A new sausage

A couple of days ago we ventured a new saucisson sec, from Black Mountain via Sainsbury's in our lentils, a change from our more usual Bastides from Waitrose. With Black Mountain to be found at references 1 and 2.

10oz of lentils washed a couple of times then into 1.5l of water to stew up. Freshly pounded black pepper as well as garlic. Relatively fresh celery in with the lentils. Some rather bland white cabbage in at the end, as much to tidy it up as anything else.

It was quite a business peeling this sausage. Perhaps I will do better with the second one.

I had quite forgotten that we measure rice by volume rather than by weight and 8oz of rice was, as it turned out, far too much. So enough lentils and more or less enough rice left over to do for today.

Maybe 75 minutes from jar of lentils to lentils on the plate. Neither a great length of time nor a great deal to do, but one does need to be there to keep an eye on things. Have a book or newspaper to hand if this is apt to bore you.

The new sausage was fine, perhaps a little blander than the Bastides, which I think might have been a good thing for these purposes. Time will tell.

The Narbonne operation. Maybe they bring the pigs in at night so as not to upset the local veggies.

Aibi much the same, but Durfort is in the hills, complete with small shop attached for the afficionados. But all in the south of France, a bit to the east of Toulouse.

PS 1: nil points for service. Failed to wipe the sloppings off the edge of the plate. I associate this morning to Orwell telling us in his Paris book that the more you pay for your meal in a restaurant, the more it has been pushed and prodded about on the plate. I might say, in passing, that Orwell's reputation, with me anyway, has yet to recover from reading the book at reference 3, noticed a year ago at reference 4. I had been holding off until after a second reading before noticing it properly here, but that never happened. Got a bit stuck half way through. At least I still have a copy of a piece about it in the Guardian by his (adopted) son for when I get moving again.

PS 2: both pigs and pork of special interest at the moment, as I am on a digression concerning pigs and acorns. A digression featuring tannin, to be found in a lot of beans and legumes, in particular lentils. Also in tea. Interesting stuff, found in many plants, with all kinds of interesting properties. Readers can start their own digressions at reference 5.

Do the Black Mountain people free range their pigs in the montane forests, in the way of the famous Iberian pigs. noticed at reference 6? Expensive way to grow pigs, but you can charge a vast amount for them. Sadly, there is a lot of heritage and foodie stuff at reference 2, but I have not found anything about where they get their pigs from or how they are reared. Maybe I will do better later.

References

Reference 1: https://montagne-noire.fr/produits/saucisson-sec/.

Reference 2: https://montagne-noire.fr/.

Reference 3: Wifedom : Mrs. Orwell's Invisible Life - Funder, Anna Funder - 2023.

Reference 4: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2024/11/trolleys-747-thru-750.html.

Reference 5: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tannin.

Reference 6: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2025/07/ham-sandwiches.html.

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