Wednesday, January 4th, 2012
CHARCUTERIE
Boucherie La Farandole
ARLES
11 Rue des Porcelets
13200 Arles
04 90 96 01 12
www.maisongenin.com
I’m in luck arriving into this shrine to the temptations of flesh on a Wednesday – the only day in the week when genial Bernard Genin makes saucissons d’Arles. This medium-sized salami which has been an Arles speciality since the 17th century has been made by the Genin family since their butcher’s shop first opened in 1877, with a shrewd great-great-grandmother registering them under the name of the local dance ‘La Farandole’ right from day one.
‘The secret,’ explains Monsieur Genin, shoving his meaty mixture into an interminable sausage skin, ‘is that, unlike other salamis which are based on pork, this one is 50% very lean beef and the balance pork – mainly lean but with a proportion of little lardons. It’s flavoured with garlic, pepper and red wine.’ Here you see him in the cellar beneath the shop, where the saucissons hang for about two months until they have dried all the way through to the centre, shrinking dramatically.
As demand for these famous sausages is high and each Wednesday’s efforts produce only about a hundred, they are sold only here in the shop. Worth a detour, and you’re unlikely to forget the address: rue des Porcelets is piglets’ street. They’ll keep in the fridge for about a month.
