Butifarra is the sausage of Soledad, a town just outside Barranquilla on the Colombian Caribbean coast, and it is street food before it is anything else. It is sold from a bucket by a man with a knife, cut into pieces, and eaten standing up with lime squeezed over it.
Pork and bacon, salt, pepper and a pinch of cinnamon. That is the whole list, and the cinnamon is the part that matters.
What makes it a butifarra
Every country with Spanish heritage has a pork sausage, and most of them are seasoned with paprika, garlic or fennel. This one is seasoned with cinnamon, and that single pinch is what people recognise before they can name it.
Use a pinch and no more. Enough to notice and not enough to identify: at the point where someone asks what is in it, you have gone too far.
The other distinguishing feature is texture. Half the bacon is ground with the pork and half is chopped small and folded in, so the sausage has visible flecks of fat rather than a uniform paste. Grinding all of it gives you something closer to a hot dog.
The casing
Pork casing is sold salted or in brine, in Latin American butchers and online, and it needs soaking in water before use. Then it gets rinsed thoroughly with lime juice, inside and out, which cleans it and takes away the smell.
This is the step the original version of this recipe got wrong in translation, telling you to wash the pork belly rather than the casing. Wash the casing. It is the only part that needs it.
If you cannot get casings at all, the mixture can be rolled into balls and boiled without them. It is not traditional and it will not look right, but it tastes the same.
Boil, prick, dry, grill
Four stages, and each one has a reason.
- Boiling for fifteen minutes cooks the meat through and sets the shape.
- Pricking each sausage with a needle afterwards lets the water trapped inside escape. Skip it and they stay soggy, or split on the grill.
- Drying firms up the skin so it crisps later. Hang them or lay them on a rack.
- Grilling is done at the last minute, on a hot iron, and takes a couple of minutes a side.
Boiled butifarras keep several days in the fridge, which is how the street sellers work: boil in the morning, grill to order.
How it is eaten
With lime, always. Cut into thick slices, squeezed over generously, and eaten with the fingers or with a toothpick.
The traditional partner is bollo de yuca, a dense cassava dumpling boiled in a leaf, which soaks up the fat. Beyond the coast you will also see it with arepas de yuca or plain bread. In Soledad it is breakfast as often as it is a snack.
More from the coast
- Carimanolas — cassava dough stuffed with beef and fried.
- Fried mojarra — the whole fish of the Caribbean coast.
- Coconut rice — what everything on the coast is served with.
- Rellena — the other Colombian sausage, made with rice and blood.
Butifarra FAQ
A small pork sausage from Soledad, near Barranquilla on the Colombian Caribbean coast. It is made with pork and bacon seasoned with salt, pepper and a pinch of cinnamon, boiled and then grilled, and it is sold in the street cut into pieces with lime squeezed over it.
Because that is what makes it a butifarra rather than any other pork sausage. Most Spanish-heritage sausages lean on paprika, garlic or fennel; this one uses a pinch of cinnamon, enough to notice and not enough to identify. If someone can tell you there is cinnamon in it, there is too much.
Latin American butchers, most traditional butchers, and online. They come salted or in brine and need soaking in water first, then a thorough rinse with lime juice inside and out. If you cannot find them, the mixture can be rolled into balls and boiled without casing.
To let out the water trapped inside. Without that, they stay soggy and are liable to split when they hit the grill. A needle or a pin, one prick each, straight after they come out of the pot.
Lime, always, squeezed over the cut pieces. The traditional partner is bollo de yuca, a dense boiled cassava dumpling that soaks up the fat. On the coast it is eaten at breakfast as often as it is eaten as a snack.
Yes, and that is how the street sellers do it. Boil them in the morning and keep them in the fridge for several days, then grill only what you are about to eat. The grilling takes a couple of minutes a side.
📖 Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 ½ lb pork (shoulder or a cut with some fat; lean pork alone makes a dry sausage)
- ½ lb bacon (half goes minced, half ground with the pork)
- ½ meter pork casing (sold salted or in brine; soak it in water before using)
- Salt and pepper, to taste
- 1 pinch cinnamon (small, but it is what makes a butifarra taste like one)
- Lime juice (for cleaning the casing, and for serving alongside)
Notas
Instructions
- Divide the bacon in two. Chop one half into tiny pieces and grind the other half together with the pork.
- Add the salt, pepper and the pinch of cinnamon to the ground meat, along with the chopped bacon. Knead thoroughly until everything is evenly mixed, then roll the mixture into small balls.
- Rinse the casing well with plenty of lime juice, inside and out, to clean it and take away the smell. Stuff the balls into the casing and tie it off at the length you want, leaving a knot between each sausage.
- Boil in plenty of water for 15 minutes. Lift them out and prick each one with a needle or a pin so the water inside runs out.
- Hang them up and let them dry.
- Grill them on a hot iron or griddle to serve.
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