Sobrassada
Sobrassada in Balearic or Sobrasada in Spanish, is a raw, cured sausage from the Balearic Islands (Spain) made with ground pork, paprika and salt and other spices. Sobrassada, along with , are traditional Balearic meat products prepared in the laborious but festive rites that still mark the autumn and winter pig slaughter known as a in Minorca, Majorca and Ibiza. The chemical principle that makes is the dehydration of meat under certain weather conditions (high humidity and mild cold) which are typical of the late Balearic autumn. History. After centuries of Muslim rule of the Iberian Peninsula, pork consumption returned  to the region in the Middle Ages. Paprika was added after the spice was brought back from the Americas in the 15th century. Sobrassada is thought to have originated and expanded, as a culinary concept, in the Crown of Aragon-controlled Western Mediterranean (Sicily, Balearic Islands, Sardinia) after the 14th century, as similar sausages are still made in this region. In a traditional Mediterranean diet, containing little meat, as Mallorca had until the 1950s, sobrassada and related pork sausages were the main and sometimes only sources of pork for Mallorcans. Larger meat cuts such as pork or lamb roasts, pork  steaks or beef cuts were largely festive dishes, or restricted to the well-off. Even today dishes such as , a whole roasted suckling pig, are only served on special occasions. Ingredients and varieties. Sobrassada is made with a choice of pork loin, pork bacon (locally called ), minced and mixed with paprika, salt and black pepper at the ends (to deter insects). Some makers also add cayenne pepper to the mixture and market it as , hot. Then the mixture is put into a pork intestine, and hung from a pole for some weeks until it is cured. The string which is  tied around the intestine can be used to differentiate between the hot and the (literally "sweet", though in this case meaning "not spicy") varieties, the red or red and white string being the hot one. Small, thin sobrassades are called , and are made from the small intestine. Bigger and thicker ones are called or , and the largest type are huge pork bladders called or ("bishop"). Thicker varieties take longer to cure, staggering its consumption through the year (thinner during winter, thicker during summer-autumn). Sobrassada outside the Balearic Islands. Four geographical areas in the Mediterranean, apart from the Balearic Islands , have close links to sobrassada for different reasons: Botifarró and other Majorcan sausages. is a pork intestine filled with coarsely ground pork cuts, including liver, and spiced with salt, pepper and aniseed, which gives this sausage its characteristic flavour. The sausages are boiled and eaten immediately. is specific to Mallorca, but very similar sausages can be found in the Spanish provinces of Tarragona, Castelló, València and Alacant. Other pork products typical from the cuisine of Mallorca are , and (pancetta).