A chipolata ( (British) or (American)) is a type of small

sausage A sausage is a type of meat product usually made from ground meat—often pork, beef, or poultry—along with salt, spices and other flavourings. Other ingredients, such as grains or breadcrumbs, may be included as fillers or extenders. ...

, usually containing minced pork, or sometimes minced chicken.

History

In the '' Oxford Companion to Food'', Alan Davidson gives the derivation of the name as the Italian , meaning a dish containing onion ( being the Italian for onion), but adds that the sausages called chipolatas contain no onions: "the origin of this usage is a mystery". Both Davidson and the ''

Oxford English Dictionary The ''Oxford English Dictionary'' (''OED'') is the principal historical dictionary of the English language, published by Oxford University Press (OUP), a University of Oxford publishing house. The dictionary, which published its first editio ...

'' give instances of early French and English uses of the Italian-derived term to mean dishes containing onions and small sausages. (1740) gives a recipe for chicken wings à la chipolata, which includes – small blanched onions and little sausages gently cooked in fat. A 1750 English cookery book refers to "Tendrons of veal ", and "Fillets of pork ". In the nineteenth century Louis Ude in his ''The French Cook'' (1816) gives a recipe for "Tendrons of veal " which includes the direction, "take a few small sausages, some small onions stewed very white". Davidson suggests that the French came to apply the term "chipolata" to the sausages rather than the accompanying onions. By the 1830s the name had widely been transferred to the sausages. Richard Dolby in ''The Cook's Dictionary and Housekeeper's Directory'' (1832), gives a recipe for stuffed goose containing "twenty chipolata sausages re-cooked twenty large mushrooms, twenty truffles" etc. The Comte de Courchamps, in his (1853) defines chipolata as "a kind of stew of Italian origin", and gives a recipe calling for "twelve little sausages called ".

Content

Davidson writes that "chipolatas are popular in France, where they are finger width, relatively long, and usually pan fried".Davidson, pp. 174–175 In both American and English usage, chipolatas are small sausages, including the very small cocktail sausages and other miniature versions of ordinary sausages. They are typically made from minced

pork Pork is the culinary name for the meat of the pig (''Sus domesticus''). It is the most commonly consumed meat worldwide, with evidence of pig animal husbandry, husbandry dating back to 8000–9000 BCE. Pork is eaten both freshly cooke ...

seasoned with salt and , a mixture that may contain ground

bay leaf The bay leaf is an aromatic leaf commonly used as a herb in cooking. It can be used whole, either dried or fresh, in which case it is removed from the dish before consumption, or less commonly used in ground form. The flavour that a bay lea ...

basil Basil (, ; , ; ''Ocimum basilicum'' (, )), also called great basil, is a culinary herb of the family Lamiaceae (mints). It is a hardiness (plants), tender plant, and is used in cuisines worldwide. In Western cuisine, the generic term "basil" r ...

cinnamon Cinnamon is a spice obtained from the inner bark of several tree species from the genus ''Cinnamomum''. Cinnamon is used mainly as an aromatic condiment and flavouring additive in a wide variety of cuisines, sweet and savoury dishes, biscuits, b ...

clove Cloves are the aromatic flower buds of a tree in the family Myrtaceae, ''Syzygium aromaticum'' (). They are native to the Maluku Islands, or Moluccas, in Indonesia, and are commonly used as a spice, flavoring, or Aroma compound, fragrance in fin ...

, mace,

marjoram Marjoram (, ''Origanum majorana'') is a cold-sensitive perennial plant, perennial herb or undershrub with sweet pine and citrus flavours. In some Middle Eastern countries, marjoram is synonymous with oregano, and there the names sweet marjoram ...

oregano Oregano (, ; ''Origanum vulgare'') is a species of flowering plant in the mint family, Lamiaceae. It was native to the Mediterranean region, but widely naturalised elsewhere in the temperate climate, temperate Northern Hemisphere. Oregano is a ...

nutmeg Nutmeg is the seed, or the ground spice derived from the seed, of several tree species of the genus '' Myristica''; fragrant nutmeg or true nutmeg ('' M. fragrans'') is a dark-leaved evergreen tree cultivated for two spices derived from its fru ...

paprika Paprika is a spice made from dried and ground red peppers, traditionally ''capsicum annuum''. It can have varying levels of Pungency, heat, but the peppers used for hot paprika tend to be milder and have thinner flesh than those used to produce ...

, sage,

thyme Thyme () is a culinary herb consisting of the dried aerial parts of some members of the genus ''Thymus (plant), Thymus'' of flowering plants in the mint family Lamiaceae. Thymes are native to Eurasia and north Africa. Thymes have culinary, medici ...

and

white pepper Black pepper (''Piper nigrum'') is a flowering vine in the family Piperaceae, cultivated for its fruit (the peppercorn), which is usually dried and used as a spice and seasoning. The fruit is a drupe (stonefruit) which is about in diameter (f ...

. Chicken chipolatas are also on sale in France and Britain. Chipolatas are popular in Britain. They frequently appear as part of a

Christmas dinner Christmas dinner is a meal traditionally eaten at Christmas. This meal can take place any time from the evening of Christmas Eve to the evening of Christmas Day itself. The meals are often particularly rich and substantial, in the tradition of t ...

wrapped in streaky bacon as pigs in blankets. In French cuisine, a consists of onions, chipolata sausages, chestnuts, salt pork, and sometimes carrots and olives, in a demiglace sauce.Escoffier, p. 39

References

Sources

* * * * * *

History

Content

References

Sources

See also