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Tabasco's Chontalpa botana from Jalpa de Méndez: pale pork links seasoned with garlic, black pepper, and a little warm spice, poached gently and eaten with lime and chile amashito.
Tabasco, Chontalpa, Jalpa de Méndez. That is where this butifarra lives. Not in the north with flour tortillas, not in a red chorizo pan, and not under melted yellow cheese. It belongs to the humid lowlands where pork, cacao, plátano, chaya, and chile amashito have their own logic.
People think Mexican sausage means chile-red chorizo. Wrong. This one is pale, garlicky, black-pepper sharp, tied into small links and poached until the casing sets. The chile is not inside the sausage. The chile amashito, tiny and fierce, sits in the salsa with lime. That matters. Cada estado, su propia cocina.
In Jalpa I watched women work the stuffing with hands cold from ice water, not because they read a sausage manual but because they know fat smears when it gets warm. The grind has to bind. The casing has to be full but not swollen. The pot has to tremble, not boil. This is how a botana keeps its snap and its clean pork flavor.
My mother from Jalisco did not make this, but she taught me to respect the place a dish comes from. Ask the señoras at the market before you ask the internet. Recetas probadas y garantizadas, but only if you let Tabasco speak in its own accent.
The word butifarra comes from the Catalan botifarra, one of the Iberian sausage traditions that entered New Spain after pigs arrived in the 16th century. In Jalpa de Méndez, Tabasco, the technique became a local emblem: small fresh pork sausages seasoned mainly with garlic and black pepper, poached instead of dried, and served as botana with lime and chile amashito. That Tabasco chile, also called mashito or piquín locally, is part of the lowland table, but in this dish it belongs beside the sausage, not ground into it.
Quantity
3 pounds
very cold, cut into 1-inch cubes
Quantity
1 pound
very cold, cut into 1-inch cubes
Quantity
2 tablespoons
Quantity
12
pounded to a paste
Quantity
2 tablespoons
Quantity
1 teaspoon
Quantity
1/4 teaspoon
Quantity
1/8 teaspoon
Quantity
1/2 teaspoon
rubbed between your palms
Quantity
1/4 cup
chilled
Quantity
1/2 cup
Quantity
10 to 12 feet
rinsed and soaked
Quantity
1/2 medium
Quantity
3
crushed
Quantity
2
Quantity
1 teaspoon
Quantity
3 tablespoons
stemmed
Quantity
1
Quantity
1/2 teaspoon
Quantity
1/4 cup
Quantity
2 tablespoons
Quantity
2 tablespoons
Quantity
for serving
Quantity
for serving
| Ingredient | Quantity |
|---|---|
| pork shoulder or pork legvery cold, cut into 1-inch cubes | 3 pounds |
| pork back fat or fresh pork bellyvery cold, cut into 1-inch cubes | 1 pound |
| kosher salt | 2 tablespoons |
| garlic clovespounded to a paste | 12 |
| freshly ground black pepper | 2 tablespoons |
| ground pimienta gorda (Mexican allspice) | 1 teaspoon |
| ground clove | 1/4 teaspoon |
| ground canela de Ceylán | 1/8 teaspoon |
| dried Mexican oreganorubbed between your palms | 1/2 teaspoon |
| vinagre de caña or mild white vinegarchilled | 1/4 cup |
| ice water | 1/2 cup |
| natural pork casingrinsed and soaked | 10 to 12 feet |
| white onion for poaching liquid | 1/2 medium |
| garlic cloves for poaching liquidcrushed | 3 |
| bay leaves for poaching liquid | 2 |
| kosher salt for poaching liquid | 1 teaspoon |
| fresh chile amashito, mashito, or Tabasco piquínstemmed | 3 tablespoons |
| small garlic clove for salsa | 1 |
| coarse sea salt for salsa | 1/2 teaspoon |
| fresh lime juice | 1/4 cup |
| vinagre de caña or mild white vinegar for salsa | 2 tablespoons |
| finely chopped white onion for salsa | 2 tablespoons |
| lime halves (optional) | for serving |
| warm corn tortillas or totopos (optional) | for serving |
Rinse the pork casings under cool water, then run water through the inside of each length to clear the salt. Soak them in cool water for at least 30 minutes while you work. A clean casing smells faintly of salt and pork, nothing sour. If it smells rotten, throw it out. No me vengas con atajos.
Spread the cubed pork shoulder and pork fat on a tray and put them in the freezer for 25 to 30 minutes, until firm at the edges but not frozen solid. Chill the grinder plate, knife, and bowl too. The women who make this daily in Jalpa know this without measuring: cold fat cuts clean, warm fat smears and gives you a greasy sausage.
Fit the grinder with a coarse 3/8-inch plate. Grind the lean pork and fat together, alternating handfuls so the fat is evenly distributed. Keep the bowl over ice if your kitchen is warm. This butifarra should be pale and fine but not pasty. You are making Tabasco's botana, not red chorizo from another state.
Add the salt, garlic paste, black pepper, pimienta gorda, clove, canela, oregano, chilled vinegar, and ice water to the ground pork. Mix firmly with cold hands or the paddle of a stand mixer on low until the meat turns sticky and clings to the bowl, 3 to 4 minutes. That tackiness is the bind. Without it, the sausage crumbles when sliced. Do not add chile to the meat. The chile amashito belongs in the salsa beside it.
Cook a tablespoon of the sausage mixture in a small skillet until no pink remains. Taste it. It should be garlicky, peppery, and clean, with the warm spices sitting behind the pork, not shouting over it. Adjust salt or black pepper now. Once it is in the casing, the argument is finished.
Slide the soaked casing onto the sausage stuffer and fill it steadily, keeping the casing full but not tight. Twist or tie into short 2 1/2 to 3-inch links, the size you see sold for botana in Jalpa de Méndez. Prick any visible air pockets with a clean needle. Lay the links on a tray and refrigerate uncovered for 1 hour so the casing dries slightly and the seasoning settles.
Fill a wide pot with enough water to cover the links. Add the onion, crushed garlic, bay leaves, and salt. Bring the water to 180F, then lower the heat before adding the butifarras. Keep the water between 170F and 180F for 25 to 30 minutes, until the center of a link reaches 160F. Do not boil them. Boiling splits the casing and washes out the flavor. Así se hace y punto.
Lift the butifarras from the pot and let them rest on a tray for 10 minutes. If serving later, cool them completely and refrigerate. They are excellent at room temperature or gently warmed, but do not grill them until dry. This is not northern asada. Cada estado, su propia cocina.
In a molcajete, grind the chile amashito with the garlic and coarse sea salt until the chiles break into a rough red paste. Stir in the lime juice, vinegar, and chopped white onion. The salsa should bite first with lime, then with the small clean fire of the amashito. If you cannot find fresh amashito, dried chile piquín is the compromise. A compromise, not an upgrade.
Slice some links into thick coins and leave a few whole. Pile them on a Tabasco clay platter, set lime halves and the molcajete of amashito salsa beside them, and bring warm corn tortillas or totopos to the table. Eat with toothpicks if it is a party, with tortillas if people are hungry. Saber cocinar es saber vivir.
1 serving (about 230g)
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