Saucisson d'Arles
Arles, Provence, France
Firm and savoury, a pork-and-beef Provencal saucisson from Camargue cattle country.
Overview
Saucisson d'Arles is firm and savoury, a pork-and-beef provencal saucisson from camargue cattle country. A firm dark red sausage with fine white fat and a clean meat-led aroma. The beef should add depth without creating dryness or a crumbly texture. The Codex treats the product as a complete curing or cooking system, not simply a famous name. Raw material, cut or particle size, casing, smoke, fermentation, heat treatment and maturation all contribute to the result. The current legal or quality status is Traditional Provençal product : no EU GI. The source tradition and the Curesmith home method are kept separate.
Where it's from
Climate. Arles in Provence, on the edge of the Camargue.
Altitude. Rhone delta
The cut
How to recognise it
A firm dark red sausage with fine white fat and a clean meat-led aroma. The beef should add depth without creating dryness or a crumbly texture. Grease smear, hollow pockets, case hardening, wet centre, rancidity or uncontrolled dark mould is a fault.
- Shape and size
- Cylindrical, coarse
- Lean colour
- Deep red
- Fat and marbling
- White
- Casing
- Natural casing
- Surface bloom
- White mould
Origins and history
The dry sausage of Arles in Provence, traditionally made from a mix of pork and beef, a legacy of the Camargue's cattle country, and in the past sometimes donkey or horse. Seasoned with pepper, garlic and Provencal notes and air-dried, it is firm and savoury. Its beef content sets it apart from the pork saucissons of the north. Arles stands between Provençal pig curing and the cattle culture of the Rhône delta. Combining pork and beef created a sausage with a darker, firmer slice than the pure-pork saucissons of Lyon. Legends and commercial origin stories are identified as such rather than used as proof of the current specification.
Name. Saucisson; Arles the Provencal town.
- Production today
- Producers in and around Arles.
- Protection
- Not EU-protected as a general name.
- Tradition vs modern
- Traditionally pork and beef, once other meats too.
- Seasonality
- Year-round.
Compare with. Salame di Sant'Olcese, Saucisson de Lyon
Serving and cultural significance
Sliced for a Provencal board. Rebuild the meat block from the published pork-and-beef formula and add the mandatory starter culture. The flavour remains meat-led. it shows how place, material and process create identity. The reader can compare authenticity, legal status and practical home safety without confusing them. Its leaner beef-and-pork structure suits bread, olives and Provençal wine; allow the slices to warm slightly.
Recipe and cure
This is not a finished recipe. It is a window into how this meat is traditionally cured. Before you follow any process, please run it through one of our curing calculators, so the salt, cure and timings are right and safe for your own batch.
Make this — the measured Curesmith version →The cure below is the traditional reference. “Make this” opens the measured Curesmith home recipe, scaled to your batch.
Traditional or protected production
Saucisson d'Arles is a pork-and-beef dry sausage associated with Camargue cattle country. Historic versions sometimes used other equid meat, but the modern working style is built around good pork and carefully trimmed beef with restrained seasoning.
- Meat
- pork
- Salt (%)
- 2.5
- Curing salt
- Not included in the base recipe below
- Fermented
- Yes
- Target pH
- 4.9
- Starter or mould
- Natural surface mould
- Smoked
- No
- Target aW or weight loss
- ~30% weight loss
- Temperature (°C)
- ferment 22 to 24, then dry 13 to 15
- Humidity (%)
- ferment ~90, then 75 to 80
- Maturation
- 4 to 8 weeks
- Basis
- per 1000 g green meat
- Style
- Traditional fermented and dried sausage
Ingredients
- pork (base)70% · 700 g/kg
- beef30% · 300 g/kg
- black pepper0.4% · 4 g/kg
- garlic0.3% · 3 g/kg
- sea salt2.5% · 25 g/kg
- dry red wine1.5% · 15 g/kg
Method
- Mince meat and fat and mix with all ingredients to green meat weight.
- Stuff into casing.
- Ferment to the target pH.
- Dry to the target weight loss.
Notes
- This traditional recipe uses no nitrite. For safety we recommend adding Cure #2: in a low-oxygen, slow-dried product nitrite is the specific guard against Clostridium botulinum, while salt, acidity and drying control Salmonella, E. coli, Listeria and Staphylococcus.
In the Codex
What this product teaches, and where to read more.
Temple. Roof, Water Activity