Mallorca

"The pig is placed on top of a table, and cut by the butcher using a large knife (ganiveta), gutted and cut into pieces after removing the fat (xulla). The latter is cut into small portions called pannes. Fattier meat is cut into small pieces, mixed with blood, salt and spiced and then added into bags made with thigh skin and then sewn closed with thread. This type of sausage is known as camallot. With the stomach and larger intestines they make botifarres. All these specialties are added to a large pot with boiling water and salt then left to cook for some time. The meat from the neck and fat accumulated on the intestines are cut into very small pieces, mixed with blood, pine nuts and fennel seeds, salt, spices and a bit of paprika. They use this mixture to fill smaller intestines. The latter are then tied every hand’s width, forming sausages of this length and then cooked as described above.

They add pine nuts and spices to the ground meat and then wrap the mixture in abdominal fascia to make sausages which are then cooked. In this case, the sausages are known as blanquets due to their white color. Occasionally, these are not made, using the mixture for other things, that is, stuffing it into intestines. Lean or fattier meat, as well as kidneys are placed in a tub (ribell), ground and mixed with salt and paprika. When the mixture is smooth, it’s stuffed in larger intestines and tied with string every 20 cm. This specialty is not boiled and is what’s known as red sobrasada. They use this same mixture to fill thinner intestines, though with the same length, to make sausages called llonganises.

They also set out to make lard (saïm), the absolutely essential element in Mallorca cuisine. They melt all the sagí or fat predominantly from the abdominal cavity though occasionally complemented with pieces of other fat to increase the final quantity. The grease is then strained using a tin-plate colander and placed into alfabietes, pots or other clay or glass receptacles. It’s also placed in lamb intestines to make the so-called muletes sausages."

Archduke Ludwig Salvator of Austria. Las Baleares por la palabra y el grabado. Majorca: General Part. Ed. Sa Nostra, Caja de Baleares. Palma de Mallorca. 1982.