Morcilla de Oaxaca
Blood sausage of the Zapotec tradition, seasoned with chile negro, epazote (Mexican tea) and bitter cocoa. Cocoa in a blood sausage is a rare charcuterie fact, found in this book only in the sanguinaccio dolce (see its dedicated entry).
| Fresh pig’s blood | 500 ml |
| Pork fatback, diced | 200 g |
| Onion, finely chopped | 150 g |
| Chile negro (chilhuacle negro), dried, toasted and ground | 10 g |
| Bitter cocoa powder (unsweetened) | 8 g |
| Fresh epazote, chopped | 15 g |
| Garlic, crushed | 10 g |
| Fine salt | 15 g |
| Ground cumin | 2 g |
| Ground black pepper | 2 g |
| Dried Mexican oregano | 2 g |
| Vinegar | 10 ml |
| Wide hog casing (Ø 36–40 mm) | — |
- Preparing the chile: Toast the dried chile negro on a comal (an earthenware griddle) or dry in a pan for a few minutes on each side, until it is supple and fragrant. Remove the seeds and the stem. Crumble, then grind in a mortar or a mill.
- Preparing the fat and onions: Fry the diced fatback over medium heat in a pan. Add the chopped onion and the garlic, then cook for 10 minutes, until golden. Leave to cool.
- Mixing: In a large bowl, combine the fresh blood, the fried fatback and onions with their fat, the ground chile, the bitter cocoa, the epazote, the cumin, the oregano, the pepper, the salt and the vinegar. Mix to a homogeneous, fluid preparation.
- Stuffing: Rinse the hog casings. Stuff without packing too tightly, forming sausages 20 to 25 cm long. Tie the ends with twine.
- Poaching: Plunge the sausages into a large pot of simmering water (80 °C). Poach for 45 to 60 minutes. Prick the skin if bubbles appear. The morcillas are cooked when they are firm to the touch and no liquid runs when pricked.
- Cooling: Transfer to cold water, then drain on a rack.
- Final cooking: Grill on a comal, on a plancha or in a pan for 5 to 8 minutes each side, until the skin is crisp. Serve with maize tortillas, salsa verde or roja, and black beans.
The morcilla de Oaxaca is the Oaxacan variant of the moronga, the Mexican blood sausage derived from the Spanish morcilla. Two pre-Columbian ingredients set it apart from other morongas and from its Iberian ancestor: the chile negro (Chilhuacle negro), a dried chilli endemic to the valley of Oaxaca, and bitter cocoa, a sacred ingredient of Mesoamerican cooking for more than two thousand years. Epazote, a camphorous herb ubiquitous in Oaxacan cooking, completes an aromatic profile foreign to the European blood sausages.
The moronga arrived in Mexico with the Spanish colonisation of the sixteenth century. The pig, unknown in pre-Columbian America, was introduced by the Spanish and, with it, the techniques of Iberian charcuterie. Oaxaca, land of the seven moles (seven spiced sauces: Negro, Rojo, Coloradito, Amarillo, Verde, Chichilo, and Manchamanteles), is the region of Mexico where this fusion is most documented: mole negro uses the same chillies and cocoa as morcilla de Oaxaca.
The making begins with the toasting of the chile negro on a comal, a pre-Columbian technique that develops the smoky aromas of the chilli. The fresh blood is mixed with the fried fatback, onion, bitter cocoa powder, chopped epazote, cumin, and oregano. The variants are numerous: some versions add pine nuts, others cooked rice (like the morcilla de Burgos from which it descends), others local herbs such as hoja santa (Piper auritum, or Mexican pepperleaf). The morongas of northern Mexico (Sonora, Chihuahua) are closer to the Spanish morcilla.
It is eaten grilled and sliced, in tacos or in gorditas (small thick cakes of maize flour or, at times, wheat flour), with salsa verde or roja. Cocoa in a blood sausage is a trait rare elsewhere in this book.
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