Store carefully
Ideally, you should store your cured sausages and meat at room temperature in a dry place, for example hanging up or wrapped in a clean cloth in the kitchen or cellar. If you enjoy your cured meats as dry as possible, put them in a more aerated place.
The refrigerator is not ideal (but you can keep them there if you wish). If you do store them in the fridge, wrap them in a tea towel and put them in the vegetable drawer.
Never put them in an airtight box! Mont Charvin’s cured sausages and dried meats are helped to aerate using natural ingredients (including for the casing and active ingredients),. Wrapping your meats in a clean cloth is the best way to aerate them.
Like good wine, Mont Charvin cured meats and sausages improve with age. You can keep them for several weeks or even months depending on how you like them! (If you can resist temptation, that is 😉 )
Slicing your meats
There’s a perfect way to slice your meat whatever your preferences or occasion…
- For appetizers, opt for modest amounts of thin, even slices (about 1 mm thick) so you can relish all the different flavours and aromas…
- Thicker slices are also an option when you’re frying your meat or packing it as a snack or picnic.
You don’t need to slice your meat thickly to enhance and release all its different flavours and aromas. Quite the contrary! Cured sausages and meats will release their taste in all its subtlety even when they are thinly sliced. And it means you can enjoy them for longer too!
To make thin slices of about 1 mm, use a wooden board and a good thin-bladed sharp knife. That’s all you need!
For ham, use a slicing machine to get the perfect cut.
Do you like yours with or without skin? Usually, a saucisson’s skin is removed before it is sliced. However, bear in mind that Mont Charvin only uses natural, completely edible casings.
Finding the right combinations
For appetizers
If there is one food that symbolises good times with friends, it might have to be a Saucisson! It will delight your curious foodie friends just as much as guests who love good, fuss-free appetizers.
Although it is perhaps a little less well-known as a hors-d’oeuvre, dried meat is another way of delighting your guests. Feel free to try yours on fruit and vegetable skewers (with melon, cherry tomatoes, figs and so on) or with regional French AOP cheeses (such as Beaufort, Abondance and Tome des Bauges). Opt for very thin slices or even half slices to fully appreciate the flavours.
Finally, terrines and rillettes are another great choice that will make your appetizers extra-special. Opt for a rustic bread made from wholemeal flour or a natural sourdough… Breads flavoured with walnuts or fruit and nut mixes pair beautifully with our creations.
And if you’re bringing the appetizers, your friends will be amazed by the Mont Charvin specialities you’ve chosen. Les Miches de la Cousine ®, Grelots®, Cornes de Bouquetin® and Croix Savoyarde® never fail to cause a stir!
On picnics
Whether you love taking a basket and a chequered tablecloth for lunch in the park or you are more into pulling a snack out of your backpack once you have reached the top of a mountain, you won’t want to be without Mont Charvin with a slice of wholemeal bread. A cured sausage, dried meat or terrine is always worth the wait, so enjoy yours solo or share it with friends.
Pairing our products with local Haute-Savoie dishes
You can’t plan a meal with friends or a fondue night without some delicious cured meat! Try an artisanal or three-pepper saucisson, dried ham or cured ham for example. All you need is a nice assortment, a few steamed potatoes and a tasty salad. There’s no better recipe for a fun meal with friends and family!
And for day-to-day meals, add some oomph to a simple pasta dish or a plate of mashed potatoes with a nice slice of ham or cured sausage. It never fails to please kids!
Sausages for cooking tasty meals
What if our cured meats became your signature dish? Our sausages are a real joy to cook! Explore our range of traditional, plain or smoked sausages, with or without added vegetables… There is just the right one for every taste. From white wine diots to sausages baked in brioche, pormonier spinach-infused and steamed sausages with vegetables and Einkorn wheat, the only difficult bit will be choosing!
Pairing your cured meats
It’s not always easy to pair cured meats with just the right
red, rosé or white.
We’ve all heard that a tasty saucisson goes well with a glass of red, but this is not necessarily the best pairing you will find.
Cured meat and wine need to be paired carefully so that the latter’s sweet or tannic aromas don’t overpower your product’s subtle blend of spices.
Mont Charvin recommends tailoring your wine to your cured meat’s fat content. For fattier meat, a white Savoie wine such as Roussette or Chignin is best. This way, you’ll avoid the tannin deposits associated with red wines. Dry rosés can also work wonders.
For low-fat cured meats such as our Light range or dried meats, you can choose a white, rosé or red wine (but if you go for red, make sure its tannin content is low).
Or why not have a beer?
Craft beers never cease to amaze us. More and more often, their subtle, unsweetened flavours pair perfectly with our cured meat.
And what about sausages?
For our cooked cured specialties, consider a Beaujolais-type red wine, a Morgon or a Juliénas. You could also go for a Cabernet Franc from the Loire Valley such as a Chinon or a Bourgueil, or simply a Savoie Mondeuse. These red wines’ nice acidity pairs wells with cured meats’ fat content.
For rosé wines, a classic Tavel or Bandol is perfect, as is a Languedoc Coteaux.
As for white wine, open up a Vouvray or a Savoie wine – thanks it its origins, the latter will pair beautifully with our products. Choose an Apremont, a Savoie Roussette or a Chignin-Bergeron, for example
.
* Alcohol abuse is dangerous