Diots in white wine – Diots au vin blanc
Diots au Vin Blanc, this is a local Savoyard dish often found on the plat de jour menus during the winter months. The Diots (pronounced deeyo) are sausages – very meaty and flavourful sausages. The traditional way of cooking them is in white wine, but they are also good roasted or grilled, in a casserole and great cold in a sandwich too with Dijon mustard.
Diots are about 10 – 15cm long and quite thick up to about 5cm. They are quite dense and tightly packed with meat. They are a dark pink colour with a soft texture. They are made up of a minced shoulder of pork without fat, bacon rind and pork fat and are seasoned with garlic, salt and pepper. Diots can be found in different flavours the most common being nature and smoked. There is also a Diots Cabbage (Diots au choux) these are made exclusively with bacon and cabbage. The traditional Diots in white wine are served with Crozets (or polenta) and buttered cabbage.
There are many similar recipes, this is a melange of a few recipes I found and the dish tasted great! but I can’t vouch for the authenticity! However, if you ask a local Savoyard they all have their own favourite recipe. Often when there is a fête in the villages and at some local food markets Diots au vin blanc is one of the main dishes of the day (plat du jour)
Ingredients:
8 Diots nature
1 bottle of white wine from Savoie region – I used Apremont
2 onions – sliced finely
2 garlic cloves – chopped finely
1-2 bay leaves – optional
2 tablespoons of flour
good large knob of unsalted butter
Method
Grill the Diots to brown them – be careful as they do spit fat. In a large casserole type saucepan heat the butter and add the sliced onions and sauté until soft, translucent and lightly coloured, halfway through cooking the onions add the chopped garlic.
Add the flour to the onion mixture and cook for a minute continually stirring, then add the bottle of white wine stirring all the time until thoroughly mixed together, add the bay leaves. If at this stage you find the mixture too thick add a little water.
Arrange the Diots in the pan on top of the onions and cook/simmer covered for around 45 minutes. Season to taste.
I served them with Crozets pasta mixed with onions and Beaufort cheese and a green salad. This recipe would work well with creamy mashed potato too!
A local Savoie wine such as Apremont or Chignin Bergeron would go well with this dish. Bon appetit!
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Looks delicious! I haven’t been able to find diots in the US, hope to try this recipe next time I visit France.
Many sausages have breadcrumbs or some other starch that serves to bind moisture and fat, keeping the sausages moist and flavorful. I try to avoid gluten and I did not see a filler in your description. Do you know if diots have bread or a different, non-gluten binder in them?
I did find Crozets on Amazon and am now hunting for Beaufort cheese to make your side dish.
Thanks for the lovely post with photos and recipes and for any info you may be able to give me!
Thank you very much, these are very good sausages, specific to the Savoie region, they are quite strong flavoured. I’m not sure if they contain a binding agent, I will check next time I see a packet. Great that you could get Crozets and I hope you find Beaufort cheese there.