A recipe for homemade gendarme, a dry beef and pork sausage with caraway, cold-smoked and then pressed
Slipped into a bag for the road or sliced onto a piece of bread, gendarme goes anywhere. Its casing snaps, its firm meat combines beef and pork, and ground caraway gives it an aniseed note you recognize right away. Salted, spiced, smoked after drying, then pressed, it is reddish brown in color with a long, rectangular shape. To make it at home, you mainly need a cold smoker and a little patience.
What Is Gendarme Sausage?
Gendarme is a dried, smoked sausage (or, more precisely, a salami) made from lean beef and fatty pork belly. Its slightly square cross-section comes from being pressed between two boards after smoking.
Gendarmes are made in pairs, in lengths of about 20 cm.
A Sausage Made to Last
Gendarme is traditionally made in southern Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Alsace. This sausage was first and foremost designed to keep for a long time, thanks to drying and smoking.
Its reddish-brown color and firm texture made it a local specialty, easy to carry and ideal for long winters and travel.
The Main Ingredients in Gendarme Sausage
Lean beef (boneless short rib) and fatty pork belly make up the meat mixture. Choose good-quality cuts, since the texture and flavor depend on them.
The seasoning combines salt, pepper, caraway (or cumin), coriander, nutmeg and garlic, with a little sugar, saltpeter or curing salt, and a splash of full-bodied red wine. Prepare the spices at the last minute to preserve their aromas, especially the caraway, which brings the aniseed note.
Technical Pointers
Grind the meat evenly, then mix it vigorously with the spices to get a uniform, sticky mixture.
Stuff the casings carefully and tightly, avoiding air pockets: this is what gives gendarme its firm texture.
Stick to the drying and smoking times, which develop the flavors and help preserve the sausages. The final pressing then gives gendarmes their characteristic shape.
Recipe originally from the site cochonetleboeuf and found on the website of the association “Les amoureux de la Charcuterie Maison”
Equipment
- 1 kg beech sawdust or wood chips depending on the quantity
Ingredients
- 700 g boneless beef short rib, not too fatty
- 300 g fatty pork belly
- 25 g salt
- 4 g ground pepper or freshly cracked black pepper
- 4 g caraway or freshly ground cumin seeds
- 1 g sugar
- 0.5 g saltpeter or replace the salt with half nitrite curing salt and half regular salt
- 1 g coriander freshly ground
- 1 g nutmeg freshly grated
- 3 g fresh garlic, germ removed, or garlic powder
- 25 ml red wine full-bodied
- Hog casings 42/44 mm or 44/46 mm
Instructions
- Soak the casings in water the day before.
- Carefully go over the meat, removing all the small bones, cartilage and sinew, then cut it into strips so it goes through the grinder more easily. Refrigerate until needed.
- Make the seasoning by mixing the salt, pepper, caraway or cumin, sugar, saltpeter, coriander, nutmeg and the garlic, either put through a garlic press or powdered, then pour the wine into a separate glass. Set aside.
- Grind the meat into a large bowl through a 4.5 mm plate, alternating beef and pork.
- Sprinkle the spices over the ground meat and mix vigorously to get an even mixture. Add the wine at the end and mix again until the mixture is completely uniform and sticky.
- Fill the sausage stuffer, packing it down well to avoid air pockets.
- Stuff the casings gently and tightly, then mark off 20 cm lengths.
- Once all the stuffing is done, cut the gendarmes into pairs and hang them to dry for two days before smoking.
- On smoking day, place them in the smoker and cold-smoke with a gentle draft for 8 hours.
- The next day, lay the gendarmes flat and press them between two boards for a day to give them their typical, slightly square shape.
