Spanish peasant families have fattened pigs for centuries. Nowadays farms have specialized in pigs.
Our ancestors sacrifice an animal to sharpen the wit meant to provide food as long as possible, and take advantage from them. Basically they used these techniques of conservation:
Salazón con secado: A large piece of meat is covered with salt. The meat loses water by the action of salt, and subsequently is aerated in dry places.
Hervido con secado: Minced meat is prepared with spices. It is put into guts (intestines), boiled and aerated in a dry place.
Hervido y guardado en aceite: Meat is prepared with spices, it is put into gut (intestine), boiled and put into a vessel filled with oil.
The following list is an enumeration of the sausages, despite it is not exahaustive:
Bull blanco o negro. Meat cut into chunks, booting and then boiled. They are pieces about 20-30 cm long, of irregular width.
Butifarra: Sausage of minced meat which is fried. They are about 20-30 cm long.
Butifarra blanca: Meat is finely chopped, prepared with spicies, stuffed and then boiled.
Butifarra de huevo. This is a butifarra blanca with egg.
Butifarra negra. Spicy blood with meat, stuffed and boiled.
Cabeza de jabalí. Gelatinous meat cut into chunks, stuffed and then boiled.
Catalana. Stuffed of lean meat with black truffles, then boiled. The exterior is white and the flesh is pale pink with black pieces of truffle. Catalana is over 40 cm long and about 10 cm wide.
Cecina. Dried beef.
Chicharrones. Subdermal layers of pork dried and fried.
Chistorra. Meat stuffed with fatty cut of meat, spiced with paprika and fried. They are a very long thin sausages.
Chorizo: Stuffed of spicy beef with pepper, dried. They are over 40 cm long and about 10 cm wide. It is well known as Cantimpalos sausage. The quality of the sausage depends on the quality of paprika, peppers (from Murcia) and La Rioja wine.
Chorizo para cocinar. Small sausages stuffed with minced meat and paprika and fried.
Girella. sausage of meat and gut.
Fuet o secallona. It is a thin and long sausage that is left to dry until the meat loses all its water.
Jamón serrano. It is the hind leg of pork, salted to lose water and then aerated in drylands. Experts recommend serving the ham slices on a warm plate, so the ham fat softens and the flavor is best appreciated.
Lomo adobado. It’s a whole piece of meat that are salted and then dried.
Morcilla. Stuffed blood, boiled with rice and onion. They are fried and can be eaten alone or accompany.
Morcón. Meat intestine booting was allowed to dry. These pieces are irregular widths.
Salchicha. Ground beef, spicy and fried it prepares booting. Usually measure 1-2 cm thick and 10-20 cm in length.
Salchichón o longaniza.Booting and spicy minced meat, dried in a dry place. These pieces are very long (over 40 cm) and about 10 cm in length.
Sobrasada. Finely chopped meat to which areas are added paprika and animal fats, also finely chopped. The meat is not as strong as the sausage, is a paste that can extend well over bread. It is typical of the Balearic Islands.
We must add that chorizo may have consistency, flavors and sizes, but it is called the same.