A smoked pork chitterling sausage from Guémené-sur-Scorff in the Morbiannish heart of Brittany, built from concentric layers of pork large intestine. The cleaned chaudins are salted and seasoned, then sorted by width and threaded one inside another, from the widest down to the narrowest, around a core — so that a cut slice reveals a pattern of regular rings like the cross-section of a tree trunk or a target. The assembled andouille is cold-smoked over beech wood (sometimes oak) for days to weeks, which dries it and turns it nearly black, then traditionally poached in broth. It is most often eaten cold, cut into thin slices, as a starter with bread and butter.
Guémené-sur-Scorff is a small town in inland Morbihan, and the andouille that bears its name is documented at least as far back as 1778, when it is listed in the Almanach du Comestible. It belongs to a wider French family of regional chitterling sausages — the best-known rival being the andouille de Vire in Normandy — but is set apart by its concentric ring construction and its cold beech smoke. Unlike the andouille de Vire, which holds a European Protected Geographical Indication granted in 2019, the andouille de Guémené has no AOP or IGP; since 2017 the only safeguard is a charcuterie code of practice that reserves the label "Andouille de Guémené Tradition" for the artisanal, hand-built product. The town celebrates it at an annual fair in late August.
The first thing is the look: a thin dark slice ringed with pale concentric circles, the unmistakable target the threading creates. The texture is firm and a little chewy, the bite of well-cured intestine rather than ground meat, with no soft filler. The flavour is strong and frankly offaly — deeply porky, salty, and carrying the dry, woody bitterness of long beech smoke. Served cold on buttered bread, it is dense and assertive; a good one is clean and smoky, a poor or under-dried one can be greasy or sour with an off, ammoniac edge.
Three preservation techniques work together. Salting draws out water and inhibits spoilage bacteria, firming the intestine and seasoning it through. Cold smoking — the smoke kept cool so it dries rather than cooks the meat — deposits phenols and other antimicrobial wood compounds on the surface, building the bitter, aromatic crust and the near-black colour over days or weeks; beech is chosen as a clean, low-resin hardwood that smokes without harsh notes. The slow drying that follows concentrates flavour and lowers water activity for keeping. The threading is pure craft: nesting the chaudins by caliber, widest outside to narrowest in, is what produces the concentric rings, and it is done entirely by hand, which is why the artisanal version carries a protected name.
Variations
The keeping grade ranges from the standard product, dried two to three weeks, to a "très sèche" version aged up to nine months for a harder, more concentrated slice. The artisanal "Andouille de Guémené Tradition" is distinguished from cheaper industrial andouilles made the same shape outside Brittany. Its great counterpart is the andouille de Vire from Normandy, which is also smoked but built from strips of intestine cut and bundled lengthwise rather than threaded into rings. It should not be confused with the andouillette, a smaller, soft, unsmoked tripe sausage eaten hot, of which the andouillette de Troyes is the classic example.
On the Palate
Where Andouille de Guémené sits in the French flavor cloud
Ingredients
Serves 8How it's made
8 steps · 2 hours
- 160 min
Thoroughly clean and rinse the pork large intestines, scraping away excess fat, and sort them by width.
- 260 min
Rub the intestines all over with salt and a mix of white and black pepper, and let them cure.
- 390 min
Working by hand, thread the chaudins one inside another around a core, from the widest down to the narrowest, to form concentric layers.
- 430 min
Tie off the assembled andouille and hang it to firm up before smoking.
- 5480 min
Cold-smoke over beech wood, keeping the smoke cool, for several days so the sausage dries rather than cooks.
Watch outKeep the smoke cool so it dries the sausage rather than cooks it — cold smoke over days is what builds the dark aromatic crust.
- 630 min
Hang the smoked andouille to dry for two to three weeks (longer for a drier style).
- 7210 min
Prick the andouille and poach it gently in a flavoured broth for three to four hours, then cool completely.
Watch outPoach gently, never boiling — a hard boil bursts the casing and toughens the intestine after all that curing and smoking.
- 810 min
Slice thinly across the rings and serve cold as a starter, with bread and salted butter.
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