Give me a plate of cold meats a little cheese, crusty bread and a few
glasses of wine and I am a happy chap. Spanish preferably...
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Butifarra - a speciality of Catalonia Butifarra, is a cooked sausage made from chopped lean pork, just occassionally having a little chopped mushroom in addition to salt and pepper. Sold in strings for grilling or in larger rounds for slicing and serving cold.
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Cecina - most produced around Leon. Made from beef, cecina is salted and smoked over oak before air-curing for upwards of six months. More intense than the Italian equivalent Bresaola.
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Chorizo - perhaps the most well known of Spanish meats with its distinctive colouring hailing from the use of pimenton (a Spanish paprika). Made from pork and pork fat. Available in all shapes and sizes.
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Jamon - air-cured ham and the king of charcuterie in Spain. Sliced as required from a whole leg or pre-sliced and vacuum packed. Varieties include Jamon Serrano and Jamon Iberico.
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Lomo - a complete loin of pork with all fat removed is coated with a dry marinade of garlic, nutmeg, salt and pimenton. This is stuffed into a casing and air-cured for at least six months. Delicate in flavour.
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Morcilla - blood sausage/black pudding. Highly spiced with cloves, nutmeg, cinnamon, and anise. Often plumped up with onions or pine nuts. Sold pre-sliced or in thick chunks.
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Salchichon - when chorizo has the pimenton replaced with pepper (black or white) it becomes Salchichon. Often studded with peppercorns much like a salami. A fuet is a thinner version from Catalonia.
Most of the pork based products are made from the standard white pig found throughout Europe. More select and thus more expensive Jamon Iberico is a native breed with a very small production. Lomo, Chorizo and Salchichon can be made from either variety. If the label doesnt say lomo iberico, chorizo iberico or salchichon iberico then it is made from the more common pig.
Bellota is acorn in Spanish and indicates that the animal has been given free range to eat the acorns widly planted across Spain. Eating acorns adds a distinctive nutty taste tot he meat. Recebo indicates mostly acorn fed (grains make up the rest of the feed). Pata negra identifies top quality jamon iberico - sadly with prices to match.
Cheese Course: Brebis Pardou
A transcendent summer tomato salad
Sliced bread turns 80 today
