Bull
Also known as toro catalán (Catalan)
-, Catalonia, Spain
A cooked, sliced Catalan speciality of head meat and offal, pale or blood-dark.
Overview
Bull is a cooked, sliced catalan speciality of head meat and offal, pale or blood-dark. A broad cooked sausage with visible tongue, head meat and fat. The white version is pale pink-brown; the black version is darkened by blood.
Where it's from
Climate. Catalonia.
Altitude. Coast and hills
How to recognise it
A broad cooked sausage with visible tongue, head meat and fat. The white version is pale pink-brown; the black version is darkened by blood. Shape and size: Large sliced rounds. Lean colour: Mixed meats. Fat and marbling: Set, soft. Casing or exterior: Pork blind cap; occasionally bladder. Surface: None. The form is large sliced rounds. the lean is mixed meats. the fat or marbling is set, soft. and the exterior uses pork blind cap; occasionally bladder. A raw or grey centre, split filling, sourness, greasy purge or poor refrigerated handling is unacceptable.
- Shape and size
- Large sliced rounds
- Lean colour
- Mixed meats
- Fat and marbling
- Set, soft
- Casing
- Pork blind cap; occasionally bladder
- Surface bloom
- None
Origins and history
Bull belongs to the cooked embotits of Catalonia, a family of sausages that are simmered rather than air dried. Its name is usually traced to bullir, the Catalan verb for boiling, because the tongue, head meat and skin were softened in water before being seasoned and filled. The product grew out of the household pig slaughter, where the head and trimmings were too good to waste, and it survives in a pale form and a darker form enriched with blood. It is close kin to the larger bisbe, which carries the same farce but is packed into the blind gut, so the two are often spoken of together.
The name is commonly linked to bullir, to boil. These sausages made disciplined use of the head and offal after the household slaughter. The very large casing created a ceremonial slice and linked the product to the similarly large Bisbe.
Name. Bull, a Catalan name for the large stuffed casing.
- Production today
- Made across Catalonia.
- Protection
- Not EU-protected as a general name.
- Tradition vs modern
- White and blood versions.
- Seasonality
- Traditionally the winter slaughter.
Compare with. Coppa di testa, Botifarra
Serving and cultural significance
Bull is fully cooked, so it needs no further work in the kitchen and is simply cut into thin slices and eaten at room temperature. It is a familiar part of a shared plate of embotits and sits comfortably alongside bread rubbed with tomato. The mild pale version and the spiced, blood-darkened version are often served side by side so both can be tasted in one sitting.
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, please 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 →The cure below is the traditional reference. “Make this” opens the measured Curesmith home recipe, scaled to your batch.
Traditional or protected production
Bull, Bisbe, Bisbot and Paltruc describe a family of large cooked Catalan sausages packed in broad casing. Bull blanc is made without blood; Bull negre includes blood. Head meat, tongue, skin and fatty pork create the characteristic mosaic.
The reference process can be summarised as follows: Cook or blanch the collagen-rich components, cut or grind the meats, season, stuff into a broad casing, poach gently and chill. Blood is added only to the black variant.
- Meat
- pork
- Salt (%)
- 1.8
- Curing salt
- None; a cooked speciality (a blood version, bull negre, also exists)
- Fermented
- No
- Smoked
- No
- Target aW or weight loss
- cooked, not dried
- Temperature (°C)
- cooked through to a safe core temperature
- Humidity (%)
- n/a
- Maturation
- cooked; eaten cold
- Basis
- per 1000 g green meat
- Style
- Traditional, cooked
Ingredients
- Lean pork (base)100% · 1000 g/kg
- Pork tongue50% · 500 g/kg
- Pork belly50% · 500 g/kg
- Pork shoulder37.5% · 375 g/kg
- Pork skins12.5% · 125 g/kg
- White pepper0.2% · 2 g/kg
- Cinnamon0.05% · 0 g/kg
- Nutmeg0.05% · 0 g/kg
Method
- Simmer and prepare the head meat, tongue and offal.
- Season and stuff into a large casing.
- Boil until cooked through.
- Cool; slice cold.
Notes
- This is a cooked product. It must be cooked through before eating. Where a cure is used it is Cure #1 (nitrite), suited to the shorter, cooked process rather than long drying.
In the Codex
What this product teaches, and where to read more.
Temple. Pillar, Meat Quality