Linguiça Calabresa

Linguiça Calabresa - Brazilian Smoked Sausage

The name Calabresa comes from the Calabria region in southeastern Italy which is the origin of this sausage. This sausage is made with pork fully cooked, and beef can be added to it. It can be served as a cold cut appetizer, can be grilled, or sautéed with vegetables for pasta. Linguiça calabresa, like many other sausages, is generally served as part of a heavy meal, typically accompanied by rice, beans, and other pork products. Feijoada, for example, is a traditional Portuguese dish and brazil’s National Dish incorporates linguiça calabresa in to their beans, ham hocks, with the Farina (which is a roasted seasoned Yucca Flour). Linguiça calabresa is also used in Francesinha, a traditional Portuguese dish, from Porto. It can be incorporated in its sauce, giving it a distinct flavor.

Outside of Portugal and Brazil, linguiça Calabresa is also popular in Goa (once a Portuguese colony in India), Southeastern Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Hawaii, and Okinawa, where it is often known as Portuguese sausage. In Hawaii, McDonald's restaurants serve breakfasts featuring Portuguese sausage, a regional variant of its usual menu.           

Recipe for making cold smoked Calabrese pork sausages.

Ingredients:
5 lb. Pork 80% lean
5 tsp. Salt
3 1/2 tsp Cayenne, ground
1 tsp. Cure #2
1 Tbs. Fennel seeds, ground
1 1/2 tsp. Garlic, dry, granulated
2 tsp. Pepper, black, ground
45 mm hog casings
2 Tbs. Paprika, sweet.

Sausage Making Directions:
Lean pork trimmings - cut by hand. Mix meat with salt, cure and spices. Stuff the mixture into large hog casings and tie into 5 - 6 inch links. Cold smoke several hours, daily for 4 days, at maximum of 85°F. Air dry the sausage for 4 weeks at 60°F at 60% Relative Humidity. Store in crocks or in glass jars covered with pork lard. Sausages will keep for approx. one year.