Top 4 Local Cured Meats
in Melgaço

The municipality of Melgaço, strongly influenced by the Minho river, is a must for all lovers of great food. The region's cuisine, while simple, is exceptionally delicious. In addition to the region's excellent wines, one of its most famous products is Melgaço ham. Produced for over 500 years, the unique shape of this smoked ham is achieved by making a long cut along the leg and extending the leg until straight. It is sold whole, sliced, or cubed. The interior of this presunto is an intense red and the meat is smooth and shiny with moderate marbling. The smoked ham has an intense aroma, while the fat has a flavor reminiscent of balsamic vinegar. The ham is moderately juicy, firm, tender, slightly fibrous, and sweet with pronounced salty and smoky notes.Expand

This chorizo, produced in the Melgaço region in the northeast of Portugal, is a cold-smoked pork sausage made with the addition of pig's blood. The pork used in this sausage must always come from the Bísaro breed of pigs or their crossbreeds. The meat is cut into small chunks and combined or flavored with pig's blood, red wine, onions, salt, garlic, bay leaves, caraway seeds, rye flour, and paprika. It's then stuffed into casings and cold-smoked over an oak, juniper, or birch fire. The final product is a sausage with a smooth, moist, nearly black exterior and a juicy, tender texture. The finished chorizo is sour, spicy, and mildly sweet, and it has a strong flavor of onions, with a smoky aftertaste.Expand

Originating from the far northern tip of the country, Melgaço salpicão sausage is a traditional cured and cold-smoked sausage. The proximity of the ocean and the unique combination of winds and cold winters in the Viana do Castelo region provide excellent conditions for making dried meats. The high quality of the region's sausages is a result of both the traditional animal feed used and the knowledge passed down among its residents from generation to generation.
Melgaço salpicão sausage is made from pork loin and leg taken from the Bísaro breed of pigs. The meat is diced and combined with salt, garlic, wine, pepper, and chili powder. The combination is stuffed into sausage casings before being smoked over local oak wood. The finished sausage is chestnut-brown in color, firm, and well-marbled, and it has a predominantly smoky, pleasant aroma. The meat is succulent and moderately salty. This sausage is usually served as an appetizer with homemade bread and cottage cheese.Expand

This smoked, horseshoe-shaped sausage is made from pork taken from the Bísaro breed of pig, and it is produced in Melgaço county in northern Portugal on the Rio Minho. This region is high and remote, and harsh living conditions pushed the local people to survive independently of trade. As a result, they became experts in pig farming and processing and preserving meat, and this knowledge has been passed down through generations. The meat for this chorizo is cut into cubes and seasoned with white wine, water, garlic, onion, paprika, salt, and bay leaves. The mixture is placed into sausage casings and smoked over a smoldering fire, which gives the chorizo an intense, smoky aroma, a juicy and tender texture, and a sour, salty, and savory aftertaste.Expand