Salsiccia is a universal name for different types of fresh Italian sausage. It usually refers to a sausage made with minced or ground pork meat, pork fat, and numerous spices. The mixture is stuffed into a natural pork or sheep casing, and it is rarely cured or smoked.
It is sold fresh and intended for grilling or frying. Although there are some disambiguations, it is believed that the original salsiccia was created in the region of Basilicata, but the use of fresh sausages has become so common that each Italian region has their typical salsiccia type.
MOST ICONIC Salsiccia
View moreChistorra is a fast-cured sausage made from pork, either from the belly or the jowl. Minced pork is sometimes combined with minced beef, and the sausage is traditionally flavored with garlic, salt, and paprika, which gives the sausage its characteristical red color.
This versatile sausage can be fried, grilled, or baked, and it is often used for tapas or as an accompaniment to other dishes. It can be found in the Basque Country, Aragon, and Navarre.
MOST ICONIC Chistorra
Boerewors is a South African sausage that's shaped into a coil and must contain at least 90% meat, while the other 10% consists of spices (nutmeg, allspice, cloves, black pepper...) and other ingredients. The fat in the meat must not exceed 30%.
The sausage must contain beef, but it can also have lamb, pork, or a combination of both, while offal or mechanically processed meat is forbidden. The name boerewors is derived from two words – boer, which means farmer, and wors, which means sausage.
Boerewors is traditionally grilled on the braai (South African barbecue), and it's usually served with pap and sous (sauce).
MAIN INGREDIENTS
Merguez is a spicy, flavorful sausage that originates from North Africa, particularly Algeria, Tunisia, and Morocco. It is traditionally made from ground lamb or beef, or a combination of both. Merguez is known for its distinctive red color, which comes from the addition of spices such as paprika, chili pepper, and harissa (a hot chili paste).
Other common seasonings include cumin, garlic, coriander, fennel, and sumac. The sausages are typically stuffed into lamb casings and can be grilled, pan-fried, or used in a variety of dishes, including stews, tagines, and couscous. Merguez is popular in North African cuisine and has also become widely enjoyed in France and other parts of Europe.
The filling for this traditional smoked delicacy is made by combining small pieces of meat and bread. This sausage is traditionally smoked using olive or oak wood, which gives it a unique flavor, aroma, and color while enhancing the flavor of the spices. Mirandela sausage contains beef and pork meat along with fat, poultry meat, wheat bread, olive oil, and lard, and it's flavored and seasoned with salt, garlic, and sweet or hot paprika.
This sausage is an irreplaceable ingredient in traditional Portuguese dishes such as açorda, cannelones, and pies, but it can also be served as a main dish with a side of potatoes or vegetables.
MOST ICONIC Alheira de Mirandela
The municipality of Vinhais is the fumeiro (smokehouse) capital of the Trás-os-Montes region, and it produces some of the best cured meat products in the world. Vinhais sausage is a smoked sausage made with cooked meat of locally raised bísaro pigs, which is only lightly flavored and seasoned with salt, garlic, and paprika.
After the meat has been cooked, bread is added to the mixture before it's stuffed into sausage casings. Vinhais sausage has a yellowish-brown color and a very pleasant, uniqe aroma and flavor. Alheira de Vinhais can be eaten fried, oven-roasted, or grilled, and it is typically served with a side of boiled or fried potatoes and cooked vegetables.
Chorizo is a Spanish sausage consisting of chopped pork meat and fat that is seasoned with paprika, and sometimes garlic. The combination of these ingredients is then stuffed into a natural casing. Chorizo is characterized by its red color, due to the usage of special paprika known as pimenton, which is the key ingredient that differentiates the Spanish chorizo from other similar sausages.
It has a unique, hearty, and spicy flavor. Different version of chorizo also exist in countries such as Mexico, Puerto Rico, Ecuador, Panama, Argentino, Bolivia, Peru, Colombia, and Uruguay. Some claim that chorizo has origins in the Catalan xoriço, while others say that it has roots in morcilla, or blood sausage.
MOST ICONIC Chorizo
View moreMAIN INGREDIENTS
Sucuk or sujuk is a semi-dry, spicy sausage with a high fat content, popular in Middle Eastern, Balkan and Central Asian cuisines. It is traditionally prepared with ground beef and spices such as cumin, salt, paprika, and garlic. The sausage should be dried for at least three weeks before consumption.
It can be served cold and sliced thinly, but it is more commonly fried and paired with eggs and vegetables. In Lebanon, it is often consumed with tomatoes and garlic sauce in a pita bread, while in Syria, Egypt, Iraq, and Israel, sucuk is often used as a pastry topping.
MOST ICONIC Sucuk
View moreMAIN INGREDIENTS
Nürnberger Bratwürste are small, thin sausages originating from the city of Nürnberg in the Franconia region of Bavaria, Germany. They are typically about 7 to 9 centimeters (2.75 to 3.5 inches) long and weigh around 20 to 25 grams each, making them much smaller and thinner compared to other types of German sausages.
The sausages are made from finely ground pork, often mixed with a blend of spices that typically includes marjoram, salt, pepper, and sometimes a hint of ginger or nutmeg, with marjoram being a signature ingredient that gives them their distinctive flavor.
Kiełbasa wędzona is a type of traditional Polish smoked kiełbasa. It is prepared with ground pork meat which is cured before it is seasoned with salt, pepper, sugar, garlic, and (optionally) marjoram. The ground meat mixture is then placed into a large ring-shaped casing and cold-smoked for 1 to 1.5 days, even though these days it is usually hot-smoked as the hot smoking allows for easier and faster cooking of the sausage.
Smoked Polish kiełbasa is originally prepared only with pork, but there’s another version of this authentic sausage that the Polish Government introduced in 1964, which consists of 80% pork and 20% beef. This classic kiełbasa is usually baked, grilled, or added to traditional Polish soups, including kapusniak cabbage soup.
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