Andouillettes? You're just cooking it wrong!

[Beryl]

And I quote

" Their speciality is a sausage made of chitterlings: pigs intestines slipped one on top of the other, seasoned with salt and pepper, cured on a wood fire ( exclusively oak or beech are you reading this Chris Head?)and kept in a smokehouse for nine months.

Some of you may have turned up your noses already... but don't be put off: it's one of the rare delights that the devil himself would sell his soul for! When cooked slowly (3 - 4 hours in stock made with hay in the traditional way but we think you could use vegetable stock instead), it softens and sheds all the fat, and becomes so tender that it melts in you mouth".

So, now you know, it's obviously delicious and you are all just cooking it wrong! [:D]

[saddie]

I've only tried it in a resto - I thought that they would know how to cook it. still disgusting!

[Beryl]

Well it was an item in a French owned  Brit expat mag.....I think it is their revenge but they haven't converted me yet. I am proud of my non andouillette eating status.[:D]

[Chris Head]

You might be right Beryl, who knows? I'm omniverous but the only two foods I have any reservations about are Andouillette and lambs brains, I'll eat them, but not with enthusiasm.

Talking about smoking food, we've got a smoker but haven't used it much yet. The last experiment was a boned out chicken, it was fantastic.

[Cassis]

Nice one - I have tried andouille and andouillette in restos, cooked by a French bloke who swore I would love the way he cooked them and on another occasion cooked by an old French granny "the way they should be cooked".  In each case they were utterly and undeniably stomach-churning. 

Maybe it's one of those things you have to grow up with.  And possibly you need to be force-fed, as some kids round here whose dad is an "andy" lover reckon they are "degueullasse" (sp.). 

Now stop it - we're going to be eating soon.

[The Riff-Raff Element]

I really like them. Sorry. I tried to avoid them once when they were the plat du jour in a restaurant in Nantes (the Cigogne

if you are looking for somewhere to eat in that fine city) and the

waiter told us to take them on an approval basis - if we didn't like

them we could have something else. They were melt in the mouth

delicious. I have never looked back.

[Cassis]

How do you get past the SMELL, Jon? [blink]

[Beryl]

I have never eaten or wanted to eat tripe. My mother cooked it but didn't like it herself but it was cheap but as none of us liked it ( and thankfully there was always a grateful dog under the table) it wasn't on the menu very long.

It does seem as though ( in Brittany at least) as though the old dishes that should be consigned to history are still very popular for some reason.

 

Does it really smell that bad?

[Dick Smith]

Years ago I bought some and took them home to cook. I put them in the pan and a rich aroma filled the kitchen. I checked, there were no incontinent tramps in with me, the cats ran away so it wasn't them. I stood it for a few moments then I threw them (and the pan) out and cooked something Anglo-Saxon instead.

We once created a mini international incident by telling a local reporter (on an exchange trip) that we didn't completely embrace this local product with open hearts, and it was a major headline in the local rag, big fuss.

I have eaten with French people who demolished them with gusto. Do you think it is all an act?

[Beryl]

Perhaps its a way of proving your street cred?

In the UK some boast about the copious amounts they can drink etc... maybe 'enjoying' pigs intestines slipped on pigs intestines [+o(] is the French equivalent.

[Anton Redman]

I prefer them to tripe. Eat them in Courte Paile and the Normandy in Les Anderleys when ever I go so cannot be a question og gastronomic snobery - mind you I also enjoy haggis. 

[JayJay]

Have tried both & must admit, I nearly embarrassed myself.[+o(] There's never a bucket around when you need one! Have since been excused from eating them, but in my mind they smell like ...., they taste like .... & it's not surprising, they used to be full of ....!!!!

[Cassis]

Yes, JayJay.  My sentiments.  How come they retain the smell of poo despite all the processing and whatever? [+o(]

[Bugsy]

Here's a very old recipe I was given by an extremely old woman who lives down our lane.

1. Get a nice flat piece of sawn green oak about 40 x 10 cm (or one that will fit in your oven)

2. Lat out your freshly purchased Andouillette along the wood with no spaces between.

3. Cover them  completely with freshly picked bay leaves.

4. Smother them in pure, double virgin italian olive oil.

5. Place one or two garlic cloves randomly, to taste.

6. Sprinkle with tabasco and quickly cover everything with a double layer of tin-foil making sure that the edges are firmly sealed.

7. Pre-heat the oven to 200 degrees.

8. When fully hot quickly place the prepared dish into the middle shelf of the oven.

9. Cook for threequarters of an hour or until the smell of slightly burnt wood can be detected. (don't let it burn)

10. Remove from the oven carefully and allow to settle for five minutes.

11. Carefully remove the tinfoil, garlic, bay leaves and andouillette, and disguard.

12. Cut the warm green wood into meal-sized portions and serve, delicious.

 

[8-|][8-|]

 

 

[Cassis]

Are you sure it doesn't absorb anything from the andouillette?

[PeterG]

I state my case again............... Andouillette...........just say NO.....

[Just Katie]

One of the most gorey stories I have read on this forum with regards to food in France was posted by Chris the Head last summer where his mate bit into a gizzard and it was full of stale food[+o(]

[Mistral]

I've found the perfect way on cooking andouillettes. You do them on the barbecue. That way it's your husband ( the one who wants to eat the things anyway) who actually has to stand near them and cook them and the smell is dissipated into the atmosphere and not into the kitchen. While you sit at the other end of the garden and eat food that actually smells and tastes of food.

I'm proud to see that my kids have developed more British tastes at least where andouilletes are concerned. The whole of the French family love them.

[The Riff-Raff Element]

[quote user="Cassis"]How do you get past the SMELL, Jon? [blink]

[/quote]

I like it. I like most offal, though I can't see why anyone who wasn't a death's door would eat brains.

There are food smells that I cannot abide, some of them quite innocuous

to others. For example (and top of this particular pops) is....celery.

My idea of, well, not hell exactly, but certainly an undesirable

situation is to be served that kind of celery moose that some here in

France seem to favour.

[Patmobile]

LOVE andouillettes, can just about take that celeriac remoulade stuff - but would rather not, HATE beetroot.

The way to ruin any dish is to put nuts of any kind in it. 

Patrick

[Saint]

[quote user="Cassis"]Are you sure it doesn't absorb anything from the andouillette?
[/quote]

Sorry I had to comment on this one liner as it was priceless and I cant stop laughing....

[Saint]

[quote user="Patmobile"]LOVE andouillettes, can just about take that celeriac remoulade stuff - but would rather not, HATE beetroot.

The way to ruin any dish is to put nuts of any kind in it. 

Patrick
[/quote]

What about peanut butter...

[Chauffour]

what do you mean cook it?

do you have to cook it first? [8-)]

....now i get why it was a bit too chewy!!!!

 

 

[Saint]

Cooking tip,

Flush them down the toilet and cut out the middleman.

(caution, if you have a fosse sceptic it probably won't like them either, sceptics rarely like to try new things).

[Saint]

What is sushi all about, and you dont cook that....another one for the white disposal unit I am afraid....along with dead goldfish.