Discover Andouillerie de la Baleine

terroir for good food

Today, we’re in Gavray at l’Andouillerie de la Baleine, where Anne, the co-manager, welcomes us. “The premises are new, but the company has existed since 1950 under the same name”, Anne explains. In this store, various local products are on sale: andouille, of course, but also smoked ham and bacon, rack of ribs… It’s off for a gourmet visit, in the good smell of the delicate aroma that emanates from the Andouillerie.

Know-how ancestral

Noël, the charcutier, joins us for an hour’s visit. We learn that andouille as we know it today has been around since the Middle Ages, and the recipe hasn’t changed a bit! This delicatessen was particularly appreciated for its long shelf life and ease of transport, at a time when refrigerators and iceboxes had not yet been invented. Andouille is a flagship product of the Normandy region, and its smoky flavour can be found in many of our traditional recipes.

We arrive at a rack where andouilles in various stages of production hang. Here, Noël explains the steps involved in making andouille. The basic ingredients for andouille come from the pig’s digestive tract, mainly the intestines and stomachs, also known as “ventrée”. The first step is to clean and degrease the chowders and bellies, which are then generously salted.

Next comes the chowder assembly stage. The pieces of meat are hung between two rods to form skeins, which are then hung to be drained and seasoned (mainly with pepper). The future andouilles are left to macerate for a week to develop their full flavors. Noël shows us the second stage of preparation, which consists of slipping our skeins into natural pork gut before closing the ends with string. This manufacturing process is called enrobing.

The smoking room, the centerpiece of the process

For the moment, our andouille is just a blend of raw ventrée. Here comes the part that will give the andouille its full flavor: smoking. In this space, dozens of rows of andouilles mature quietly out of sight. Smoking lasts three weeks and is the decisive phase in the production process, giving the andouille its delicate flavor and beautiful black color. The hot smoker is fuelled by the beech wood traditionally used to smoke charcuterie.

You’d think the process would be over by now, but it’s not! They still need to be desalted to make them pleasant to eat, and cooked in water for 6 hours at 95°C to obtain a homogeneous texture with beautiful strips whose flesh varies from pale pink to bright pink, revealing the manual assembly and the different pieces used. It’s when it comes out of the pot, through oxidation with air, that the andouille acquires its definitive color.

After an hour’s informative tour highlighting the expertise of our artisan charcutiers, Noël now invites us into the store for a well-deserved tasting session. We pass the plates where thin slices of andouilles are presented, allowing us to appreciate the gustatory qualities of the finished product.