Franche-Comté, France

France

The Franche-Comté runs along the Swiss border in eastern France, from the Doubs river valley up into the Jura mountains. The climate is alpine: long wet winters, short summers, forests of spruce and fir. Food here is engineered for cold weather. The region gave France its great mountain cheese, Comté, and its most distinctive smoked sausages: the Saucisse de Morteau, thick and tied with a wooden peg, and the Saucisse de Montbéliard, thinner and seasoned with caraway. Both are smoked in conical farmhouse chimneys called tuyés, some of them centuries old, over spruce and juniper for up to 48 hours. The sausages almost always get eaten warm, poached in water just below a simmer, and served with lentils from Le Puy or Montbéliard, potatoes, or cabbage. A pot of Morteau and a glass of Vin Jaune from Château-Chalon is the winter meal here.

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Sausages from Franche-Comté, France

Saucisse de Morteau

Saucisse de Morteau

Franche-Comté, France

A fat, mahogany-skinned smoked pork sausage from the Jura mountains of eastern France, named after the town of Morteau. At least 6 cm in diameter, at least 150 grams, tied at one end with a wooden peg called a cheville that identifies it on the plate. The smoke comes from resinous wood, spruce and juniper, drawn through the chimney of a traditional Comtois farmhouse known as a tuyé. The sausage is eaten warm, poached in water under a simmer, never boiled, and sliced thick over lentils, potatoes, or Comté-laced potato gratin.

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