{"id":203373,"title":"Homemade Gendarme Sausage","modified":"2026-11-04T14:58:50+01:00","plain":"A recipe for homemade gendarme, a dry beef and pork sausage with caraway, cold-smoked and then pressed\n\n\n\nSlipped 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.\n\n\n\nWhat Is Gendarme Sausage?\n\n\n\nGendarme 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.\n\n\n\nGendarmes are made in pairs, in lengths of about 20 cm.\n\n\n\nAlso check out the recipe for Alsatian cervelas\n\n\n\nA Sausage Made to Last\n\n\n\nGendarme 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.\n\n\n\nIts reddish-brown color and firm texture made it a local specialty, easy to carry and ideal for long winters and travel.\n\n\n\nIf you like bold flavors, you’ll love the chorizo recipe\n\n\n\nThe Main Ingredients in Gendarme Sausage\n\n\n\nLean 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.\n\n\n\nThe 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.\n\n\n\nTechnical Pointers\n\n\n\nGrind the meat evenly, then mix it vigorously with the spices to get a uniform, sticky mixture.\n\n\n\nB\u00e9rets basques are much easier to make than traditional salamis\n\n\n\nStuff the casings carefully and tightly, avoiding air pockets: this is what gives gendarme its firm texture.\n\n\n\nStick to the drying and smoking times, which develop the flavors and help preserve the sausages. The final pressing then gives gendarmes their characteristic shape.\n\n\n\nRecipe originally from the site cochonetleboeuf  and found on the website of the association \u201cLes amoureux de la Charcuterie Maison\u201d\n\n\n\n\n\n\tHomemade Gendarme Sausage\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\n\t\tkg beech sawdust or wood chips\t\n\t\n\t\t700 g boneless beef short rib, not too fatty300 g fatty pork belly25 g salt4 g ground pepper (or freshly cracked black pepper)4 g caraway (or freshly ground cumin seeds)1 g sugar0.5 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 powder25 ml red wine (full-bodied)Hog casings 42\/44 mm or 44\/46 mm\t\n\t\n\t\tSoak 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.\t\n\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\n\t\tSaucissonsAllemande, Fran\u00e7aise","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/marcwiner.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/203373","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/marcwiner.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/marcwiner.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marcwiner.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marcwiner.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=203373"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/marcwiner.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/203373\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marcwiner.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/202154"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/marcwiner.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=203373"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marcwiner.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=203373"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marcwiner.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=203373"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}