Food for Thought – Andouille de Vire

This “delightful” pork sausage comes from the northeast corner of France, in a town called Vire. The word Andouille in French is a term used to call someone stupid, but according to the chef the word is used as a term of endearment, not as harsh as calling someone stupid in English. How this word became connected to this type of sausage is another story.

A slice of this smoked sausage reveals rings similar to that of a tree. These rings are made by stuffing 12 inch stripes of pork intestine, one by one, inside each other. How does it taste? I would say it has an earthy, smoked intestine taste which lingers after swallowing, long enough for your mind to formulate rather impressive images of pigs and their intestinal track.