Morcilla de Burgos
Spanish black pudding filled with rice and onions. The rice, absent from the French and British blood sausages, absorbs the blood and the fats, giving the morcilla its particular consistency.
| Fresh pig’s blood | 400 ml |
| Cooked rice (al dente) | 250 g |
| Cebolla horcal, cooked and chopped | 300 g |
| Pork leaf lard, diced | 150 g |
| Fine salt | 15 g |
| Sweet pimentón | 8 g |
| Ground black pepper | 2 g |
| Dried oregano | 2 g |
| Ground cumin | 1 g |
| Ground clove | 0.5 g |
| Hog casing (Ø 45–50 mm) | — |
- Preparing the rice: Cook the rice al dente (slightly firm), then drain and cool it.
- Preparing the onions: Sweat the sliced onions at length in lard until melting. Cool.
- Preparing the fat: Cut the leaf lard into small dice, then blanch briefly.
- Mixing: Beat the blood. Add the cooled rice, the onions, the diced fat and all the seasonings. The consistency should be creamy but not liquid.
- Stuffing: Stuff generously without packing too tightly. Form puddings of 18–25 cm. Tie securely.
- Poaching: Cook at 75–80 °C for 45–60 minutes according to size. The pudding is cooked when it rises to the surface and stays firm to the touch.
- Cooling: Leave to cool gradually, then refrigerate.
- Serving: Grill, fry or reheat in the oven. Excellent with fried peppers (pimientos de Padrón).
Rice is the most distinctive structural ingredient of the morcilla de Burgos among the Iberian blood sausages: no other Spanish morcilla uses it in this proportion as a principal component. The rice must retain a slight firmness at the core after the first cooking, so as to withstand double cooking, poaching, and then grilling without turning to mush.
The city of Burgos has been a stage on the Camino de Santiago since the Middle Ages. This position on a route of passage helped spread the morcilla beyond its region of origin, as travellers came from all over Europe. The first mentions of the morcilla at Burgos date from the eleventh century, in a text evoking the court of King Sancho II; the rice, the present distinctive ingredient, was incorporated only in the eighteenth century, brought from Valencia by the carters who hauled timber to the region. Since the Middle Ages, Saint Martin’s Day, 11 November, has marked the traditional season of pig slaughter throughout Castile.
The seasoning with sweet pimentón is constant in all the Burgos versions, unlike many Andalusian or Extremaduran morcillas, which use medium-hot or hot pimentón. Oregano and cumin complete an aromatic profile of Arab origin, characteristic of medieval Castilian charcuterie. The morcilla de Burgos has held since 2018 a PGI that governs its production area in the province of Burgos and its composition: pig’s blood, rice, pork leaf lard, sweet pimentón, salt and spices, and above all the cebolla horcal, a native onion variety that must make up at least 30 per cent of the forcemeat and constitutes the differentiating criterion of the designation. The PGI requires between 10 and 40 per cent rice in the forcemeat. A riceless variant, the morcilla de cebolla, exists in Burgos, but it falls outside the PGI specification.
It is eaten grilled, fried or reheated in the oven, served as pinchos on a slice of bread in the bars of Burgos, added to the cocido castellano, the emblematic traditional stew of Castile, or served as a starter before the lechazo asado, the roast suckling lamb that is the region’s festive dish of reference.
Its renown extends well beyond the province of Burgos, making it the reference Spanish morcilla for non-Castilian consumers and foreign buyers alike.
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