Chorizo
Spain’s most well known cured sausage
Perhaps the most well known cured sausage from Spain, chorizo is pork seasoned with pimentón (which gives chorizo its characteristic red colour) and garlic and stuffed into pig’s gut.
It is cured for around 50 days in a cool, dry place and sometime smoked with oak wood. Chorizo is usually classed as either picante (spicy) or dulce (sweet) depending on the pimentón used in the recipe. Chorizo ibérico is made with meat from the small, black Iberian pigs.
Different regional recipes have slightly different ingredients and herbs added to them. It is used in a wide range of tapas dishes, to add flavour to stews and is also eaten on its own.