Chitterling Sausage

By corlear

Andouillettes de Troyes

The andouillette is one of the greats of French charcuterie. They are often made with the lacy membrane (chitterlings) of the calf mixed with the pork chitterlings. Since only the pork chitterlings are available in the United States, our recipe might be slightly different from the andouillettes you may have enjoyed in France. The andouillettes are normally poached slowly for a few hours to cook them. However, the pork casings available nowadays are very fragile and burst easily during cooking. Therefore, we have precooked the chitterlings before stuffing the casing to lower the cooking time and avoid too much bursting.

Ingredients

• 10 pounds cleaned raw pork chitterlings, fresh if possible
• hog casing prepared for stuffing
• 2 tablespoons sweet butter
• 12 shallots, peeled and chopped fine (3¼ cup)
• 1 onion, peeled and chopped fine (½ cup)
• ¼ pound fresh, firm mushrooms, cleaned and chopped fine (about ¾ cup)
• 2 ¼ tablespoons salt
• 1 ½ tablespoons (4 teaspoons) good French mustard
• 1 ½ teaspoons freshly ground black pepper
• 1 tablespoon freshly chopped parsley
• 1 cup dry white wine
• dry white wine
• chicken stock

Details

Servings 8

Preparation

Step 1

Place the cleaned chitterlings in a large kettle, cover with cold water, bring to a boil and simmer gently for 1½ hours. Drain the chitterlings in a colander. You will notice that they shrink considerably. When cold enough to handle, cut into 2-inch pieces.

Melt the butter, add the shallots and onion and cook for 4 to 5 minutes on low heat without allowing the mixture to brown. Add the mushrooms and cook for a few minutes until the liquid rendered by the mushrooms has all evaporated. Mix all the other ingredients except the casing with the pieces of chitterlings. Stuff the casing using a funnel with a broad opening. Tie the casing every 4 to 5 inches. You should have approximately 18 to 20 pieces.

Place the pieces flat in an oven roasting pan. Add the dry white wine and chicken stock in equal proportions, just enough to cover the andouillettes. Bring to 180° and continue poaching in an oven or on top of the stove at the same temperature for 1 hour. Be extra careful not to let the mixture boil or the andouillettes will burst. Let cool in the liquid overnight.

If some links have burst, you may restuff the pieces into casing and poach for 5 or 10 minutes to cook the casing. When cold, remove from the liquid (you can keep the liquid to use as stock or clarify it to make an aspic) and dry the andouillettes with a paper towel. Keep refrigerated until ready to use.

Use 2 andouillettes per person as a main dish or 1 as a first course. Melt about 1 teaspoon sweet butter per andouillette and brown in a small au gratin dish or skillet on very low fire until slightly browned. Deglaze with about ¼ cup dry white wine and place in a 425° oven for 6 to 8 minutes until piping hot. Serve immediately. The casings often break during the last step of cooking. This doesn’t change the taste of the dish, merely its appearance.