![Matanceres](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/03/Matanceres.JPG)
Sobrassada in
Balearic or Sobrasada in
Spanish
Spanish might refer to:
* Items from or related to Spain:
**Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain
**Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries
**Spanish cuisine
Other places
* Spanish, Ontario, Cana ...
, is a raw,
cured 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.
...
from the
Balearic Islands
The Balearic Islands ( es, Islas Baleares ; or ca, Illes Balears ) are an archipelago in the Balearic Sea, near the eastern coast of the Iberian Peninsula. The archipelago is an autonomous community and a province of Spain; its capital is ...
(
Spain
, image_flag = Bandera de España.svg
, image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg
, national_motto = ''Plus ultra'' (Latin)(English: "Further Beyond")
, national_anthem = (English: "Royal March")
, i ...
) made with ground
pork
Pork is the culinary name for the meat of the domestic pig (''Sus domesticus''). It is the most commonly consumed meat worldwide, with evidence of pig husbandry dating back to 5000 BCE.
Pork is eaten both freshly cooked and preserved; ...
,
paprika
Paprika ( US , ; UK , ) is a spice made from dried and ground red peppers. It is traditionally made from ''Capsicum annuum'' varietals in the Longum group, which also includes chili peppers, but the peppers used for paprika tend to be milder an ...
and salt and other
spice
A spice is a seed, fruit, root, bark, or other plant substance primarily used for flavoring or coloring food. Spices are distinguished from herbs, which are the leaves, flowers, or stems of plants used for flavoring or as a garnish. Spices a ...
s. Sobrassada, along with , are traditional Balearic meat products prepared in the laborious but festive rites that still mark the autumn and winter
pig slaughter
Pig slaughter is the work of slaughtering domestic pigs which is both a common economic activity as well as a traditional feast in some European and Asian countries.
Agriculture
Pig slaughter is an activity performed to obtain pig meat (pork). ...
known as a in
Minorca
Menorca or Minorca (from la, Insula Minor, , smaller island, later ''Minorica'') is one of the Balearic Islands located in the Mediterranean Sea belonging to Spain. Its name derives from its size, contrasting it with nearby Majorca. Its capita ...
,
Majorca
Mallorca, or Majorca, is the largest island in the Balearic Islands, which are part of Spain and located in the Mediterranean.
The capital of the island, Palma, is also the capital of the autonomous community of the Balearic Islands. The Bal ...
and
Ibiza
Ibiza (natively and officially in ca, Eivissa, ) is a Spanish island in the Mediterranean Sea off the eastern coast of the Iberian Peninsula. It is from the city of Valencia. It is the third largest of the Balearic Islands, in Spain. Its l ...
. The chemical principle that makes is the
dehydration
In physiology, dehydration is a lack of total body water, with an accompanying disruption of metabolic processes. It occurs when free water loss exceeds free water intake, usually due to exercise, disease, or high environmental temperature. Mil ...
of meat under certain weather conditions (high humidity and mild cold) which are typical of the late Balearic autumn.
History
After centuries of
Muslim rule of the Iberian Peninsula, pork consumption returned to the region in the
Middle Ages
In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire a ...
.
Paprika
Paprika ( US , ; UK , ) is a spice made from dried and ground red peppers. It is traditionally made from ''Capsicum annuum'' varietals in the Longum group, which also includes chili peppers, but the peppers used for paprika tend to be milder an ...
was added after the spice was brought back from
the Americas
The Americas, which are sometimes collectively called America, are a landmass comprising the totality of North America, North and South America. The Americas make up most of the land in Earth's Western Hemisphere and comprise the New World. ...
in the 15th century. Sobrassada is thought to have originated and expanded, as a culinary concept, in the
Crown of Aragon
The Crown of Aragon ( , ) an, Corona d'Aragón ; ca, Corona d'Aragó, , , ; es, Corona de Aragón ; la, Corona Aragonum . was a composite monarchy ruled by one king, originated by the dynastic union of the Kingdom of Aragon and the County of B ...
-controlled
Western Mediterranean
The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean Basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Western and Southern Europe and Anatolia, on the south by North Africa, and on the eas ...
(
Sicily
(man) it, Siciliana (woman)
, population_note =
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, population_blank1 =
, demographics_type1 = Ethnicity
, demographics1_footnotes =
, demographi ...
,
Balearic Islands
The Balearic Islands ( es, Islas Baleares ; or ca, Illes Balears ) are an archipelago in the Balearic Sea, near the eastern coast of the Iberian Peninsula. The archipelago is an autonomous community and a province of Spain; its capital is ...
,
Sardinia
Sardinia ( ; it, Sardegna, label=Italian, Corsican and Tabarchino ; sc, Sardigna , sdc, Sardhigna; french: Sardaigne; sdn, Saldigna; ca, Sardenya, label=Algherese and Catalan) is the second-largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, after ...
) after the 14th century, as similar sausages are still made in this region.
In a traditional
Mediterranean diet
The Mediterranean diet is a diet inspired by the eating habits of people who live near the Mediterranean Sea. When initially formulated in the 1960s, it drew on the cuisines of Greece, Italy, France and Spain. In decades since, it has also incor ...
, containing little meat, as Mallorca had until the 1950s, sobrassada and related pork sausages were the main and sometimes only sources of pork for Mallorcans. Larger meat cuts such as pork or lamb roasts,
pork steak
A pork steak, also called Boston butt or pork blade steak, is a steak cut from the shoulder of the pig.
Pork steaks are mentioned as far back as 1739, though without details about how they were cut or how they were cooked.
Shoulder steaks are c ...
s or beef cuts were largely festive dishes, or restricted to the well-off. Even today dishes such as , a whole roasted suckling pig, are only served on special occasions.
Ingredients and varieties
Sobrassada is made with a choice of pork loin, pork bacon (locally called ), minced and mixed with paprika, salt and black pepper at the ends (to deter insects). Some makers also add cayenne pepper to the mixture and market it as , hot. Then the mixture is put into a pork intestine, and hung from a pole for some weeks until it is cured. The string which is tied around the intestine can be used to differentiate between the hot and the (literally "sweet", though in this case meaning "not spicy") varieties, the red or red and white string being the hot one.
Small, thin sobrassades are called , and are made from the small intestine. Bigger and thicker ones are called or , and the largest type are huge
pork bladders called or ("bishop"). Thicker varieties take longer to cure, staggering its consumption through the year (thinner during winter, thicker during summer-autumn).
Sobrassada outside the Balearic Islands
Four geographical areas in the Mediterranean, apart from the Balearic Islands, have close links to sobrassada for different reasons:
# In colonial
Algeria
)
, image_map = Algeria (centered orthographic projection).svg
, map_caption =
, image_map2 =
, capital = Algiers
, coordinates =
, largest_city = capital
, relig ...
, sobrassada, named , was part of the
pied-noir
The ''Pieds-Noirs'' (; ; ''Pied-Noir''), are the people of French people, French and other White Africans of European ancestry, European descent who were born in Algeria during the French Algeria, period of French rule from 1830 to 1962; the v ...
cuisine and extremely popular until the independence and re-Islamisation of the country; pork is forbidden by Islam. Today can only be found in continental France, in butcher shops run by
pieds-noirs
The ''Pieds-Noirs'' (; ; ''Pied-Noir''), are the people of French and other European descent who were born in Algeria during the period of French rule from 1830 to 1962; the vast majority of whom departed for mainland France as soon as Alger ...
. Algerians however, enjoy a
halal
''Halal'' (; ar, حلال, ) is an Arabic word that translates to "permissible" in English. In the Quran, the word ''halal'' is contrasted with ''haram'' (forbidden). This binary opposition was elaborated into a more complex classification kno ...
version of the made with beef instead of pork.
# In
Catalonia
Catalonia (; ca, Catalunya ; Aranese Occitan: ''Catalonha'' ; es, Cataluña ) is an autonomous community of Spain, designated as a ''nationality'' by its Statute of Autonomy.
Most of the territory (except the Val d'Aran) lies on the north ...
, due to the shared history and culture with the Balearic Islands, sobrassada and other native pork products can be found. The eastern Pyrenees are known for a mountain version of sobrassada.
# The village of
Tàrbena
(, es, Tárbena) is a municipality in the of , Alicante, Valencia, Spain.
History
It had been subjected to religious de-population and later re-population by an entirely different race of people. At the time of the Spanish Inquisition it was ...
, in the province of
Alicante
Alicante ( ca-valencia, Alacant) is a city and municipality in the Valencian Community, Spain. It is the capital of the province of Alicante and a historic Mediterranean port. The population of the city was 337,482 , the second-largest in t ...
, was re-populated after the
expulsion of the Moriscos
The Expulsion of the Moriscos ( es, Expulsión de los moriscos) was decreed by King Philip III of Spain on April 9, 1609. The Moriscos were descendants of Spain's Muslim population who had been forced to convert to Christianity. Since the Spani ...
with colonists from
Majorca
Mallorca, or Majorca, is the largest island in the Balearic Islands, which are part of Spain and located in the Mediterranean.
The capital of the island, Palma, is also the capital of the autonomous community of the Balearic Islands. The Bal ...
, who brought along several traditions from the island, including their own variant of the
Catalan language
Catalan (; autonym: , ), known in the Valencian Community and Carche as ''Valencian'' (autonym: ), is a Western Romance language. It is the official language of Andorra, and an official language of three autonomous communities in eastern Spa ...
and foods such as sobrasada, still made there.
# In the island of
Sicily
(man) it, Siciliana (woman)
, population_note =
, population_blank1_title =
, population_blank1 =
, demographics_type1 = Ethnicity
, demographics1_footnotes =
, demographi ...
and in
Calabria
, population_note =
, population_blank1_title =
, population_blank1 =
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, demographics1_footnotes =
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, demographics1_info1 =
, demographics1_title2 ...
, a similar sausage has been made under the name since the 15th century or longer.
Botifarró and other Majorcan sausages
is a pork intestine filled with coarsely ground pork cuts, including liver, and spiced with salt, pepper and
aniseed
Anise (; '), also called aniseed or rarely anix is a flowering plant in the family Apiaceae native to Eurasia.
The flavor and aroma of its seeds have similarities with some other spices and herbs, such as star anise, fennel, licorice, and tar ...
, which gives this sausage its characteristic flavour. The sausages are boiled and eaten immediately. is specific to Mallorca, but very similar sausages can be found in the Spanish provinces of
Tarragona
Tarragona (, ; Phoenician: ''Tarqon''; la, Tarraco) is a port city located in northeast Spain on the Costa Daurada by the Mediterranean Sea. Founded before the fifth century BC, it is the capital of the Province of Tarragona, and part of Tar ...
,
Castelló,
València
Valencia ( va, València) is the capital of the autonomous community of Valencia and the third-most populated municipality in Spain, with 791,413 inhabitants. It is also the capital of the province of the same name. The wider urban area also ...
and
Alacant
Alicante ( ca-valencia, Alacant) is a city and municipality in the Valencian Community, Spain. It is the capital of the province of Alicante and a historic Mediterranean port. The population of the city was 337,482 , the second-largest in the ...
. Other pork products typical from the cuisine of Mallorca are , and (
pancetta
Pancetta () is a salt-cured pork belly meat product in a category known as salume. In Italy, it is often used to add depth to soups and pastas. (in Italian).
Uses
For cooking, it is often cut into cubes (''cubetti di pancetta''). In Italy, ...
).
See also
*
Soppressata
Soppressata is an Italian dry salami. Although there are many variations, two principal types are made: a cured dry sausage typical of Basilicata, Apulia, and Calabria, and a very different uncured salame, made in Tuscany and Liguria.
It ...
*
Nduja
'Nduja () is a spicy, spreadable pork sausage from the region of Calabria in Southern Italy. It is similar to sobrassada from the Balearic Islands in Spain, and is loosely based on the French andouille. It is Calabria's contribution to the m ...
References
External links
*http://www.sobrasadademallorca.org/ The regulatory board website
*https://web.archive.org/web/20051202010101/http://www.spain.info/TourSpain/Gastronomia/Productos%2By%2BRecetas/Productos/D/0/Sobrasada
{{Sausage
Spanish sausages
Balearic cuisine
Fermented sausages