Morcilla de Burgos
A spicy famous Specialty from Castilla y León, Spain
Burgos (northern city in Spain) produces one of the most well-know and typical products in the Spanish gastronomy: Morcilla de Burgos, a spicy black pudding.
At least in Spain, when somebody says “morcilla”, it becomes almost inevitable to go on saying: … “de Burgos!” Its literal translation is “Black Pudding from Burgos”, or “Burgos Black Pudding”. But, what’s exactly “morcilla”?
People from Burgos prefer not to tell the ingredients of this black pudding until someone who has never tasted it before does. Why? Here’s the reason… blood! Yes, the main component of “morcilla” is blood. But there are more ingredients: onion, lard, salt, “pimentón” (depending on every location, more or less quantity and varieties). “Pimentón” is a spicy red powder very common in northern Spain gastronomy. That’s why it is also known in English as “blood sausage”. Finally, something that makes this “Morcilla de Burgos” different from others in Spain (except from a variant in Valladolid): Rice.
A lot of villages, not only in Burgos, but also in all Spain, perform what is called in Spanish “la matanza”. It happens in winter, and it refers to the moment when a pig is killed, and practically all parts of the animal are used to prepare different products, like “chorizo”, “salchichas”, “jamón” or “morcilla”.
The traditional preparation for “morcilla” is performed cooking the pork blood, and when it becomes thick enough to congeal, manufacturers add the chopped onions and the rest of the ingredients. After that, they prepare several pork guts or intestines, wash them and fill them with this cooked mixture. Guts must be 50% filled, as the rice will get bigger inside. Finally, “morcillas” will cook in water and salt for about one hour. Some variants of “morcilla” use beef guts, which is thinner. As said before, this is a traditional elaboration, but we can also find small and no so small business with a production targeted to the market.
The “Morcilla de Burgos” can be prepared in several ways: the most common way is using it as a component when cooking a traditional “cocido”, that is, legumes (“lentejas” –lentils- or “alubias” –beans-) with vegetables like onion, garlic, pepper or carrots, and adding other ingredients derived from pork like, in this case, “morcilla”, “chorizo” or “oreja”.
The typical “morcilla” you can find in restaurants and bars as a “tapa” or “pincho” appears in slides of about 1-2 cm., fried. Delicious! But lately, a variety of good, tasty and really new ways to prepare it have become very popular, like “tortilla de morcilla”, which consists in an omelette with morcilla. Its preparation is very simple: just beat the eggs and add salt and the content of the “morcilla” (that is, everything except the external “skin”, the gut) and cook it the usual way.
Finally, other new way to taste morcilla is “pimientos rellenos de morcilla” or “(Red) Peppers with morcilla stuffing”.
¡Que aproveche!
