of Morteau on top of veges cooked in the same pot - onion, carrot, potato and sweet little navets - a drizzle of olive oil, a grind of black pepper, a dollop of mustard and you have a simple but satisfying meal on a cold night. Boudin blanc are another favourite, although other than supermarket offerings, we found them more difficult to find this time.

In the Bearn region of south west France we came across large bowls of a congealed mass of saucisses confites. Originally a simple fresh pork sausage, the confit process cooks them and the end result is a sausage that is much firmer than if it had been simply cooked fresh. They were very nice with braised red cabbage and apple.

We missed out on duck sausages this time. They were all gone when we went back to get some. But we did find some smoked chicken sausages which were delicately smoked and lighter in taste texture than other smoked sausages such as the ones from the Jura. A relative newcomer to the party, or perhaps I should say barbie, is the Merguez, that warm, spicy sausage of North African origins and now available everywhere. Very nice with a simple salad.

We always have a dry saucisson in the pantry. It makes a good sandwich with the cheese of your choice. Sliced thinly, it is a tasty accompaniment to the afternoon apero, and chopped and added with goats cheese and maybe some croutons from yesterday's baguette to a salade composee, resulted in some pleasant lunches with a glass of wine on the terraces of our various gites.

I have watched episodes of Les Carnets de Julie where she arrives at a farm in la France profonde as the family is whipping up a batch of boudin noir. I will admit to feeling slightly queasy as the farmer tasted the mix for seasoning and I think Julie may have baulked at that. However, if you can move past that, boudin noir are quite nice. Once again in the south west, we bought a piece of a larger boudin de viande which apparently has meat in as well. Whatever boudin though, our favourite side is potato and lots of sauteed apple.

And now we come to the one that probably does not make anyone's ' must try ' list- the andouillette. They are an acquired taste, not for me, but judging by the ready availability in boucheries and supermarkets, they do have a following and P includes himself in this group. In fact on a previous trip he had it as a main course in a restaurant in Burgundy, and not just any old andouillette, rather the AAAAA Andouillette de Reims !

We had an excellent boucherie- charcuterie- traiteur in the small village near our gite in the Cantal recently and we were regular customers during our two week stay. As we were enjoying a fricandeau ( a small pate de campagne ) and salad for dinner on a warm Cantal evening, P said thoughtfully. " If I had andouillette one night, what would you have? " Why, saucisse de Toulouse s'il vous plait.
And we did.

tomboy

Darn you, rhon.

Reading your post, I drooled all over my keyboard, and it shorted out.

Luckily, the audio still works, so: thanks for your delightful post, that brings back fond memories of taste delights!!!

Coquelicot

Rhon, you're making me hungry and bringing back memories. Food is such an important part of our travels to France. The quality of what we can buy at home is much lower than in France. And of course I'm not as good a cook, either!

Paqngo

Rhon, Food is such a wonderful part of traveling. Thank you for making me hungry for the sausage and for travel.

kerouac

It's very true that sausages are taken quite seriously in France, even the humble saucisse de Strasbourg (frankfurter to English speakers).

bilboburgler

I avoided andouillette for a fair few years in my youth until finally I ate in a restaurant in Chablis that sits over a stream. The choice was limited to soe gizard thing and the andouillette so I plumped for the wonders. Hard to look back and think of all those wasted years. Even now, as a mainly vegetarian I still am tempted. Boudin Blanc on the other hand, why, when the Noir can be had would you choose Blanc?

kerouac

Boudin blanc is a heresy.
I have learned not to promote andouillette to heathens. I prefer to reserve my andouillette discussion time to fellow gourmets.

hetismij2

I have already admitted to being a heathen, having no desire to visit Paris, but having tried andouillette a few times I can say it is not a taste I have acquired, thereby confirming my status.
However we have enjoyed many different sausages during our French trips.
A lovely description of them and the meals you made with them, rhon. Thank you.

annhig

Thanks very much for this thread, Rhon, which is no less than a pion of praise to the not so humble sausage.

I have to say that I haven't sampled anything like as many as you, but by coincidence we ate Toulouse sausage [albeit made in Cornwall] last week and it was very good. Whilst probably not entirely authentic it did at least have the advantage of very few food miles having been made by a local farmer from his own pigs. And there are plenty of good local sausages too, from standard butcher's sausages in many varieties, to black pudding and its Cornish relative hog's pudding which is a white alternative.

What I've not seen here, and for which I expect there would be little appetite is andouillette. We will leave that to you gourmets, kerouac.

kerouac

I have not yet ever found an English person who likes andouillette. Scots might have a better chance since they eat haggis.

bilboburgler

ehhm.

zebec

'Reading your post, I drooled all over my keyboard, and it shorted out.'
Yo TB---outstanding!
Rhon, your foodic descriptions are so thorough that they out to be in a Fodors pinned post for French food.

I am done. the grumbling stomach

gooster

Excellent post... but I do think my mind drifted at the mention of saucisse de Toulouse to a grand cassoulet. ahhh......

cheska15

rhon. I like the saucisse de Toulouse too, although my husband isn’t that keen. I did have some really nice chicken ones purchased at the Saturday market in Arras last week. Along with a lovely salad, and bottle of wine on the terrace of our hotel room. Oh and rhubarb tart for me and apricot for my husband.

Jackie44

My husband, who will eat just about anything once, ordered the andouillette at a "white van" restaurant in Lourmarin. He really tried to like it but it is visually very off-putting. He ate about a third of it and then shared my hamburger.

rhon

Thank you for your kind comments. One of the things we enjoy about self catering is being able to have what we feel like eating. So if we feel like boudin noir and lots of apple, we can have it. We do not have to wait until we find it on a menu. And as for boudin blanc, it is all about variety for us and trying things we do not get at home and this was one. I think we had it once on this trip but the others a lot more. Of course we get black pudding here and I have no doubt we could find andouillette in Australia but not in the provincial city where we live. Maybe a good excuse for one more trip so P can have it again!!
It was not until I was thinking about our trip that I realised that sausages figured regularly. Because they are so different from each other that it does not feel as though you are having the same thing. And there are others I have not mentioned that we did not have but have done in the past.

Happy eating!

lavandula

Yum! What is on the menu for tomorrow?

Lavandula

bilboburgler

I once toured Normandy with my father. We ate at a shared table in a restaurant and since madam across the table was deeply attractive he decided to eat what she was having (!), my father would eat anything but he found Tripe Normand a trifle overpowering.

Coquelicot

Yesterday my husband detoured by the Italian grocery to pick up some of their house-made sausages. Coincidence? No, I think he read my mind.

kerouac

I was always amused when my Swiss friends would bring me sausages (and yes, chocolate) every time they visited. Their sausages were fine if a bit bland, but they seemed to think they were superior to what we have in France. I chose to never start a discussion about that. After all, free sausages!