Producers

A Seventh Ward institution since 1899, when Levinsky Vaucresson left the French butcher trade for New Orleans and started selling sausage out of his shop. His son Robert grew the business from a stall at the St. Bernard Market in the 1930s. Vance Vaucresson, the third generation, is still pushing pork through the stuffer — the family chaurice in particular: coarse pork, a heavy hand of cayenne and paprika, garlic, parsley, smoked over pecan. The shop on St. Bernard Avenue closed for fifteen years after Katrina flooded the building. The Vaucressons rebuilt and reopened as Vaucresson's Creole Cafe & Deli in October 2022, hot sausage po'boys back on the counter.

A century-old salumi shop on Eighth Avenue, opened in 1925 by two friends from the Piedmontese province of Biella who came to Hell's Kitchen and started curing the way they had at home. The deli still stands at the same address; the salami line behind it has grown to roughly thirty cured products, including the American-style pepperoni that pizza shops and home cooks across New York buy by the log. Spicy paprika-and-cayenne pork, hung to dry for weeks, sliceable thin enough to cup and crisp on a pie. Slow Food NYC honored the shop for keeping the recipes intact through three Italian-American generations.

A Charlottenburg butcher shop over a hundred years old, run by master butcher Frank Bauermeister at Danckelmannstraße 11 since 1992. The shop joined the NEULAND animal welfare association in 1994 and has stuck with the philosophy since: pasture-raised beef, pork, and lamb from Brandenburg farms, no freezing, every cut used. The Bockwurst is the daily counter staple — finely emulsified veal and pork, white pepper, parsley, lightly smoked, served warm with a hard roll. Twelve people work behind the counter; customers bring their own containers.

A Värmland charcuterie at the same Norra Råda address since 1894, when August Larsson started walking the village door-to-door with a basket of sausages. The business now runs as August Larsson Charkuteri AB, owned by the Möller family from northwest Scania, but the smokehouse still uses Swedish hardwood and the recipe book still lists the Falukorv that has been on the line for over a century: pork and beef from Värmland farms, lightly smoked, sliced cold or pan-fried. About a hundred products in all, from everyday sausages to air-dried specialties, all carrying the Mathantverk craft-charcuterie mark.

The Rethel charcuterie that holds the original Boudin Blanc de Rethel recipe — written into the notarial deed when René and Marie-Louise Demoizet bought the shop in 1939 from a direct descendant of the sausage's 17th-century creator. Four generations later, Alban Thewys runs the kitchens that turn out roughly five tonnes of IGP boudin blanc a day from fresh French pork breast, Ardennes whole milk, and French eggs. The same line makes a black-truffle version for Christmas and a foie-gras one. The state recognized the operation as an Entreprise du Patrimoine Vivant in 2016.

A small Palatinate butcher in the old town of Wachenheim, four decades into a family operation that Klaus Hambel started in the 1980s and that his children now run alongside him. Saumagen made the shop's reputation — including a chili-feta and a 100% veal-with-truffle version — but the Pfälzer Hausmacher Leberwurst in natural casing is what regular customers come back for. Hand-mixed coarse pork liver, onion fried in lard, marjoram and pepper, simmered, then either eaten warm with bread or sealed into 200g tins for the road. Stocked across Pfalz farm shops and shipped nationwide.

Eisenach butcher in its fourth generation, working from the same Frankfurter Straße shop the Uth family opened in 1922. Their Thüringer Rostbratwurst carries the protected IGP certification — coarse pork, marjoram, caraway, garlic, stuffed into natural casing and grilled to order in the shop window. The same recipe earned the family a city of Eisenach entrepreneurship award in 2019. The counter also runs traditional Thüringer Leberwurst and Rotwurst, plus a wild-garlic Leberwurst in spring.

London's best-known heritage butcher, founded by Tim Wilson in 2003 around a North Yorkshire farm of rare-breed Tamworths, Berkshires, and Saddlebacks. The Marylebone shop set the template: a glass counter, butchers in striped aprons, sausages made on site every morning. Five other London shops followed. The traditional pork bangers are mixed and linked by hand — coarse-cut shoulder, breadcrumb rusk, sage and white pepper, natural hog casing — and they are what most Londoners now mean when they order a proper banger.

The largest meat processor in Switzerland and the dominant industrial maker of Cervelat, the country's national sausage. Founded in Basel in 1869 by Samuel Bell-Roth, now part of the Coop group, Bell turns out Cervelat by the tens of millions each year — the smooth pork-and-beef links that Swiss households grill with both ends slit open to curl into horns over a campfire. The Cervelat recipe is protected by long habit rather than IGP: pork, beef, bacon, mild spice, a natural zebu casing, and a short cold-smoke over beech.

Frankfurt institution founded in 1894, still best known for the Rindswurst (all-beef sausage) that Karl Gref created so Jewish Frankfurters could eat a hot sausage at the Messe. The factory in the Ostend produces around 8 tons of Rindswurst a week alongside classic Frankfurter Würstchen under the city's IGP rules — finely emulsified pork, beech-smoked in the traditional Frankfurt method. The shop at Hanauer Landstraße serves the sausages hot over the counter with mustard and a bread roll, the way commuters have eaten them for over a century.

Scotland's best-known haggis maker, run by the Macsween family since 1953. Three generations in, the Loanhead factory south of Edinburgh still follows John Macsween's original recipe: oatmeal, sheep's pluck, onion, pepper, and a precise spice mix that Jo Macsween now oversees. The company also pioneered a vegetarian haggis in the 1980s that is now standard on Burns Night menus. Supplied to supermarkets across the UK, shipped to expatriates worldwide, and still the haggis most often addressed with Burns's "Great chieftain o the puddin-race".

The Nicolet family runs one of the largest traditional tuyés in the Haut-Doubs, a 17-meter-high timber chimney in the village of Gilley near Morteau. Inside, Morteau and Montbéliard sausages hang over smoldering spruce and juniper for 48 hours to pick up the resinous smoke that defines both IGPs. The rest of the pork operation shares the same flue: hams, bacon, the rare Cendrée sausage. The tuyé is open to visitors year-round, with a shop and tasting room at ground level. It is the closest most people will get to seeing a medieval-style farmhouse smokehouse still doing its original job.

Will Thorne-Morris spent five years as a butcher at Sanagan's Meat Locker in Toronto before moving to Ottawa with Tamara Saslove, a dietitian and private chef with six years of product development behind her. Together they opened Valley Sausage Co., a two-person shop on Canotek Road where they grind, season, and stuff everything in-house. The rotating lineup covers bratwurst, mild and hot Italian, Cumberland, Mexican chorizo, honey garlic, cheddar jalapeño, chicken bacon, and kale sausage, with new recipes cycling through the weekly subscription bundles. They sell at pop-ups and markets across Ottawa under a dark blue tent and run sausage-making workshops for home cooks. Charcuterie (rillettes, pâtés, terrines) and tourtières are in the pipeline.

A halal butcher on rue Larrey in the 5th arrondissement of Paris, 200 meters from the Grande Mosquée. Limouri has been grinding merguez by hand for more than 15 years, using a mix of beef and lamb with harissa, cumin, coriander, paprika, and garlic, stuffed into lamb casings. The shop serves the Maghrebi community around the mosque and anyone in Paris who wants merguez that tastes like Tunis or Algiers, not like supermarket bulk.

A family-run butcher in Heilbad Heiligenstadt, deep in the Eichsfeld corner of Thuringia, where the pigs get processed the day they arrive. Sandra Schmidt runs it now, keeping the house recipe for Original Thüringer Rostbratwurst her family has stuffed for decades: minimum 51% pork from the shoulder and neck, caraway, marjoram, garlic, no flavor enhancers, no artificial dye. Klöppner belongs to the small group of producers who qualify for the EU-protected Thüringer Rostbratwurst geographic indication, which means every sausage has to be made inside the borders of Thuringia to carry the name.

The largest producer of Mortadella Bologna IGP in Italy, based in Zola Predosa just outside Bologna. Felsineo started in 1947 as a small family salumificio and now runs one of the country's biggest mortadella operations, though the product still has to follow the strict IGP rulebook: pork from specific cuts, lardelli cubes of fat, whole peppercorns, pistachio optional, slow cooking in hot-air chambers for hours until the center hits 75°C. Their premium line, La Blu, is what most Bolognesi reach for in a proper salumeria. Felsineo also runs tours of its Zola Predosa plant for visitors who want to see a 200-kilo mortadella come out of the oven.

A Berlin institution under the elevated U-Bahn tracks on Schönhauser Allee in Prenzlauer Berg, running since 1930, making it older than the Berlin Wall and outlasting it. Max Konnopke opened the stand in 1930; his daughter Waltraud started serving currywurst here in 1960, the first in East Berlin, built on a ketchup-and-curry-powder family recipe that still goes on every sausage. Konnopke makes the wurst itself: a skinless pork sausage, deep-fried, sliced into rounds, drowned in the sauce, dusted with more curry. The Konnopke family still runs it.

A Munich butcher founded in 1937 by Engelbert Gaßner in Schwabing, now run by the third generation out of the Viehhof compound near the old Munich slaughterhouse. Gaßner supplies weisswurst to beer halls across the city and still stuffs its own on-site every morning before the 12 o'clock rule kicks in. The family built their reputation on a finely minced veal-and-pork emulsion with parsley, lemon, mace, and cardamom, the recipe that defines a proper Munich weisswurst. Their shop window on Zenettistraße is the kind of place locals queue at before a Saturday breakfast.

A Nuremberg butcher that has been at the same address in the north of the city since 1927, and calls itself the city's first bratwurst address. Pfettner is a member of the Schutzverband Nürnberger Bratwürste, the producers' association that guards the EU-protected geographic indication: a Nürnberger Rostbratwurst has to be made inside Nuremberg city limits, weigh 20 to 25 grams, measure 7 to 9 centimeters long, and get its flavor from marjoram, black pepper, and lemon zest. Their shop sells the Röstla by the dozen, fresh off the beech grill, in a Weggla bun with mustard.

The Soler family has been making sobrassada on Mallorca since 1945, when Cristóbal Soler ground his first batch from a few black pigs he had fattened himself and sold it from the butcher shop in Inca. Three generations later, Crisol operates from Consell, about 20 kilometers inland from Palma, and is one of the handful of producers certified under the Sobrasada de Mallorca IGP. Their Etiqueta Negra is made from porc negre, the native black Mallorcan pig, with tap de cortí paprika from the island's dryland gardens, sea salt, and black pepper. The mix goes into a thick casing, gets hung for months, and ends up with the spreadable, paprika-red texture you want on a slice of pa amb oli.

The oldest market in Kraków, running since 1366, when Kleparz got a royal license to operate butcher stalls, bakeries, and craft workshops outside the city walls. Six centuries later the same square on Rynek Kleparski still does the same job: a covered cluster of stalls where Krakovians go for wędliny, farm cheese, bread, and produce. Under communism it was the city's underground black-market hub for anything the state shops couldn't supply. The meat stalls are where you find real krakowska, krakowska sucha, kabanosy, and kielbasa from small Małopolska producers who don't ship to supermarkets. Dozens of independent butchers rent space under the same roof; some have been there for three generations.

Poland's largest kabanosy producer, founded by Jacek Tarczyński in 1989 in Sułów and now headquartered in Ujeździec Mały, a village outside Trzebnica in Lower Silesia. Tarczyński runs three plants in Poland and turns out kabanosy by the million each day, but the product still follows the Polish EU-protected recipe: long, thin, smoke-dried pork sausages with 170 grams of meat per 100 grams of finished product, seasoned with pepper, caraway, and garlic, hung in beech smoke and dried until the casing shrivels. Their Kabanos Exclusive line is what most Poles abroad pack into their suitcases to take home.

Founded in 1886 in Castelnuovo Rangone, a Modena village that bills itself as the cradle of Emilian salumi. Villani is one of the oldest continuously operating salumifici in Italy and makes a full range of cured pork, but locals will tell you to buy the cotechino: a mix of pork shoulder, cheek, and rind stuffed into a thick casing, with black pepper, nutmeg, and clove. Villani's cotechino is cooked sous-vide in the factory before it reaches you, which means a 20-minute simmer on Christmas Eve and it's ready for the lentils. Their Castelnuovo Rangone headquarters also houses the Museo della Salumeria, a small museum about the history of Italian charcuterie.

P.G. Molinari & Sons has made salame in San Francisco since 1896. The company started on Columbus Avenue in North Beach when Passera Guglielmo Molinari arrived from Tuscany. Four generations later, the factory still operates in the same neighborhood. Their flagship dry-cured salame hangs in delis across the Bay Area. The North Beach storefront sells sliced salame by the pound, sandwiches, and imported Italian goods.

Best Stop started in 1986 in Scott, Louisiana, a town of 8,000 that sits on the I-10 corridor between Lafayette and Baton Rouge. The store makes boudin in-house every morning, stuffing rice-and-pork filling into natural casings before sunrise. Locals line up at the drive-through window for links sold hot off the stuffer. Their cracklins draw equal crowds. Multiple locations now dot Acadiana, but the Scott original remains the benchmark.

A Polish and Eastern European deli in South Boston's Dorchester neighbourhood, stocking cold cuts, kielbasy, baked goods, dairy, and imported groceries from Poland and the wider Baltic region. One of the few places in Boston where you can find a proper selection of Central and Eastern European cured meats, alongside prepared foods and specialty beer unavailable elsewhere in the city.

A Dorchester institution since 1979 and the first Polish deli in what locals call the Polish Triangle. DJ's stocks an extensive selection of cold cuts and Polish specialties including kielbasa, kiszka, and house-made paczki. Fresh rye bread arrives Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday. The deli counter runs daily rotating pastries and sweet breads baked in-house. One of the oldest continuously operating Eastern European markets in Boston.

A Polish and Eastern European grocery store and deli on Dorchester Avenue in South Boston, stocking kielbasa, smoked sausages, kiszka, pierogi, imported cheeses, and a wide range of Central and Eastern European specialty goods. The deli counter offers fresh and house-smoked meats alongside made-to-order sandwiches. Staff speak Polish and English. One of the anchor stores for Boston's Eastern European diaspora community.

Founded in 1988 in a three-car garage by Fernando Benevides, Portugalia Marketplace has grown into a 20,000-square-foot Portuguese specialty food store in Fall River, Massachusetts — a city with one of the largest Portuguese diaspora communities in the United States. Now run by his children Michael and Jennifer, the store stocks over 1,300 Portuguese wines and spirits, a temperature-controlled room for salt cod, a café with Portuguese baked goods, and an extensive deli counter with house sausages including Chouriço Caseiro, Morcela, Chouriço Mouro Transmontano, and Morcela Caseira with Meat. Described by Saveur as America's best Portuguese market.

Founded in 1884 by Edward Twomey in the West Cork market town of Clonakilty, this family business turned a local black pudding recipe into one of Ireland's most recognised food brands. The original recipe, handed down through generations, uses oatmeal as a filler rather than barley, giving Clonakilty Blackpudding its distinct crumbly texture and mild, earthy flavour. Sold in butcher shops, supermarkets, and restaurants across Ireland and exported worldwide.

The original home of Clonakilty Blackpudding, this family butcher shop has been trading on Pearse Street in Clonakilty since 1976. Edward Twomey's shop is where the famous black pudding recipe was first sold to the public and where the Ispíní pork sausage range was developed in the late 1980s using 100% Irish pork. The shop supplies fresh, locally sourced meats and their own-made products to the town of Clonakilty and surrounding West Cork.

Bottega Ranocchi 1972 started as a poultry shop in the early 1960s, founded by Antonio Cavarretta in the Quadrilatero, Bologna's ancient market grid. Over the decades it absorbed the adjacent butcher counter, the cheese counter, and the salumi counter. Massimiliano Cavarretta runs it now. The shop sells mortadella by the slice or by the kilo, prosciutto, fresh tortellini, and aged cheeses. Most midday diners at Osteria del Sole across the alley started their lunch here.

A family norcineria in Norcia, Umbria, operating since the mid-20th century. The Ansuini brothers carry on the norcino tradition in the town that invented the word. Their mazzafegato follows the old recipe: coarse liver, back fat, garlic, and either orange zest (dolce) or chili (piccante), stuffed into natural casings. Production is seasonal, tied to the winter pig slaughter. The shop also sells prosciutto di Norcia, capocollo, and ciauscolo.

Artisan charcutier in Annonay, northern Ardèche. A family operation that sources pork from farms within 50 kilometers. Their saucisson sec uses a three-generation recipe: coarse-chopped shoulder, back fat, garlic, pepper, and a short pour of Saint-Joseph red. The sausages cure in a stone cellar beneath the shop for six weeks. No nitrates, no shortcuts.

The original Teewurst producer, founded 1834 in Rügenwalde, Pomerania (now Darłowo, Poland). After the war, the company resettled in Bad Zwischenahn, Lower Saxony, and kept making the same recipe. Their Rügenwalder Teewurst holds PGI protection. They also produce a feine Teewurst with a smoother grind. In recent years the company has expanded into plant-based products, but their traditional Teewurst remains the flagship. The red packaging is a supermarket fixture across Germany.

One of Germany's largest sausage producers, based in Sassenberg, Westphalia. Stockmeyer has been making cured and smoked meats since 1913. Their Teewurst line covers both the coarse and fine varieties. Industrial scale, but the smoking still uses real beechwood. You find Stockmeyer Teewurst in discount supermarkets and corner shops across the country. Not artisanal, but reliable and consistent.

Japan's second-largest meat processor, founded in 1928 by Denzaburo Ito. Itoham introduced their Gourmet Frank Arabiki wieners in 1993, following Nippon Ham's category creation. Their arabiki is known for a slightly finer grind than the Schau Essen benchmark, with a pronounced smoky character. Available in every major supermarket chain in Japan. The company also produces premium kurobuta (black pork) sausages from Kagoshima Berkshire pigs.

Earl Funk opened this custom-cut butcher shop in Steinbach in 2005, committed to buying only local, naturally raised beef and pork. His farmer's sausage recipe comes from four generations of meat cutters in his family. The pork is sourced from Manitoba farms, ground on-site, and smoked in their own smokehouse behind the shop.

Operating in Altona, Manitoba for over 50 years, Pioneer Meat calls their farmer's sausage 'the true original.' The recipe has been maintained across three generations, and the smoking process uses the same hardwood technique the founders learned from their Mennonite elders. The sausage has a coarser grind and heavier smoke than most commercial versions. They ship across Canada to homesick Mennonites who cannot find proper farmer's sausage in their adopted cities.

A family-run meat processor in Winkler, Manitoba that turned a Mennonite farm recipe into a nationally distributed product. Their farmer's sausage is made with high-quality pork cuts, salt, pepper, and natural smoke. No gluten, no fillers. Available in grocery chains across Canada, from Walmart to independent butchers. They also produce cheese-stuffed and mini versions, but the original plain farmer's sausage remains the bestseller.

A family-run butcher on Eastgate in Louth, a market town in the Lincolnshire Wolds. Lakings makes their Lincolnshire sausages on-site using traditional recipes and local pork. They ship nationwide and have built a following through their online shop. The kind of high-street butcher that England is losing, still going strong in Louth.

Jane and Terry Tomlinson started Redhill Farm in 1991 in Gainsborough, Lincolnshire. Their Lincolnshire sausages use free-range pork and hand-rubbed English sage as the only added seasoning. BBC Good Food Magazine has recognised their sausages among the best in the UK. They supply Wimbledon and Lord's Cricket Ground, and run a shop on Lincoln's Bailgate.

Five generations of the Ward family have farmed at Grayingham Grange in North Lincolnshire. The farm shop and butchery opened in 2006, and the on-site butchers make Lincolnshire sausages from their own pigs. Winner of Taste of Excellence Best Farm Shop 2025 and multiple Great Taste Awards. They stock over 45 Lincolnshire producers under one roof.

Founded in 1923 by a butcher known as Kasap Kara Mehmet in Afyonkarahisar, the sucuk capital of Turkey. Cumhuriyet combines traditional Afyon recipes with modern production: 100% beef, no heat treatment, fermented and air-dried. Their sucuk carries the weight of the Afyon geographical indication, which gained EU protected status.

Europe's largest halal meat producer, based in Cologne since 1966. Egetürk makes multiple sucuk varieties including Afyon-style and Kayseri-style, producing 150 tons per day. Their products are sold across Europe and North America. What started as a small Turkish butcher shop serving Cologne's guest worker community grew into an industrial-scale operation that kept the traditional recipes intact.

A family-run producer in Villamanín, León, making IGP Chorizo de León for over 75 years. Their chorizos are coarse-ground, heavily smoked over oak, and cured in the cold mountain air of the Cantabrian foothills. They run an on-site restaurant where you can eat their products with local bread and wine.

The largest chorizo producer in La Rioja, based in Albelda de Iregua since 1983. Palacios makes their chorizo with pimentón de la Vera and distributes across Europe and the Americas. Their chorizo extra and chorizo sarta are among the most widely available Spanish chorizos outside Spain.

Premium Ibérico producer in Badajoz, Extremadura. Their chorizo ibérico de bellota is made from 100% acorn-fed Ibérico pigs that roam the dehesa oak forests. DOP Dehesa de Extremadura certified. The chorizo has a deeper, nuttier flavor than conventional pork chorizo, with a rich marbling from the acorn-fed fat.

Artisanal butchery in Woodstock, Cape Town. Grass-fed beef and lamb, no sugar, no gluten, no fillers. Their boerewors follows the traditional recipe: roasted coriander, vinegar, and natural casings. The shop is pristine, the pricing transparent, and the staff knows every cut. Cape Town's food-conscious crowd comes here.

Family-owned butchery in Roodepoort, west of Johannesburg. Hugo and Siena Roodt took over in 2002, but the boerewors recipe is 95 years old. Their Watertand Boerewors has won six Cleaver Awards, including four Platinum. They grind everything in-house and refuse shortcuts. Also sell biltong, droewors, and fresh cuts.

One of the last traditional Metzgereien in St. Gallen's inner city. Rietmann serves OLMA Bratwurst and OLMA Schüblig with Bürli from their takeaway window on Marktgasse, a classic no-frills sausage experience steps from the Marktplatz.

A family butcher on Vonwilstrasse in St. Gallen, Signer Metzgerei runs its own production and deli counter. The shop sells St. Galler Bratwurst and Schüblig alongside house-made charcuterie, ready meals, and a catering operation. Rated 4.7 stars across 56 Google reviews.

The factory outlet of Switzerland's largest Bratwurst and Schüblig producer. Ernst Sutter AG's Fabrikladen in St. Gallen-Winkeln sells their famous Gallus-Schüblig and OLMA Bratwurst at factory prices, with a grill stand on-site serving freshly grilled sausages weekdays until 13:30.

A Calabrian specialty stall at London's Borough Market, run by Giuseppe Mele, importing 'nduja and other cured meats direct from Calabria. They also serve fresh 'nduja pasta on-site. Open Thursday through Saturday. One of the best sources for authentic 'nduja outside Italy.

Family-run 'nduja producer in Spilinga, the origin town of 'nduja. They offer free guided factory tours with tastings of around 12 different 'nduja products, accompanied by their own local wine. Run by Debora and Rocco, the hospitality is as notable as the product. The factory is on Monte Poro, a bit hard to find but worth the drive.

A multigenerational mom-and-pop charcuterie shop on Hester Street in Manhattan's Chinatown. They make pork sausage, duck liver sausage, cured pork belly, dried duck, and chicken in-house. The classic storefront has cured meats hanging in the window. Cash only. One of the last traditional Chinese dried-meat manufacturers in Lower Manhattan.

One of the first Chinese sausage makers on the American West Coast, operating from the same Clay Street storefront since 1948. Wycen makes Lap Cheong on-site using their Chung Fat brand recipe, distributing throughout the US including Hawaii and Guam. A narrow Chinatown shop with cured meats in the window, three generations of family craftsmanship.

Radatz is one of Austria's most renowned sausage producers, based in Vienna. Founded in 1962, they produce over 700 meat products and are particularly famous for their Käsekrainer. They supply many of Vienna's beloved Würstelstände and export to 27 countries worldwide.

Family butchery in Pamplona's San Juan neighborhood, open for over 50 years. Won first prize at the XIII Navarre Txistorra Competition in 2018, making their chistorra the best in the region that year. They also do Navarran lamb and beef. Home delivery available in Pamplona.

Spanish deli and tapas cafe in SoHo, Manhattan, operating since 1971. They make their own chistorra in New York using imported Pimentón de La Vera. The retail shop carries Spanish cheeses, jamón, and pantry staples. The attached cafe serves patatas bravas con chistorra. The primary source for authentic chistorra in the United States.

Family operation run by the Novosel family in the village of Gat near Valpovo. They raise their own pigs and make kulen from scratch using traditional methods. Over 200 competition awards speak for themselves. Their kulen is available direct from the farm or through local distributors across Slavonia.

The real kulen comes from family farms across Slavonia and Baranja. Every household has its own recipe, passed through generations. At kolinje (the winter pig slaughter), families make kulen from their best pork, season it with homegrown paprika, and hang it in smokehouses for months. The best way to buy kulen is to know someone in a village. Second best: visit the Kulenijada festival in Jagodnjak each June, where dozens of families compete and sell.

A family-run andouille shop on Airline Hwy in LaPlace, the Andouille Capital of the World. Bailey's has built a devoted local following for their hand-stuffed, pecan-smoked andouille sausage. The strip mall storefront with the big red and yellow sign is a LaPlace landmark. Ships nationwide.

The most legendary andouille producer in Louisiana, operating from their iconic wooden building at 505 W Airline Hwy in LaPlace, the self-proclaimed Andouille Capital of the World. Jacob's has been smoking andouille using traditional Cajun methods for generations, producing some of the finest pork andouille, chicken andouille, and tasso in the state. Ships nationwide.