Strange ‘cheeses’ from Meusnes

Thursday morning we had several errands to do. The first was a trip to the vet's to get some products and pills for Bertie and Callie. The second was to buy some wine. Since the vet's office is across the river in Noyers-sur-Cher, I told Walt that, for a change, we should go to the Domaine Michaud winery over there to have our wine jugs filled with Gamay and Cabernet red wines. I'd only been to Michaud's once before.

It turns out that there's a whole world over there — okay, just a village — that we hadn't discovered until recently. It's called Les Martinières, and it's a neighborhood — a hamlet, or hameau, sort of like the one we live in. It's five miles due east of our house, and it's very picturesque, with roads and streets winding among traditional-style local houses and buildings. Les Martinières is a wine village surrounded by vineyards, with three or four wineries in operation. It's a little off the beaten path. Monsieur Michaud's wine is excellent.

Bernard Chiquet prepares and sells "naturally good" hams and sausages in Meusnes, near Saint-Aignan.
Notice the address: "the street of sighs."

Across the Cher River from Les Martinières, via the bridge at Châtillon-sur-Cher, is the village of Meusnes. (I'm getting to the point.) It's a pretty drive that takes you over bridges across the Canal du Berry, the Cher River, the Fouzon River, and the wide, flat river valley. In Meusnes, there's a good bakery, a beautiful old church, and a fine butcher/delicatessen shop — une boucherie/charcuterie — that I first heard of about five years ago.

Standard French sausages: clockwise from the top — merguez (spicy lamb sausages);
saucisses de Toulouse (fresh pork, not ground but chopped with a knife);
boudins noirs (blood sausages, a.k.a. black pudding);
and saucisses fumées (smoked pork sausages).

I'd only been to Bernard Chiquet's shop once before, years ago. But I was curious to visit again, especially since good weather was predicted for a weekend, and it seemed this would be a good opportunity to do some barbecuing. What to cook on the grill? Sausages, that's what. The good, standard French sausages, de préférence.

Strange "cheeses" in a pork butcher's shop...

After I had picked out some sausages — some to cook, others to put in the freezer for cooking later — I noticed some unusual looking products on the top of the display counter. Were they cheeses? I was examining them with great puzzlement when Madame Chiquet finished weighing and wrapping the sausages I had selected.

The first one that caught my eye was something called « Le Palet-Côt », which looked for all the world like a local Selles-sur-Cher goat cheese. « Qu'est-ce que c'est ? », I asked.

...are not cheeses at all, but hard dry sausages.

« En fait, c'est du saucisson sec, Monsieur. » , Madame Chiquet told me. « Et vous savez ce que c'est que le côt, n'est-ce pas ? » Yes, I know the word Côt — it's the local name for the grape that elsewhere is called Malbec. She proceeded to show and describe to me all the different hard, dry sausages — salamis — that she and her husband make. Most looked like your standard saucissons secs.

A close-up of the Palet-Côt saucisson, a hard salami made with pork, beef, hazelnuts, and red wine

Another one, however, looked like a Valençay-style goat cheese — the truncated pyramid of a cheese that is coated with black wood ash. Only this "cheese" was called « Le Cananard », and the coating was a layer of coarsely crushed black peppercorns. The meat turns out to be a mixture of pork and duck — canard in French. I should have asked for more information about the made-up word « cananard ».

Saint-Aignan, Noyers, Châtillon, and Meusnes

These were too funny not to buy, and they are very good with a glass of wine at apéritif time. Hard sausage is something you often get served with apéritifs — pre-dinner drinks — in France, but not this kind.