Paio
Large smoked sausage made from a whole pork tenderloin or loin, marinated in paprika and wine. The paio is sliced thinly and most often eaten cold.
| Pork tenderloin or whole loin | 800 g |
| Fatty pork jowl | 200 g |
| Fine salt | 25 g |
| Sweet paprika (colorau) | 20 g |
| Fresh garlic, crushed | 10 g |
| Dry white wine | 60 ml |
| Ground white pepper | 2 g |
| Powdered bay | 1 g |
| Wide hog casing (ciego, Ø 50–60 mm) | — |
- Preparation: Trim the tenderloin, keeping the piece whole (or cutting it in two if too long). Cut the jowl into dice.
- Marinade: Prepare a paste of paprika, garlic, wine, salt and spices. Coat the whole tenderloin in this marinade. Mix the diced jowl with the rest of the marinade.
- Maceration: Place in a vessel, cover and refrigerate for 4–5 days, turning daily.
- Stuffing: Stuff the whole tenderloin, surrounded by the diced jowl, into the large hog casing.
- Smoking: Cold smoke for 10 to 15 days over oak wood.
- Drying: Dry for a further 3 to 4 weeks at 12–15 °C.
- Eating: Slice thinly like ham or coppa. It may also be used in the cozido (the stew of salted pork and vegetables).
The paio contains no minced forcemeat. It is a whole piece of pork tenderloin or loin, macerated and then stuffed into a casing, which brings it close to the Italian coppa or the Spanish lomo embuchado rather than to the minced-meat sausages that make up most of this book.
The maceration in the massa de pimentão, common to Portuguese charcuterie (see the chouriço entry), lasts four to five days, with daily turning. On a whole piece, the paste penetrates more slowly than into minced meat: a properly marinated paio shows a homogeneous pink-orange colour from edge to centre; insufficient maceration leaves a grey-beige centre. The diced jowl fills the gaps around the tenderloin in the casing.
The first mentions in the Portuguese archives date to the early modern period. The paio do Alentejo is the reference version, made from Iberian pigs (porcos pretos) raised in semi-liberty in the montados, the open oak woods of southern Portugal, an agroforestry system comparable to the Spanish dehesa. Pigs fattened on acorns during the autumn montanheira produce a marbled meat high in oleic acid. A PGI application for the paio do Alentejo is under examination.
It is eaten in thin slices at room temperature, on petiscos (tapas) plates or on tábuas de enchidos (charcuterie boards). It also appears in the cozido à portuguesa, added at the end of cooking to preserve its texture.
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