We did exactly that Gareth but it was a lot of work.
We bought a weaner and raised him till he was a decent weight. Then our pig farmer neighbour had him humanely slaughtered.
This was followed by a 3 day fete de cochon where local neighbours come round and assist in the preparation stage in return for some good food and wine.
Then followed the best pate, boudin, bacon, and various meat cuts we ever tasted.
The sausages were made in the pig’s intestines which had been boiled, scraped inside and out and then washed. Herb mixture from the garden – parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme (plus salt and pepper). A hand crank mincer coarsely ground the meat offcuts left from the previous operations and pushed them through a tube into the intestines. This requires several glasses of wine to see through to completion.
Your link just goes to the shopping cart (hate that word !)
The potters malt is just the same as the other one. I looked up what they’re both made of, and it’s just barley malt from germinated barley, which is a refined sugar (maltose ?) and what beer is made from. It’s added to the cod liver oil so that it doesn’t taste quite as disgusting.
Never tried them but they do have a good reputation. Unfortunately their delivery to the door prices are eye watering. They do go to Toulouse for pickup not far from the airport which is the nearest go us but still quite a drive.
They do go to Bordeaux every 4 weeks, I thought that was not too far from you ?
In the south of 86 (half-way between Poitiers and Limoges) we have a Scottish farmer who supplies ‘British style’ meat including sausages. He seems to be held in very high regard, although, as a vegetarian, I can’t vouch for him.
He has a non-functioning website but seems to rely on his Facebook site to supply news and information; it’s here.
Edited to add: My mistake - he’s further south than I thought. He’s actually about 150m inside 87 - Haute Vienne.
Well, the order didn’t remain in Amazon FR’s shopping cart for long. The order’s been made, and is on its way! Just for old time’s sake!
The malt is there to mask the taste of the cod liver oil, as you say, but the benefits of cod liver oil are there as well.
I can still remember the taste back then but that was a different malt – Vimaltol. This nursing record is from 1949 which is about when I may have started taking it at school.
I was a postwar child, well, a couple of years. I had cod liver oil and orange juice, I think, supplied by the state. My parents discovered something called Virol which they gave to my brother and me. Just plain Vile would have been an appropriate name. It was horrible stuff. We only ever had one jar of it so I guess my parents agreed that it was too horrible to consume.
I wish he’d sort his website out as the Facebook page doesn’t seem to mention what products he sells… no doubt his regulars know, but he’s missing a trick not having a working website.
He seems to have drop-offs in lots of places in Charente / Vienne / Haute-Vienne which is handy - I will note him for future reference as that’s my probably retirement zone.
I’m astonished at the number of companies in France who direct you to their Facebook site, which then doesn’t mention where they’re located or exactly what they do. The less I have to do with Facebook, the better!
The only English (sorry Scots etc.) food that I miss are some regional cheeses (eg. Lancashire creamy, single Gloucester), but even if they were available here, I 'd be reluctant to buy them as they probably wouldn’t travel well. Before we moved here full-time, I remember being very disappointed with some Cantal from our Cockermouth deli (the town’s twinned with Millau, which although in the Aveyron isn’t that far from the Cantal).
And as posted elsewhere previously, I can now get a glass of draught IPA (albeit Californian) on our monthly coffee bean runs to Rodez. So overall I’m very happy with what I can get locally from an Algerian shop in Figeac that also has lots of Levantine foods and spices.
And anything I can’t get locally I’ll order from mesépices.com
However certain foods are a no-no in Europe - decent mangoes, pink guavas, grenadillas, pawpaws and papayas. Though you might strike lucky with the odd avo.
