Is Chorizo de Bilbao The Same as Chinese Sausage? An In-Depth Exploration
As a food blogger with a passion for unique meats, I often get asked if chorizo de bilbao is the same thing as chinese sausage. At first glance, they may seem similar – both are sausages with a distinctive red color. However, when you look closer, you’ll find that they are actually quite different in terms of ingredients, texture, and flavor profile.
In this article, we’ll take an in-depth look at chorizo de bilbao vs chinese sausage. We’ll cover everything from their origins, ingredients, preparation methods, and how they are commonly used in cooking. By the end, you’ll have a clear understanding of how these two sausages are unique.
What is Chorizo de Bilbao?
Chorizo de bilbao originated in the Basque region of Spain. It gets its name from the city of Bilbao located in the Basque country Unlike mexican chorizo which is a fresh sausage, chorizo de bilbao is a smoked, dry-cured sausage made from pork.
The meat is seasoned with paprika which gives chorizo its iconic red color. Spanish paprika ranges from mild and sweet to smoky and spicy. The spiciness of chorizo depends on the type of paprika used. Other typical seasonings include garlic, salt, oregano, and cayenne pepper.
Traditionally, chorizo de bilbao is made by marinating diced pork in the seasoned dry cure for several days. It is then stuffed into natural casings and smoked over beechwood until the chorizo reaches the ideal texture – firm but sliceable. The entire process takes around 3 weeks total.
When sliced, chorizo de bilbao has a deep red color and a coarse, dry texture The flavor is dominated by the smoked paprika, garlic, and spices It has a bold, spicy, and slightly tangy taste. When cooking with it, the oil and paprika are released which adds great flavor to dishes.
What is Chinese Sausage?
Chinese sausage, also known as lap cheong, is a type of cured pork sausage which originated in Southern China. It is hugely popular in Chinese and Southeast Asian cuisine. Unlike spanish chorizo, it is not spicy at all.
The distinguishing ingredient in chinese sausage is rose wine or shao xing, a Chinese cooking wine made from fermented rice. This gives the sausage its trademark sweet, fragrant taste. Other typical seasonings include soy sauce, five-spice powder, sugar, and salt.
To make chinese sausage, pork belly is cut into strips and marinated in the sweet sauce mixture. It is then stuffed into casings, dried and smoked lightly. Instead of using paprika, food coloring is sometimes added to give the sausage its reddish tint.
When cut, chinese sausage has a soft, slightly chewy texture compared to the dry crunch of chorizo. The taste is predominately sweet with hints of smokiness. The rose wine flavor comes through beautifully. When fried, the sugar caramelizes adding a lovely sticky glaze.
Key Differences Between Chorizo de Bilbao and Chinese Sausage
Now that we’ve covered the background of each sausage, let’s summarize the main differences:
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Origins: Chorizo is Spanish while chinese sausage comes from China.
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Main flavors: Chorizo is spicy and paprika-forward. Chinese sausage is sweet with a fragrant rose wine taste.
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Texture: Chorizo has a firm, dry texture. Chinese sausage is softer and slightly chewy.
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Color: While both are red, chorizo gets its color solely from paprika while chinese sausage may use food coloring.
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Curing process: Chorizo is dry-cured while chinese sausage is a wet cure.
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Smokiness: Chorizo is smoked longer which gives it a more pronounced smoky flavor.
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Heat level: Chorizo ranges from mild to spicy hot. Chinese sausage has no heat.
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Ingredients: Chorizo uses lots of paprika. Chinese sausage is flavored with rose wine, five-spice, soy sauce, and sugar.
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Fat content: Chorizo is made from pork shoulder so it has more fat. Chinese sausage uses leaner pork belly.
As you can see, while both are red sausages, chorizo de bilbao and chinese sausage are distinctly different in terms of origin, preparation method, texture, taste, and usage. Now let’s look at how each sausage is used in cooking.
Culinary Uses
Chorizo de bilbao is ideal for hearty spanish dishes. It can be fried to release the paprika oil, added to stews, used as a pizza topping, or simply sliced and eaten with bread. Some classic ways to enjoy it include:
- Chorizo con vino – chorizo sautéed in red wine
- Tortilla española – spanish omelette with diced chorizo
- Paella – spanish rice dish, often containing chorizo
- Chorizo sandwiches – grilled chorizo with bread or baguette
Meanwhile, the sweetness of chinese sausage shines in stir fries, noodle dishes, and more. Here are some favorite ways to cook with chinese sausage:
- Fried rice – diced sausage provides great flavor
- Chow mein or lo mein – mixes nicely with noodles
- Sausage buns – sweet steamed buns with sausage filling
- Buddha’s Delight – classic chinese veggie dish with sausage
- Omelette – frittata-style egg dish with sausage
- Saucy noodles – sliced sausage on top of lo mein or pad thai
Buying and Storing Chorizo de Bilbao vs. Chinese Sausage
If you want to cook with chorizo de bilbao or chinese sausage at home, where can you buy them and how should you store them?
Fresh mexican-style chorizo can be found with the raw sausages at many mainstream grocery stores. For the traditional hard, cured chorizo de bilbao, you may need to visit a spanish deli or order it online. Well-known brands include Palacios and LaLena.
For chinese sausage, check the deli counter at an asian grocery market. Popular brands like Kam Yen Jan and King’s are adequately sweet and savory. Make sure the casing is firm, not shriveled.
Once purchased, semi-cured chorizo de bilbao keeps for 2-3 weeks refrigerated. Fully cured chorizo can be stored for several months. Chinese sausage keeps for around 1 month refrigerated.
For longer storage, chorizo and chinese sausage can be frozen for 6 months as long as the casing remains intact. Thaw slowly in the fridge before using. With its high sugar content, chinese sausage may become a little more slick when thawed.
Ready to Try These Iconic Sausages?
Now you know the key similarities and differences between chorizo de bilbao vs chinese sausage. While they may seem comparable at first glance, they have distinct origins, textures, flavors and culinary uses when you take a closer look.
Chorizo de bilbao excels at bringing a bold, paprika porkiness to hearty spanish stews and rice. Chinese sausage has a softer, sweeter taste that subtly perfumes stir-fries and noodles. Both are fantastic sausages that any foodie should try.
A Sausage by Any Other Name
But isn’t a sausage a sausage by any other name . that would smell as pungent? One would think so.
Chorizo, also known as “generic sausage,” is a type of pork sausage that can be eaten by itself or added to other foods to make them taste better.
As a child, I would sneak up on my Garcia grandmother or our home cooks. It made me think of Chinese kekiam sausage, but it was much drier. It’s also closer to linguiça, which is how the Portuguese call their pork sausages. It could also be seen as a more refined version of lardon, which is small cubes of bacon used to start cooking with to make a tasty lard.
What makes chorizo de Bilbao so special and ingrained in Filipinos’ food memories? It’s not even made from the best hams and pork, like prosciutto de Parma from Italy, or from wild-acorn-fed cerdos (swine) in the Spanish hills, like serrano jamon or jamon iberico (prosciutto). It has about the same amount of meat as your pepperoni or Italian sausages (sweet or hot) or the longaniza, but the bilbao has a stronger paprika flavor that makes it stand out.
People from Iberia today, on the other hand, will be completely confused and confused when you ask them where to find this chorizo de Bilbao. This chorizo does not exist in Spain. People from the Philippines are the only ones who know about chorizo de Bilbao because it was made entirely in the Philippines but is marketed as something from the old Iberian mother country.
After World War II, Vicente Genato, who later became the owner of Genato Commercial Corporation, came up with the idea of a Filipino sausage that would have “Spanish origins.” “Since the Genatos came from Bilbao, Spain, which is the capital of Basque country, “Bilbao” would be a good name. This is because it is common in Europe to add the name of a place of origin (e.g. g. Champagne must come from Champagne, France; burgundy wine must come from the region of France called Burgundy; asti spumante drinks must come from Asti, Italy; and so on. ) to denote a product’s authentic origins and characteristics.
Genato must have thought that chorizo de Bilbao sounded Spanish enough, and it didn’t matter if word got out that it was all made up. Ole!
Print ad for the cured meat products of Genato Commercial Corporation, circa 1960s
But things got more complicated when Genato brought his chorizo to Filipino expat communities in North America. Because of stricter rules on food in North America compared to the Philippines, his product had to go through a lot of legal hoops. There were also many fake companies that claimed to be selling “chorizo de Bilbao,” which made consumers even more confused. This was similar to the Selecta Ice Cream scandal in the Philippines in the 1990s.
Like the “Selecta Ice Cream” Reborn Saga
Some readers may remember that the Arce family started “Selecta” in 1935. It was a niche ice cream brand, especially for its macapuno flavor, and was only sold in the metro Manila area. Similar smaller brands, like Sison and Milky Way ice creams that are only sold in certain places, managed to stay in business despite Andres Soriano’s huge Magnolia product line.
In 1990, the Arces sold the “Selecta” brand and what were thought to be the formulas to RFM Corporation, which was founded by Salvador Araneta. In just a few years, though, the brand began to lose its quality, in part because RFM changed the original recipes. The Arces were scared, but they might not have had a case once they sold the brand to a competitor.
However, the newer Arces made a comeback by using their original recipes and selling their products under the name “Arce Dairy.”
All of this caused a lot of confusion for ice cream fans, like when the chorizo de Bilbao brand came to the US market for sausage experts. So there are conflicting versions of the chorizo de Bilbao marketed abroad today.
There is no truth to the rumor that the building above, which is next to the Nervion River, used to be the fabrica de chorizos de Bilbao in Bilbao, Spain. It was closed down after an explosion of spoiled sausages and turned into a museum. (Source: Wikimedia Commons).
So, to get ready for this piece, I bought these sausages for the first time in 74 years. This is because I don’t usually make complicated traditional Filipino dishes. It quickly became clear to me that it couldn’t be used for halo-halo. However, a creative cook could add it to minestrone soup, a favadas (Basque-style bean soup), a sopa de frijoles Canarios (Canary Islands bean soup), a sopa de lentejas (Colombian-style lentil soup), or any stew that needs an extra flavor boost without MSG.
Reciprocal Love between Manila and Madrid
Yes, Virginia, it so happens that there exists a “sister city” relationship between Bilbao and Iloilo City. There are, however, chorizos de Cebu, de Bacolod, and maybe even de Pampanga. There is also no truth to the rumor that Andrew Tan, a Manila taipan who has made a big splash in the Spanish business world (even more than the Ayalas by buying the Fundador brand and distillery and getting his Spanish companies listed on the Madrid Stock Exchange), is launching a chorizo de Iloilo in Spain this season as a loving Filipino greeting meant to teach Iberian people about the revered Filipino chorizo de Bilbao.
SOURCES:
Myles A. Garcia is a Correspondent and regular contributor to www.positivelyfilipino.com. He has written three books:
· Secrets of the Olympic Ceremonies (latest edition, 2021);
· Thirty Years Later . . . Catching Up with the Marcos-Era Crimes (© 2016); and
· Of Adobo, Apple Pie, and Schnitzel With Noodles (© 2018)—all available in paperback from amazon.com (Australia, USA, Canada, UK and Europe).
Myles is also a member of the International Society of Olympic Historians and writes for the ISOH Journal. Lately, he has been working on his playwriting. For any enquiries: razor323@gmail. com.
More articles from Myles A. Garcia
How It’s Made: Chinese Sausage and Pancake Stir fry by Masterchef
FAQ
Is Chinese sausage the same as chorizo?
What is chorizo de Bilbao in English?
What is the taste of chorizo de Bilbao?
What is chorizo de Bilbao?
Chorizo de Bilbao, also known as Chorizo Bilbao, is a type of Philippine pork and beef dry sausage. It was originally produced by Spanish Filipino Vicente Genato of the Genato Commercial Corporation in Manila and the name is a genericized trademark originating from the branding coined by Genato from his family’s original home city of Bilbao, Spain.
How much does Chorizo de Bilbao cost?
Chorizo de Bilbao is expensive — about $32 US for a 4 pound tin (2008 prices.) To use, you slice and use in small amounts as a flavouring ingredient in recipes such as paella, callos or pesang manok. Linguica; other spicy sausages such as pepperoni or kielbasa.
Which is better chorizo or sausage?
Sausage is normally pork or turkey. Sausage is also popular as a breakfast item. Both types of meat are delicious and can complement a variety of other flavors, resulting in a wide palette. Chorizo’s spice lends itself better to those who prefer Latin foods, while sausage is great for those looking for a mild addition.
What is Mexican chorizo?
Mexican chorizo is the most popular version available in the United States. Most often, Mexican chorizo is still a spicy ground pork sausage, but it is available both uncooked and dried, unlike other chorizo which are commonly only available cooked.