Smoked Meats and Andouilles

Every farmer family used to breed a few pigs in the Vosges Mountains, most often with whey from cheeses and cereals cultivated on the farm. The best way to keep meats and delicatessen involved hanging them in the great chimney, to smoke them slowly with a large wood stove filled with pine tree and beech. Today this family tradition continues, and some modern breeding farms even propose such smoked products in direct selling – but they are mostly found at the butcher’s and in farmhouse-inns. South of the Park, in the towns of Val d’Ajol and Fougerolles, a delicatessen tradition involving slightly smoked meats, tripe and pork is called Andouille from Val d’Ajol. The Gandoyau, of a larger diameter, uses the same ingredients as the Andouille. The Confrérie des Taste-Andouilles et Gandoyaux du Val d’Ajol (Val d’Ajol Andouille and Gandoyaux Fellowship) maintains this tradition. The Andouille Fair, held on the third Monday of February each year, was listed in the “Sites du Goût” inventory by the “Conseil national des Arts Culinaires” (National Council for Culinary Arts).