Recipes

Salchichón de Vic

Spain's answer to a plain salami — pepper, not paprika. If chorizo is the red Spanish sausage, salchichón is the pale one, and the two together define the whole Iberian dry-sausage landscape. Salchichón de Vic (Catalonia, PGI) is the reference version, identified on the slice by whole black peppercorns studded through pink meat and white fat. It's the same sausage as chorizo with one ingredient swapped. with a peppercorn-dose correction.

Sausage · Spanish · Cured · Fermented

Salchichón de Vic
Prep 1 hour, plus a 24–48 h maceration and 48 h ferment
Cook None — dry-cured, eaten raw
Serves About 5 lb / 2.3 kg green weight
Level Hard (a bung and 45+ days)

Spain’s answer to a plain salami — pepper, not paprika. If chorizo is the red Spanish sausage, salchichón is the pale one, and the two together define the whole Iberian dry-sausage landscape. Salchichón de Vic (Catalonia, PGI) is the reference version, identified on the slice by whole black peppercorns studded through pink meat and white fat. It’s the same sausage as chorizo with one ingredient swapped. with a peppercorn-dose correction.

Ingredients

  • MEAT BLOCK (2,270 g / 5 lb green), % of total meat weight:
  • 1,838 g (4 lb) lean pork (leg/shoulder) — 81%
  • 318 g (11 oz) pork belly — 14%
  • 114 g (4 oz) back fat, diced — 5%
  • 57 g salt (2.5%)
  • 5.7 g Cure #2 (0.25% = 156 ppm)
  • 6.8 g dextrose (0.3%)
  • 7 g ground white pepper (0.3%)
  • 7–11 g WHOLE black peppercorns (0.3–0.5%) — NOT the source’s 0.1% / 2.3 g, which you’d barely see (see notes)
  • 0.27 g T-SPX culture (0.012%) — OR none, the traditional route (see notes)
  • 50–60 cm pork bung, or a wide beef middle

Directions

  1. Key ingredients: its red sibling is Chorizo Español (Dry-Cured Spanish Chorizo) — identical meat, fat, cure, schedule and casing; swap 2.5% pimentón for 0.3–0.5% black pepper and you cross from one Spanish institution to the other. Its thin, fast Catalan cousin is Fuet.
  2. Grind: lean and belly through 8 mm; hand-dice the back fat to 6 mm.
  3. Macerate: hold the mixed, salted meat 24–48 h at 4–6 °C before stuffing (the IGP calls this maceración and specifies 48 h at 2–5 °C).
  4. Stuff: into a pork bung or wide beef middle.
  5. Ferment: 20 °C / 68 °F, 90–95% RH, 48 h — low-acid, to a mellow pH.
  6. Dry: 15 °C falling to 12 °C, 80→75% RH, 45 days minimum (the IGP floor) or longer by caliber.
  7. Target ~30% weight loss.

Notes

Where this recipe came from — and what it isn’t. Marianski’s formula, bounded by the ICEX/PGI spec, with one override.

The peppercorn correction. The source lists whole peppercorns at 1 g/kg — about 30 corns per kilo, barely visible on a slice — yet Salchichón de Vic is DEFINED by visible peppercorns in every description of it. I’ve used 0.3–0.5% and flagged the source figure. Same class of error as the rosette cure dose: a number that contradicts the product’s own diagnostic feature.

The traditional method has no culture and no fermentation at all (Marianski’s own note): the stuffed sausage was simply dried 5–11 months at ambient cellar temperature, giving a higher final pH and a more meat-forward, less tangy flavor. The 48-hour ferment is the modern compression of it. As with saucisson sec, Iberian dry sausage is traditionally low-acid, and American recipes routinely make it tangier than it should be.

The teaching point. Salchichón and chorizo are the same sausage with one ingredient swapped — nothing in charcuterie makes the “one ingredient defines a product” argument this cleanly.

IGP finished-product floors: fat max 48%, protein min 38%, collagen:protein ≤ 0.12 (what stops a producer padding it with connective tissue).