Vigan longganisa is the sausage of Vigan, the old Spanish-era city of Ilocos Sur in the north-west Philippines: short, plump links of coarse pork packed with garlic, black pepper, salt and Ilocano sugarcane vinegar (sukang Iloko), tinted orange with annatto, tied off in squat little beads and air-dried. It belongs to the savoury, de recado side of Filipino longganisa, against the sweet hamonado side that Pampanga is famous for. The diagnostic detail is that it tastes salty, sour and garlicky first, with only a touch of sweetness; it is eaten for breakfast with garlic fried rice and an egg (longsilog) and a dish of more vinegar for dipping. The name and the idea come from Spanish longaniza, which arrived with Spanish rule from the 1560s; the vinegar, garlic and short links are thoroughly Ilocano. Vigan holds a Longganisa Festival every January. I have not made this one yet; the formula is built from published descriptions of Vigan longganisa and Filipino home practice and is untested.
Ingredients
MEAT BLOCK (2,270 g / 5 lb), % of meat weight
- 2,270 g (5 lb) pork shoulder (Boston butt), about 25% fat, plus extra back fat if lean — 100%
CURE AND SEASONING (% of meat weight)
- 45 g fine salt (2.0%)
- 5.7 g Cure #1 (0.25%) — 2.5 g/kg = 156 ppm nitrite
- 136 g garlic, finely minced (6%)
- 91 g sukang Iloko (Ilocano sugarcane vinegar) (4%)
- 11 g black pepper, coarse (0.5%)
- 11 g brown sugar (0.5%)
- 11 g sweet paprika (0.5%)
- 7 g annatto powder (0.3%), or 30 g annatto oil
- 32–35 mm natural hog casing, about 5 m (16 ft)
- Cotton string
TO SERVE
- Sukang Iloko with crushed garlic and chilli, for dipping
Directions
Key ingredients
- In the collection: Annatto gives the colour; Black Pepper and garlic give the bite. The collection’s general Filipino sausage is Longanisa (Filipino Sausage); this is one regional answer to it.
- Grind coarse and cold: chill pork to −1 to 0 °C / 30–32 °F and grind through a 10 mm (⅜ in) plate. Vigan longganisa is coarse and chunky; a fine grind makes it a breakfast patty.
- Mix: add salt and Cure #1, then garlic, vinegar, pepper, sugar, paprika and annatto. Mix 1–2 minutes until the mix is sticky and evenly orange. The vinegar loosens the mix; do not add water.
- Taste — the decision point: fry a spoonful. Garlic and salt should hit first, sour second, sweet barely at all. If it tastes sweet, it is drifting toward a hamonado; cut the sugar.
- Stuff and tie short: stuff firmly and tie off every 4–5 cm (2 in) with string, close, so the links come out short and round — the Vigan shape.
- Dry: hang or rack uncovered in the fridge overnight, or 1–2 days for a firmer, more traditional sausage. The skin dries and the garlic mellows. Traditionally they were hung over the kitchen fire; a light cold smoke for 2–3 hours imitates it.
- Cook the Filipino way: put links in a pan with water halfway up, simmer until the water is gone, about 10 minutes, then let them fry in their own fat, turning, until browned and 71 °C / 160 °F inside. The water cooks them through before the outside burns.
- Serve: with garlic fried rice and a fried egg, and a dish of sukang Iloko with garlic and chilli. Keeps 5 days refrigerated, 3 months frozen.
- Sibling recipe: Pampanga Longganisa (Sweet Hamonado) is the other side of the Filipino longganisa map — cook one of each for breakfast and the de recado/hamonado split explains itself.
Notes
Where this recipe came from — and what it isn’t. No protected or official Vigan formula exists. The ingredient list follows published descriptions: coarsely ground pork and fat, lots of garlic, black pepper, salt, Ilocano cane vinegar, annatto for colour, a little brown sugar, air-dried. Deviations: (1) Cure #1 at 156 ppm, which many Filipino commercial makers use and home cooks often skip; (2) sugar kept at 0.5% — sources disagree on whether Vigan has any (one encyclopedia entry lists brown sugar; some cooks say none); (3) paprika added to the annatto for the deeper colour of shop sausages. Untested.
Where Vigan longganisa came from. The word comes from Spanish longaniza, the long, thin pork sausage of Spain, brought with Spanish rule from 1565. Vigan was a major Spanish colonial city in the north, and its old town is now a UNESCO World Heritage site. The Ilocano version was rebuilt around local materials: sukang Iloko, made from fermented sugarcane juice (basi), lots of native garlic, and short links hung to dry in a hot, humid climate. Chinese influence on Filipino curing is often mentioned and plausible but not documented for this sausage. No date for the Vigan style is recorded.
How it is eaten. Breakfast first: longsilog is longganisa, sinangag (garlic fried rice) and itlog (fried egg) on one plate, with a saucer of sukang Iloko spiked with garlic and chilli. In Vigan and Batac the sausage is also the filling of the Ilocos empanada — a crisp orange rice-flour shell around grated green papaya, egg and crumbled longganisa, deep-fried at street stalls. Crumbled cooked longganisa goes into fried rice and pinakbet.
The name. Longganisa, longaniza and longanisa are all used. De recado (‘with seasoning’) names the savoury family; hamonado (from jamón, ham) names the sweet one.
Variations. Other de recado longganisa: Lucban (Quezon) with oregano and vinegar, Guagua (Pampanga) garlicky, Alaminos (Pangasinan) with garlic and annatto. Some Vigan makers smoke their sausages.
Sourcing and gear. Sukang Iloko is sold in Filipino groceries; cane vinegar such as Datu Puti cane is a substitute; plain distilled vinegar is not. Annatto powder or seeds are in Latin and Filipino groceries. A 10 mm plate for the coarse grind.
Still open. No Vigan maker’s published formula has been found; the sugar question is open.
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