Morcilla, Spanish Blood Sausage

One of the many food items you’ll find when you shop in a Spanish market is the large and utterly befuddling variety of sausages available.

Buying sausages from such a large variety necessitates some research.

How do you possibly decide which form to try first when there are so many different colors, shapes, and sizes available? 

Morcilla (pronounced mor-thee-ya) is a blood sausage from Spain that resembles black pudding. There are many different recipe variations, but most include fat, pork blood, onions, and rice. With a long history, morcilla was eaten by peasants and farmers, but many enjoy the blood sausage today. 

Read on to learn about morcilla, the history behind it, and how to make it authentically.

What Is Morcilla?

Morcilla is a blood sausage made from beef or pork blood from Spain that resembles black pudding and contains rice or onions.

Blood sausage recipes exist in many different cuisines worldwide, including Spain, but morcilla has many different recipe variations. 

When morcilla is cooked and fried in spanish olive oil, it becomes a spiced sausage with a mild tang and a crumbly texture. 

Its recipes vary greatly throughout Spain, ranging from morcilla found in Burgos which are loose with bits of rice to morcilla de Arroz, made with rice and onion.

Spicy morcilla is made in Valencia and very fragrant due to the flavoring with cloves and aniseed. Often, you may find morcilla sausages that have almonds or pine nuts.

Morcilla sausages are normally cooked before being hung to cure, but Morcilla dulce is eaten raw rather than cooked in cities like Seville, which is often served as a popular tapas dish in many bars.

Stuffing morcilla into squid or adding it to beans and stews are other common ways you can see morcilla be served.

Since morcilla sausages crumble when cooked, it is easy to add and stir into various spanish dishes, allowing the cook to add more flavor.

History of Morcilla

Black pudding was first mentioned in writing around 800 BC when it appeared in Homer’s epic poem The Odyssey. 

“As when a man beside a great fire has packed a sausage with fat and blood and spins it this way and that and is very eager to have it quickly roasted…” Homer wrote in Book Twenty of his great epic.

The beginnings of the blood sausage can be traced to the Romans as they conquered different people and land.

Another common hypothesis claims that the Moors of North Africa, who preceded the Romans into many large parts of Europe, were the ones who introduced the Romans to the blood sausage.

Some people believe that the Moors gave their names to the Spanish term for black pudding (morcilla) and the French town that hosts the annual black pudding festival (Mortagne).

This dish was popular among the poor because it could be prepared in several different ways and had a high nutritional value. 

The British used oatmeal or barley in their blood sausage to bulk up the dish, which is very similar to morcilla, while the Spaniards used rice in their sausage.

When trade progressed, further spices were introduced, and the dish changed to include more ingredients that could be readily found to improve the taste of morcilla.

How To Make Morcilla

Everyone gathers in small towns in Spain to sacrifice their fattened hogs for the production of chorizo, morcilla, and jamón.

From the hooves to the feet and almost all in between, Spaniards make full use of about every aspect of the pig.

The blood is rapidly poured into a big pan and transported to the kitchen. 

Morcilla is made throughout Spain, and like many other traditional Spanish recipes, the ingredients used and the form of the sausage vary greatly from one region to another. 

Morcilla is the first kind of sausage that is made from a slaughtered pig’s blood.

Ground pork is combined with pig’s blood, seasonings and spices, sliced onions, filler, and seasonings and spices (usually rice).

The blood is then piped into a casing, formed into tubes, flash-boiled to clot the blood, and then hanged to cure.

Ingredients

Here are the ingredients:

• 3 cups (408 grams) of white rice
• 2 ½ cups (591.4 milliliters) of pork blood
• 1 teaspoon (about 5 grams) of salt
• 2 teaspoon (about 10 grams) of fresh cilantro
• 2 chili peppers (chopped)
• 2 cloves of garlic 
• 2 yards (1.8 meters) pork tripes (intestines or sausage casings)

Instructions

Once you’ve gathered your ingredients, follow these instructions to make Morcilla:

1. Make a pot of white rice.
2. Add pork blood, salt, chili peppers, garlic, and cilantro, and mix well.
3. Fill the sausage casing with a funnel while making sure the casings are loose and not too tight. 
4. Bring the morcilla sausage to a boil in water with salt for approximately 25-30 minutes. 
5. Drain the water from the sausage after 25-30 minutes. 
6. You can either freeze or fry it for later use after it cools off. 
7. When the morcilla is ready for eating, cut it into tiny pieces and fry it using vegetable oil over medium heat until golden. Then, drain it using a paper towel and let it cool.

If you’d rather purchase the it then make it, we offer both morcilla de arroz and morcilla de cebolla on Amazon.

Conclusion

Even if you despise black pudding, morcilla sausage will persuade you to change your mind.

It’s used to flavor various traditional dishes in Spain such as Fabada Asturiana, and you’ll love the taste before realizing what it is!

Give morcilla or other popular spanish sausages like salchichon, sobrasada and fuet a try on your next trip to Spain.

 

Sources

• Culture Trip: A Brief Introduction to Morcilla, the Spanish Black Blood Sausage
• The Spruce Eats: What Is Morcilla?
• Real Lancashire Black Pudding: History of the Black Pudding
• Hispanic Food Network: Puerto Rican Morcilla Recipe

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