A House of Bricks...and Meat: Les Trois Petits Cochons

Founded in 1975, Les Trois Petits Cochons was an American pioneer in the sale of French style charcuterie, pate and other meats. For many years, even after the advent of the internet, they stayed small and mostly East Coast focused.  Recently, they have had a change in management and seem to be branching out.

The company sent me a sample pack of pates, sausages, salami, duck confit and cornichon.

Chicken Sausage with Spinach and Gruyere

I'm not usually a huge fan of packaged, gourmet sausage, particularly chicken sausage, but these were great. It's a mild white sausage, sort of weisswurst-like, with a very subtle gruyere flavor. It's tasty and goes well with a nice, seeded mustard.

Saucisson Sec Aux Herbes de Provence

This was a delicious pork salami with a nice balance of spices and a light garlic note. While it's a dry salami, it's juicy and satisfyingly chewy, as opposed to some salamis that are harder.

Duck Confit

These are packaged confit of duck leg and thigh. I'm a big fan of duck confit. These are a little on the salty side but quite rich with great flavor. Shredded and lightly fried to crisp up the fat, the duck was fantastic in a salad, a sour vinaigrette providing a nice contrast to the duck's fat and salt.

Mousse Imperiale is a pork and chicken liver mousse with truffles. There isn't much truffle influence, but the pate itself is fantastic, my favorite of the three.

Terrine de Trois Rois is a terrine with layers of of Armagnac macerated prunes, duck foie gras and some sort of chicken sausage. The foie and macerated figs were great and went perfectly together, but the chicken was like an unwelcome guest at this party, its gelatinous texture a distraction from the creamy foie gras.

Wild Boar Pate is wild boar with pork and chicken liver pate, chestnuts and raisins. This was another great pate with sweet and savory notes.

Cornichons

These were pretty basic but tasty cornichon. Sour pickles are the perfect accompaniment to a charcuterie plate.


The overall quality of these products was outstanding. I would buy pretty much all of it again, and given how much I enjoyed the Trois Petits Cochons mousses, pates and sausages, I will certainly try other varieties.

Many Les Trois Petits Cochons items are available on Amazon, and their website also lists various markets that carry their products.