Portuguese chorizo, known as chouriço, is a culinary masterpiece crafted from carefully selected pork meat and fat. The blend of flavors is enhanced with aromatic ingredients such as paprika, garlic, salt, and a touch of white wine.
Chouriço
Chouriço is the most versatile Portuguese sausage and a staple petisco in the local tascas. Made with pork meat, it's similar to Spanish chorizo, but has less paprika than its neighbor to the east, and tastes a bit smokier.
Linguiça (Portuguese pronunciation: [lĩˈɡwisɐ]) is a Brazilian and Portuguese sausage made from pork and seasoned with onion, garlic, paprika and other spices. It can be used fresh in cooked preparations or undergo a curing and preservation process through smoking.
Portuguese linguica (lin-GWEE-sah) and chouriço (sho-REE-zoh) and Spanish chorizo (chorr-EE-zoh) are all cured and smoked sausages from the Iberian Peninsula. But they seem to sow confusion—there's even a common misconception that chouriço and chorizo are different names for the same product.
Yes, they are similar, but they are not the same. Portuguese chourico and Mexican/Spanish chorizo are both spiced pork sausages. However, Mexican chorizo is fresh and not fully cooked, and Spanish chorizo is cured. Portuguese chourico is a smoked sausage, so it is fully cooked and ready to eat.
Portuguese: chouriço [ʃo(w)ˈɾisu] Spanish: chorizo [tʃoˈɾiθo], [tʃoˈɾiso]
Some similar sausages exist in the Italian cooking tradition, for example musetto and zampone which are made with different meat and parts of the pig, musetto being made with meat taken from the pig's muzzle and zampone being held together by the pig's rear leg skin.
Chorizo can be bought as a whole sausage of either soft cooking chorizo – which must be cooked before eating – or a firmer, drier cured sausage that can be sliced and eaten without cooking. It is also sold thinly sliced, like salami, to be enjoyed raw as tapas.
Contains a high amount of risky components that may include saturated fat, cholesterol and sodium (0.05%/oz). Good source of proteins (48% of DV/100g). Relatively high in saturated fat (72% of DV/100g). This item has no fiber content (0% of DV/100g).
Linguica (Ling-GWEE-zuh) is a pork sausage heavily spiced with paprika, chiles and garlic. There are all sorts of variations, but linguica is normally a coarse, country sausage, and it is often smoked.
Alheira (Portuguese pronunciation: [ɐˈʎɐjɾɐ]) is a type of Portuguese sausage, made with meats (usually pork, veal, duck, chicken, quail or rabbit) and bread.
Longaniza (Spanish pronunciation: [loŋɡaˈniθa], or American Spanish: [loŋɡaˈnisa]) is a Spanish sausage (embutido) similar to a chorizo and also closely associated with the Portuguese linguiça. Its defining characteristics are interpreted differently from region to region.
Its Origins. Much like the many things that are popular in the “new world,” chorizo originated in the Iberian Peninsula, which mainly composes Spain and Portugal.
Linguica is a Portuguese specialty that is closely related to Spanish-style chorizo or Portuguese chouriҫo. It's also a prominent ingredient in Brazilian cuisine, reflecting influences from early Portuguese colonists in Brazil. Andouille sausage, on the other hand, has roots in Medieval France.
Gyulai kolbász or Gyulai pároskolbász PGI is a renowned Hungarian smoked and cured sausage. It is named after the town of Gyula, one of the locations where it is produced, the other being the town of Békéscsaba.
What distinguishes the chouriço from the Spanish chorizo? While the Spanish chorizo is cured, the Portuguese chouriço is a smoked sausage, which means it is fully cooked and ready to eat.
What differentiates cotechino and zampone is the part of the pig in which the meat is prepared. Traditionally, zampone is the lower leg, or 'trotter' of the pig with the central bone removed, while cotechino is made from filling the intestines.
Cotechino and lentils is a typical dish for New Year's Eve that is believed to bring luck and proseprity in the New Year.
It is flavoured with paprika, garlic and salt, and often contains chilli, so can be spicy. Unlike kransky, chorizo is not generally served whole, rather, chopped and fried and added to scrambled eggs, rice, pasta, soup or stews. Kransky is hot-smoked, but generally requires further cooking.
Both Mexican and Spanish chorizo are must-tries, but they're not total twinsies. “Mexican-style chorizo is actually raw meat that's been heavily seasoned with dry chilies and aromatic spices like cinnamon and clove. Spanish chorizo is a hard sausage that's been cured like a salami,” explains Sánchez.
The two most commonly sold types of chorizo are Mexican and Spanish, both of which have differences in their preparations and seasonings. They're both often made with pork, though Mexican chorizo can be made with other proteins.