The sausages from Portugal are varied in their consistency and also
vary from regional to region. They play a large part in adding
flavour to the excellent Portuguese cuisine. Keeping pigs for the rural
population to provide food for the table throughout the year has always
been a normal custom. The yearly pig-killing three day event has a
social and economic significance with an excuse for a family party! The
industrialization of sausages has brought most examples of the items to
the urban masses.
The regulations that are being imposed by the
EU on this subject will have considerable ill effect on the home
produced products created by the rural population. Below are some of the
main names of sausages and the area or town in which they are made.