Chef Isabel
Androlla Gallega con Cachelos y Grelos
Androlla is Galician winter food from the eastern mountains: smoked pork rib and skin, cured with pimentón, boiled slowly until tender, then served with cachelos and greens.
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Fuet Catalan
Created by
Fuet is Catalan: a thin dry sausage of pork, fat, salt, pepper, and time, dried until firm under its white bloom and snapped into short pieces for the table.
Appetizers & Snacks
Spanish
Picnic
Quick Meal
Budget Friendly
2 hr
Active Time
0 min cook•P16D total
YieldAbout 8 thin sausages, 900g finished fuet
Fuet is Catalan, one of the everyday embotits, the cured sausages of the region, thin enough to dry quickly and mild enough to eat by the hand with bread, cheese, or a glass of wine. What makes it fuet and not its neighbour is the small calibre, the clean pork flavour, the black pepper, and the pale white bloom on the casing. No pimenton. That belongs elsewhere.
The method that decides it is control: weigh the salt, weigh the cure, keep the meat cold, ferment it gently, then dry it until it has lost about 35 percent of its weight. Pésalo, no lo adivines. With cured sausage, guessing isn't rustic, it's careless. The white mould is not decoration; it protects the surface and helps the sausage dry evenly instead of crusting hard outside while staying soft inside.
If you're far from Catalonia, no hace falta haber pisado España. Use good pork shoulder, clean pork back fat, hog casings, Cure No. 2, and a safe starter culture from a sausage supplier. If you cannot get natural white mould, use a commercial Penicillium nalgiovense culture; it gives the clean white coat fuet wants. It won't be the same as a Catalan obrador, but it will be honest and safe. Siempre sale, si lo sigues.
Fuet belongs to Catalonia's cured-pork tradition, especially the inland comarques where the matança, the household pig slaughter, filled the winter larder with embotits such as fuet, llonganissa, secallona, and botifarra. Its name means whip in Catalan, a plain reference to the sausage's long, thin shape. The white surface mould is part of the old curing ecology of these sausages, helping preserve the meat and giving fuet its dry rind and clean, gently tangy aroma.
The technique, the tradition, and the story behind every dish.
Discover Culinary ExplorerIngredients
pork shoulder
Quantity
700g
very cold, diced
pork back fat
Quantity
300g
very cold, diced
fine sea salt
Quantity
28g
Cure No. 2, Prague Powder No. 2
Quantity
2.5g
dextrose
Quantity
3g
black pepper
Quantity
4g
freshly cracked
white pepper
Quantity
1g
garlic clove (optional)
Quantity
1 small
crushed to a paste
dry sausage starter culture
Quantity
as directed for 1kg meat
Penicillium nalgiovense mould culture
Quantity
as directed
natural hog casings
Quantity
32-36mm
soaked and rinsed
| Ingredient | Quantity |
|---|---|
| pork shouldervery cold, diced | 700g |
| pork back fatvery cold, diced | 300g |
| fine sea salt | 28g |
| Cure No. 2, Prague Powder No. 2 | 2.5g |
| dextrose | 3g |
| black pepperfreshly cracked | 4g |
| white pepper | 1g |
| garlic clove (optional)crushed to a paste | 1 small |
| dry sausage starter culture | as directed for 1kg meat |
| Penicillium nalgiovense mould culture | as directed |
| natural hog casingssoaked and rinsed | 32-36mm |
Equipment Needed
- •Digital scale accurate to 0.1g
- •Meat grinder with 6mm plate
- •Sausage stuffer
- •Sausage pricker or sterilized needle
- •Curing chamber with temperature and humidity control
- •Hygrometer and thermometer
- •Butcher's twine
Instructions
- 1
Chill and weigh
Chill the diced pork shoulder, back fat, grinder parts, and bowl until very cold but not frozen solid. Weigh the salt and Cure No. 2 exactly; this is not the place for handfuls. Keep the meat below 4C while you work, because cold fat cuts cleanly and gives fuet its firm, even bite.
Use Cure No. 2 for dry-cured sausage, not Cure No. 1. Cure No. 2 contains nitrate for the long drying time. - 2
Grind the pork
Grind the pork shoulder and back fat through a 6mm plate into a chilled bowl. If the fat smears, stop and chill everything again. Fuet should cut clean, with little white flecks of fat held in the lean, not a greasy paste.
- 3
Season and bind
Mix in the salt, Cure No. 2, dextrose, black pepper, white pepper, garlic if using, and the starter culture prepared according to its packet. Knead the mixture with cold hands or a paddle until it turns tacky and holds together when pressed. That bind keeps air pockets out and helps the sausage dry evenly.
- 4
Stuff the casings
Thread the soaked hog casing onto the stuffer and fill it firmly, making thin sausages about 25-30cm long. Do not overstuff until they split, but leave no loose pockets. Twist or tie with butcher's twine, then prick any visible air bubbles with a clean sausage pricker or sterilized needle.
- 5
Apply white mould
Prepare the Penicillium nalgiovense mould culture as directed and spray or wipe it lightly over the stuffed sausages. Hang them so they do not touch. This clean white bloom is what you want; green, black, fuzzy, or wet-looking mould is not fuet behaving itself.
- 6
Ferment gently
Ferment the sausages at 20-22C with high humidity, about 85-90 percent, for 24 to 48 hours, following the starter culture instructions. The sausages should take on a gentle tang and the surface should begin to feel settled, not wet. If you use pH strips or a meter, aim for the safe target given by your culture supplier, commonly below pH 5.3.
- 7
Dry to weight
Move the fuet to a curing space at 11-14C and 75-80 percent humidity with gentle air movement. Weigh one sausage and write the starting weight on a tag. Dry until each sausage loses 30-35 percent of its weight, usually 12 to 18 days for this thin size. Weight loss is the truth here; the calendar only gives you a guess.
- 8
Rest and serve
When the fuet is firm from end to end and has reached its target weight loss, wrap it in parchment and rest it in the refrigerator for a day so the moisture evens out. Serve it at room temperature. In Catalonia it is often snapped into short lengths rather than sliced thin; that little break is part of the pleasure.
Chef Tips
- •Buy pork from a butcher you trust and use fresh back fat, not belly. Belly brings meat layers and softness; back fat gives the clean white flecks fuet needs.
- •Do not add pimenton and call it fuet. That takes the sausage toward another part of the cured larder. Fuet is mild, peppery, pork-forward, and Catalan.
- •If your curing space cannot hold 11-14C and 75-80 percent humidity, wait until you can rig a curing chamber. A warm kitchen dries the outside too fast and leaves the middle unsafe.
- •White powdery mould is welcome. Black, green, orange, sticky, or hairy mould is not. Wipe questionable spots with vinegar and brine, and discard the batch if the smell turns rotten, ammoniac, or sour in a bad way.
- •Serve with pa amb tomaquet, Catalan bread rubbed with ripe tomato and olive oil, or with a simple wedge of Manchego or Garrotxa. The sausage does not need dressing up.
Advance Preparation
- •Soak and rinse the hog casings 30 minutes before stuffing, changing the water once to remove excess salt.
- •The finished fuet keeps several weeks wrapped in parchment in the refrigerator. Let it come to room temperature before serving so the fat softens and the pepper opens.
- •For a picnic, pack the whole fuet and break or cut it when you eat. It travels better whole than sliced.
Frequently Asked Questions
Nutrition Information
1 serving (about 113g)
Calories
485 calories
Total Fat
46 g
Saturated Fat
17 g
Trans Fat
0 g
Unsaturated Fat
27 g
Cholesterol
75 mg
Sodium
1550 mg
Total Carbohydrates
1 g
Dietary Fiber
0 g
Sugars
0 g
Protein
17 g
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