Botifarra Catalana Cruda
Also known as botifarra crua, butifarra catalana cruda
Catalonia, Spain
Overview
Botifarra crua is the raw Catalan sausage made for cooking and one of the basic products of Catalan pork butchery. It is usually a simple, coarse sausage in which the quality of the pork, fat and seasoning is deliberately visible.
Where it's from
The cut
Identity and terminology
Botifarra is a Catalan family name covering raw, cooked, blood and sweet sausages. The qualifier crua, meaning raw, separates this fresh sausage from botifarra blanca, negra, d'ou and dolça. The Spanish spelling butifarra is common outside Catalan, but botifarra crua is the culturally precise form.
Composition and characteristics
The usual composition is pork and pork fat seasoned principally with salt and pepper. Some local or butcher versions add garlic, parsley, truffle, mushrooms or other flavourings, but those are variants rather than the core identity. The texture is coarse and the casing is normally natural.
Production and process
The pork and fat are cut or coarsely minced, seasoned and stuffed into links. It is not fermented or dried. Catalan butchers sell it fresh for grilling, pan-frying or incorporation into rice, bean and vegetable dishes.
History and regional forms
Botifarra descends from the long Mediterranean and Roman tradition of pork sausages, but its modern identity is specifically Catalan. It became embedded in household pig slaughter and village butcheries, with different comarca traditions producing named cooked and flavoured forms.
Use, storage and related products
Botifarra crua is grilled for botifarrades, served with mongetes in botifarra amb mongetes, or used in stews and stuffings. It is related to French saucisse de Toulouse and other coarse pork sausages but remains distinct through Catalan terminology and culinary context.
Recipe and cure
This is not a finished recipe. It is a window into how this meat is traditionally cured. Before you follow any process, run it through one of our curing calculators so the salt, cure and timings are right and safe for your own batch.
Make this — the measured Curesmith version →“Make this” opens the same cure as a measured recipe, scaled to your batch.
- Meat
- Pork shoulder
- Cut
- Pork shoulder
- Salt (%)
- 1.8
- Curing salt
- None
- Fermented
- No
- Smoked
- No
- Maturation
- Raw sausage ≤4°C for up to 2 days; freeze for longer storage
- Basis
- per 1,000 g pork shoulder
- Style
- Fresh Catalan pork sausage; cook before eating
Ingredients
- Pork shoulder100% · 1000 g
- Skinless pork belly65% · 650 g
- Fine salt1.8% · 30 g
- Ground white pepper0.41% · 6.5 g
- Ice-cold water3% · 50 g
Method
- Chill the shoulder, belly and equipment to 0–3°C.
- Grind shoulder through 6 mm, followed separately by belly through 6 mm.
- Mix the ground shoulder with salt and the measured water until tacky.
- Add the ground belly and white pepper and mix until evenly distributed without smearing the fat.
- Stuff into 28–30 mm hog casings and form 25 cm rings.
- Refrigerate for 4–12 hours at 2–4°C.
Safety. It is a raw fresh sausage and must be kept refrigerated and cooked before eating.