Food

Saucisson Vaudois (Smoked Vaud Sausage)

Pork · Sausage · Smoked Foods · Swiss

Saucisson Vaudois (Smoked Vaud Sausage)
Prep 1 hour, plus 1 day drying
Cook 1–2 days cold smoking, then 1 hour poaching to serve
Serves About 6 lb / 2.7 kg — six sausages of about 400 g
Level Medium

Saucisson vaudois is the big smoked pork sausage of the canton of Vaud, on Lake Geneva: coarse pork and pork fat, salt and pepper, often garlic, coriander and white wine, stuffed into a wide natural pork casing, cold-smoked, and sold raw. The cook finishes it by poaching it gently — never boiling — usually on top of papet vaudois, a slow stew of leeks and potatoes. That is the diagnostic: a raw, smoked sausage that is neither a dried salami nor a ready-to-eat frankfurter, but something you cook for dinner, like a Polish kielbasa that has only been smoked. It is a product of a dairy country: pigs were fattened on the whey left from cheesemaking. The name has been a Swiss IGP since 2004, which requires the sausage to be made in Vaud from Swiss pork, smoked for at least 24 hours with no chemical colouring, and cooked at no more than 75 °C. A home version cannot carry the name; this one follows the rules otherwise, and adds a measured cure because the cold smoke runs at room temperature. I have not made this one yet; the formula is built from the Saucisson vaudois IGP rules and Swiss culinary-heritage descriptions, and is untested.

Ingredients

MEAT BLOCK (2,270 g / 5 lb), % of meat weight

  • 1476 g (3 lb 4 oz) lean pork shoulder and ham trimmings — 65%
  • 794 g (1 lb 12 oz) pork back fat and belly fat (lard) — 35%

CURE AND SEASONING (% of meat weight)

  • 5.7 g Cure #1 (pink salt, 6.25% sodium nitrite) — 2.5 g/kg x 2.27 kg = 5.7 g; 2.5 g/kg x 6.25% = 156 ppm ingoing nitrite, the USDA ceiling for comminuted products
  • 50 g fine salt (in addition to the cure) (2.2%)
  • 6.8 g sugar (0.3%)
  • 6.8 g black pepper, coarsely cracked (0.3%)
  • 4.5 g garlic, crushed (0.2%)
  • 2.3 g ground coriander (0.1%)
  • 45 g dry Swiss or other white wine (Chasselas if you can get it) (2%)
  • 55–60 mm hog bung or large pork casing (or 60 mm fibrous), cut in 25 cm (10 in) lengths; butcher’s twine

Directions

Key ingredients

Black Pepper

  1. In the collection: pork, wine and smoke. Its sister in the same canton is Boutefas (Vaud Smoked Caecum Sausage), the same mix in a bigger gut. The collection’s Polish Sausage is the closest smoked cooking sausage in spirit.
  2. Grind: chill meat and fat hard and grind through a 6–8 mm plate. The IGP describes a “regular granulation” with pink-red meat and visible fat, so keep it coarse and keep the fat cold enough to stay in distinct pieces.
  3. Mix: dissolve the cure, salt and sugar in the wine, add with the spices, and mix 2–3 minutes until sticky. The bind holds the slices together once it is cooked.
  4. Taste: fry a spoonful to 71 °C. It should be well salted, peppery, with garlic in the background.
  5. Stuff: fill the casings firmly, without air, and tie each into a sausage of about 400 g, 15–20 cm long. Prick out air pockets.
  6. Dry and redden: hang at 10–15 °C / 50–59 °F for 12–24 hours until the casing is dry and the meat has turned pink through the casing. The cure needs that time to work before smoke.
  7. Cold smoke: smoke over beech or mixed hardwood sawdust at 18–22 °C / 64–72 °F, below 22 °C, for 24–48 hours in sessions. The IGP minimum is 24 hours. Warmer smoke on a raw sausage is the failure point: fat softens and drips and the inside sits too warm for too long.
  8. Store: refrigerate. Treat it as raw meat; it keeps about two weeks and freezes well.
  9. Cook to serve — never boil: lay it on simmering papet (or in a pot of water) held at 75–80 °C / 167–176 °F and cook 50–60 minutes, until the centre reaches 71 °C / 160 °F. The IGP says no hotter than 75 °C for 45–50 minutes; a little longer is needed to reach the US temperature. Boiling splits the casing and the fat runs out.
  10. Papet vaudois: sweat 1 kg sliced leeks in butter, add 600 g diced waxy potatoes, a splash of white wine and stock to barely cover, season, lay the saucisson on top, cover and cook gently for the hour. Slice the sausage thick over the leeks.

Notes

Where this recipe came from — and what it isn’t. The rules come from the Swiss AOP-IGP association’s summary of the Saucisson vaudois IGP (registered 11 October 2004) and the Swiss culinary heritage inventory: pork meat and fat; salt and pepper as the base; garlic, coriander, wine lees and white wine permitted; natural pork casing; cold-smoked over sawdust, chips or logs for at least 24 hours; no chemical colouring; about 400 g, 50–65 mm across and 15–20 cm long; cooked by the buyer at no more than 75 °C for 45–50 minutes. Pigs must be at least 140 days old and 75 kg. Deviations: (1) none of those sources give a nitrite figure, so Cure #1 is added at 156 ppm because a raw sausage spends a day or two at room temperature in the smoke; (2) the 65/35 lean-to-fat split is borrowed from the Boutefas AOP, its sister product, since the saucisson rules give no ratio; (3) the cooking runs a little longer and hotter to reach 71 °C. Untested.

Where saucisson vaudois came from. The Vaud sources trace the habit of smoking pork for keeping to the Middle Ages and tie the canton’s pig-keeping to its dairies, which fed whey to pigs. By the nineteenth century Vaud was known for its charcuterie. The saucisson’s sister products are the saucisse aux choux vaudoise (with cabbage, also IGP) and the boutefas (in the caecum, AOP since 2021). The cantonal association, Charcuterie Vaudoise, manages the names. More than 1,000 tonnes a year of IGP saucisson vaudois are made.

Why poach, not boil. A raw smoked sausage with a lot of fat breaks and loses its juice if the water boils; the IGP’s 75 °C ceiling is that rule written into law. Poaching on the papet lets the sausage’s fat and smoke flavour the leeks.

Variations. With wine lees; with more garlic; the dried version, which is eaten raw after long drying (not attempted here); the saucisse aux choux with cooked cabbage in the mix.

Sourcing and gear. Hog bungs or large hog “middles” from sausage suppliers; 60 mm fibrous casing is the easy substitute but is not traditional. A cold-smoke generator in a smoker in a cool garage or a winter day keeps the smoke below 22 °C.

Still open. The full IGP specification (cahier des charges) with its fat limits and salt figures has not been read; Vaud butchers’ spice weights are not published.

Read more on the site. The German Tradition