Chorizos and Black Puddings from Teror For generations, popular dialect on this island has given its most
according to researcher and culinary expert Mario Hernández).
appreciated local products the “surname” of the village which
These were adapted to an extent to the tastes and the ingre-
made them famous, providing them with a sense of a seal of
dients available to those who made these products here.
quality. This occurs especially in the case of cold meats, in which
Many small and family-owned meat establishments, who have
the Canaries doesn’t have a particularly long tradition and which are limited to soft paste chorizos and sweet black puddings.
incorporated these old recipes into their their practices, continue to flourish in Teror today. Although their produce reaches
In Gran Canaria (and around the rest of islands too) the “surna-
all the establishments in the food sector on the island (inclu-
me” for their most famous cold meats are given to the town of
ding bars and restaurants, who use them as ingredients in a
Teror, where some butchers –going back several generations
wide range of dishes), for local palates, the sheer joy of biting
now- started to make and sell it coinciding with the traditional
into the popular chorizo from Teror wrapped inside a warm,
period when pigs were sacrificed. Pigs were an essential animal
oven-baked bread roll, especially on market day in the town
in the lives of peasants not too long ago, and if they bred more
every Sunday, is a truly culinary ritual which leaves a sump-
than one they would sell the other one to local butchers who
tuous, lingering taste in the mouth.
would come to the house of the breeder to sacrifice it and then buy the pieces they needed to make their product with.
Yuri Millares, December 2017
These butchers became like pig-rearers themselves who made their cold meats at home and then took them to their own shops to sell them, they brought age-old recipes to their professional activities, which came to the Canaries from several different places (Italian soprassata, Portuguese morcela dolce,
Chorizos and Black Puddings from Teror
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