Linguíça do Baixo Alentejo

Appearance & taste

The sausage is horseshoe-shaped, 30 cm long and 3 to 4.5 cm thick, tightly filled and tied at both ends with cotton thread. On the outside it has a matt sheen and is reddish with white spots; its consistency is semi-firm to firm. When cut, the meat and fat are distributed irregularly, so that it looks marbled. The fat is whitish and pearly, glossy and aromatic.

It tastes soft, slightly salty and sometimes tangy and a little hot, and smells slightly smoky. It is sold whole, in a piece or sliced, prepacked at the place of origin. The label carries the name with the addition “Indicação Geográfica Protegida”, the Community logo and a numbered certification mark with which each sausage can be traced back to the farm.

Production

The meat comes from Alentejano pigs that are entered in the breed’s herd book and are kept extensively to semi-extensively, mainly outdoors, on farms with holm or cork oak woodland. Meat from the leg, loin, belly and shoulder is used, as well as fat, 70 to 80 % lean and 20 to 30 % fat. They are cut up by hand or by machine.

The meat and fat are mixed with salt, sweet pepper paste, crushed garlic, white wine from the region, cumin, red pepper and pepper; the spices are first soaked in water, according to the specification a method typical of the region. The mixture rests for 1 to 2 days at no more than 10 °C and about 80 to 90 % humidity. It is then filled into salted natural pork casings. Smoking takes place over very dry holm or cork oak wood for 3 to 10 days depending on the weather, 3 to 4 days in summer and 5 to 6 days in winter. Cutting and storage also take place only in the processing area.

Origin & history

The pigs come from a large area bounded by the existing oak woodland. It includes municipalities such as Évora, Beja, Portalegre, Castelo Branco, Idanha-a-Nova and Sabugal as well as individual parishes in Loulé, Silves and Tavira. The sausage itself is made only in the municipalities of Aljustrel, Beja, Castro Verde, Cuba, Ferreira do Alentejo, Mértola, Moura, Serpa and Vidigueira in the district of Beja and in Alcoutim, Cachopo, Odeleite and Azinhal in the district of Faro, according to the specification because of the special seasoning and the local method of production.

According to the specification, pork was already eaten in the Baixo Alentejo in the Bronze Age, as finds in megalithic tombs show; further evidence dates from the Celtic period in the 4th century BC. The Romans found acorn fattening and native spice plants already established, and the Moors brought new spices into the cuisine. For centuries the pigs were kept extensively on the acorns of the cork oaks, sometimes in communal sties that existed in the Alentejo until a few years ago. The art of sausage-making arose in order to preserve the meat all year round. According to the specification, this sausage differs from the other sausages of the Alentejo in its spices.