Longaniza de Toluca con Papas

This is from Toluca, capital of the Estado de México, where the longaniza has its own protected reputation and the carniceros hang the long red coils in storefront after storefront along the Mercado Juarez and the Mercado 16 de Septiembre. Toluca's longaniza is not Spanish longaniza and it is not the same animal as chorizo. It is coarser, redder, soured with vinegar, deeply seasoned with chile guajillo and a little ancho, and it cooks differently. The fat that renders out of it is the cooking medium for whatever goes in the pan next. In this case, papa.

The combination of longaniza and papa is breakfast across the Valle de Toluca and into the surrounding villages, eaten at small fondas that open at six in the morning to feed people on their way to work. The technique is simple and the technique is also where most cooks go wrong. You render the longaniza first, alone, until its red fat pools in the pan. You lift the meat out and fry the parboiled papa in that fat. Then you return the meat. If you throw everything in at once, the papa never crisps and the longaniza overcooks. Two stages. No me vengas con atajos.

My mother did not make this dish. She was from Jalisco and her sausage was chorizo. But the first time I drove into Toluca with a notebook, the woman who sold me a kilo of longaniza at the Mercado Juarez took the trouble to tell me how to cook it, in detail, while she wrapped it in butcher paper. Render first. Lift the meat. Fry the papa in the fat. I have not improved on her instruction in fifteen years. Saber cocinar es saber vivir.