Prieta
Chilean blood sausage with merkén (Mapuche smoked chilli) and walnut kernels. It is opened lengthwise for eating.
| Fresh pig’s blood | 600 ml |
| Onion, finely chopped (macerated 6 h in salt and sugar, rinsed and pressed) | 200 g |
| Pork fatback, diced | 100 g |
| Walnut kernels, peeled, coarsely crushed | 60 g |
| Fine salt | 15 g |
| Ground cumin | 4 g |
| Merkén (Mapuche smoked chilli) or chilli powder | 3 g |
| Dried oregano | 3 g |
| Ground black pepper | 3 g |
| Garlic, crushed | 10 g |
| Wide hog casing (Ø 40–50 mm) | — |
- Preparing the onion (amortiguado): Chop the onion finely. Sprinkle with salt and sugar (1 tablespoon of each). Leave to rest for 6 hours. Rinse abundantly in cold water. Press firmly in a cloth to extract all the water. This technique, called amortiguado, softens the raw onion and removes its bite.
- Preparing the fat: Fry the diced fatback over gentle heat in a pan until it releases its fat and turns golden. Leave to cool.
- Mixing: In a large bowl, mix the fresh blood, the amortiguado onion, the fried fatback with its fat, the crushed walnut kernels, the garlic, the cumin, the merkén, the oregano, the pepper and the salt. Mix gently to a homogeneous preparation.
- Stuffing: Rinse the hog casings. Stuff without packing too tightly, forming sausages 40 to 50 cm long. Tie the ends with butcher’s twine, leaving the thread continuous from one prieta to the next to form a chain.
- Poaching: Prepare a broth with a pig’s trotter, an onion studded with cloves, bay leaves, peppercorns, carrots and celery. Bring to a simmer (80 °C). Plunge in the prietas and poach for 45 to 60 minutes. Prick if bubbles appear. The prietas are cooked when firm.
- Cooling: Leave to cool in the broth, then drain.
- Final cooking: Grill on the barbecue (parrilla) or pan-fry over medium heat for 5 to 8 minutes on each side. The prieta has a thick skin: it is cut lengthwise to be eaten, scraping the inside out with the bread or the fork.
The name prieta derives from prieto/prieta, familiar synonyms of negro/negra in Chilean Spanish. This blood sausage stands apart from the other Latin American blood sausages by three elements: the technique of the amortiguado onion (which softens it radically), the presence of walnut kernels and the use of merkén, the Mapuche smoked chilli, which brings a smoky, earthy note absent from the Argentine and Spanish morcillas.
The prieta is attested in the matanzas (rural slaughters) of central and southern Chile since the colonial period. Merkén is the Mapuche contribution: this chilli (Capsicum annuum) is sun-dried, smoked over wood, then ground with coriander seeds and salt. It has been used in southern Chile for centuries and was folded into the prieta by the rural mestizos (huasos) who combined Spanish and Mapuche techniques.
The amortiguado onion is the most characteristic gesture of the making. The chopped onion is sprinkled with salt and sugar, then left to rest for at least six hours. The salt draws out the water; the sugar neutralises the bitterness. After rinsing and pressing, the onion is soft and melting. This technique is documented in no other blood sausage in this book.
The variants are numerous: some prietas contain rice; others contain cabbage, watercress, peppers, or dried fruit. In the archipelago of Chiloé, the prieta belongs to the reitimiento, the ritual of pig slaughter and transformation, a social institution on the island. It is eaten grilled at the parrilla, cut lengthwise, with pebre and pan amasado (bread baked in a wood oven).
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