Charcuterie comparisons: our no. 1 picks, product by product
For each family of charcuterie, we compared our product with the usual alternatives (supermarket, industrial, other formats) on criteria that can be read on any label: casing, label, ingredients, additives, meat content, curing, medals. Each time, we say which one is our no. 1 pick, and why.
The 8 comparisons
- Best artisan dry saucisson: handmade versus industrial.
- Best dry sausage: curved silver medal, straight bronze medal, industrial.
- Best Catalan fuet: Espetec Extra in natural casing versus standard fuet and saucisson.
- Best chorizo: additive-free PGI Chorizo Riojano versus industrial chorizo and cooking chorizo.
- Best lomo: Lomo Reserva 9 months versus standard lomo and Iberian lomo.
- Best Serrano ham: whole, taco, sliced and supermarket Serrano.
- Best whole boneless ham: Serrano TSG, Auvergne PGI, farmhouse 16-24 months, Bellota 36 months.
- Best charcuterie aperitif box: box of whole pieces versus sliced platter and subscription box.
How we rank
These rankings are our own. They do not rest on invented scores but on facts you can check: a label (PGI, TSG), a medal at the Concours Général Agricole (silver 2024 and bronze 2023 for our dry sausages), an ingredient list, a meat content (140 g of pork per 100 g of saucisson, 163 g per 100 g of chorizo), a curing time. When a competing product does better on a criterion, we say so; when our product has a limit (the lomo is not Iberian, the fuet contains preservatives), we say so too.
To go further: the charcuterie glossary and PGI, TSG, PDO explained.