mutton
Lamb, hogget, and mutton, generically sheep meat, are the meat of domestic sheep, ''Ovis aries''. A sheep in its first year is a lamb and its meat is also lamb. The meat from sheep in their second year is hogget. Older sheep meat is mutton. Gen ...
- or
beef
Beef is the culinary name for meat from cattle (''Bos taurus'').
In prehistoric times, humankind hunted aurochs and later domesticated them. Since that time, numerous breeds of cattle have been bred specifically for the quality or quantity ...
-based fresh sausage in
Maghrebi cuisine
Maghreb cuisine is the cooking of the Maghreb region, the northwesternmost part of Africa along the Mediterranean Sea, consisting of the countries of Algeria, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco, and Tunisia.
Well-known dishes from the region include ''c ...
. Since the late 20th century, it has been popular in France and Great Britain due to the large Algerian populations.
Merguez is a
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.
...
made with uncooked
lamb
Lamb or The Lamb may refer to:
* A young sheep
* Lamb and mutton, the meat of sheep
Arts and media Film, television, and theatre
* ''The Lamb'' (1915 film), a silent film starring Douglas Fairbanks Sr. in his screen debut
* ''The Lamb'' (1918 ...
,
beef
Beef is the culinary name for meat from cattle (''Bos taurus'').
In prehistoric times, humankind hunted aurochs and later domesticated them. Since that time, numerous breeds of cattle have been bred specifically for the quality or quantity ...
, or a mixture stuffed into a lamb-intestine casing. It is heavily spiced with
chili pepper
Chili peppers (also chile, chile pepper, chilli pepper, or chilli), from Nahuatl '' chīlli'' (), are varieties of the berry-fruit of plants from the genus ''Capsicum'', which are members of the nightshade family Solanaceae, cultivated for ...
or
harissa
Harissa ( ar, هريسة ''harīsa'', from Maghrebi Arabic) is a hot chili pepper paste, native to the Maghreb. The main ingredients are roasted red peppers, Baklouti peppers (), spices and herbs such as garlic paste, caraway seeds, coriander ...
, which give it its characteristic
piquancy
Pungency () refers to the taste of food commonly referred to as spiciness, hotness or heat, found in foods such as chili peppers. Highly pungent tastes may be experienced as unpleasant. The term piquancy () is sometimes applied to foods with a l ...
and red color, as well as other spices such as
sumac
Sumac ( or ), also spelled sumach, is any of about 35 species of flowering plants in the genus ''Rhus'' and related genera in the cashew family (Anacardiaceae). Sumacs grow in subtropical and temperate regions throughout the world, including Eas ...
,
fennel
Fennel (''Foeniculum vulgare'') is a flowering plant species in the carrot family. It is a hardy, perennial herb with yellow flowers and feathery leaves. It is indigenous to the shores of the Mediterranean but has become widely naturalized ...
and
garlic
Garlic (''Allium sativum'') is a species of bulbous flowering plant in the genus ''Allium''. Its close relatives include the onion, shallot, leek, chive, Allium fistulosum, Welsh onion and Allium chinense, Chinese onion. It is native to South A ...
.
Merguez is usually eaten
grilled
Grilling is a form of cooking that involves dry heat applied to the surface of food, commonly from above, below or from the side. Grilling usually involves a significant amount of direct, radiant heat, and tends to be used for cooking meat a ...
. While not in traditional maghrebi
couscous
Couscous ( '; ber, ⵙⴽⵙⵓ, translit=Seksu) – sometimes called kusksi or kseksu – is a Maghrebi dish of small steamed granules of rolled durum wheat semolina that is often served with a stew spooned on top. Pearl millet, sorghum, ...
, it is often used in
Couscous royal
Couscous ( '; ber, ⵙⴽⵙⵓ, translit=Seksu) – sometimes called kusksi or kseksu – is a Maghrebi dish of small steamed granules of rolled durum wheat semolina that is often served with a stew spooned on top. Pearl millet, sorghum, ...
in
France
France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...
. It is also eaten in sandwiches and with
french fries
French fries (North American English), chips (British English), finger chips ( Indian English), french-fried potatoes, or simply fries, are '' batonnet'' or ''allumette''-cut deep-fried potatoes of disputed origin from Belgium and France. Th ...
.
Etymology
There are several spellings in Arabic ( ''mirkas'', pl. ''marākis''; ''mirkās'', ''markas'' and ''mirqāz''). The hesitation between ''k'' and ''q'' probably reflects the pronunciation , for which there is no standard Arabic spelling; further confusing matters is that in some maghrebi dialects, Arabic
qāf
Qoph ( Phoenician Qōp ) is the nineteenth letter of the Semitic scripts. Aramaic Qop is derived from the Phoenician letter, and derivations from Aramaic include Hebrew Qof , Syriac Qōp̄ ܩ and Arabic .
Its original sound value was a We ...
is sometimes pronounced as , as an allophone of .Pellat, ''Encyclopaedia of Islam'', 2nd edition It is first attested in the 12th century, as ''mirkās'' or ''merkās''.''
Oxford English Dictionary
The ''Oxford English Dictionary'' (''OED'') is the first and foundational historical dictionary of the English language, published by Oxford University Press (OUP). It traces the historical development of the English language, providing a com ...
'', Third Edition, 2001, ''s.v.' merguez /ref>
The Arabic terminology for the food is also the likely origin of the Spanish names of the foodstuffs ''morcon'' and ''morcilla''.''
Trésor de la langue française
The ''Trésor de la langue française'' (''TLF'', subtitled ''Dictionnaire de la langue du XIXe et du XXe siècle (1789–1960)'') is a 16-volume dictionary of 19th- and 20th-century French published by the ''Centre de Recherche pour un Trésor ...
List of African dishes
There is a list of dishes found in African cuisine, a generalized term collectively referring to the cuisines of Africa. The continent of Africa is the second-largest landmass on Earth, and is home to hundreds of different cultural and Ethnic gro ...
*
Berber cuisine
The Amazigh (Berber) cuisine is a traditional cuisine with a varied history and influence of numerous flavours from distinct regions across North Africa. The traditional cuisine draws influences from Morocco's Atlas mountains and heavily populated ...
*
Maghrebi cuisine
Maghreb cuisine is the cooking of the Maghreb region, the northwesternmost part of Africa along the Mediterranean Sea, consisting of the countries of Algeria, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco, and Tunisia.
Well-known dishes from the region include ''c ...
Notes
References
* Davidson, Alan, "Merguez", ''Oxford Companion to Food'' (1999), p. 497.
* Ch. Pellat, Mirkās , ''
Encyclopaedia of Islam
The ''Encyclopaedia of Islam'' (''EI'') is an encyclopaedia of the academic discipline of Islamic studies published by Brill. It is considered to be the standard reference work in the field of Islamic studies. The first edition was published in ...