Meat, sausages, cured meats and speciality dishes

Along with cheese and honey, charcuterie is the third pillar of mountain gastronomy, with its salted meats (especially mountain sausages), quality cuts and recipes for rich winter dishes to fight off the cold… and to enjoy sharing!

Until recently, all families would “cook the pig” during the winter: that is to say, they would kill one or more pigs and make home-made sausages. 

On the first day, blood sausage is prepared, with or without onions. Its preparation requires a perfect knowledge of how to cook the ingredients in hot water. The cleaning out the sausage casing is the most thankless task, but they will be used for the next day. 

On the second day, everyone is busy preparing pâtés, white and liver sausages and scratching with finely chopped garlic. Then they salt the hams, the sausages and the “canssalade” (our Couseran bacon prepared with salted, peppered and garlic belly).

It’s a real team effort, often coordinated by the grannies of the family who practice the famous “a visto de nas” (meaning that they use their own intuition, rather than following measurements and recipes!).  

Many delicatessens still cook these recipes that have been passed down over the years. However, delicatessens are always developing new recipes, too, such as the deer sausage – a pure delight – or the Espelette chilli sausage. You can find Ariège charcuterie in all the local shops, or at the weekly markets held in the villages of the Couserans.