🇪🇸 Spain · Family: Bocadillo de Embutido · Region: Burgos · Heat: Griddled · Bread: barra · Proteins: morcilla
The Bocadillo de Morcilla de Burgos takes the most famous of Spain's blood sausages and frames it in bread. Morcilla de Burgos is built on rice, onion, pork fat, and blood, seasoned for a smoky, savory profile rather than a sweet one, and it is firm enough to slice cleanly. As a bocadillo it is one of the great regional sandwiches of Castile, leaning entirely on the quality of the sausage and on cooking it so the rice crisps rather than steams.
The build starts at the plancha. Burgos morcilla is sliced into rounds a centimeter or so thick, thick enough that the rice inside holds together when the slice is lifted, and seared hard on a hot griddle so the exterior caramelizes and the cut faces of rice go crunchy at the edges. The slices are then layered into a split barra or a crusty roll, the crumb usually left bare to take a little of the rendered fat without going soft. Done well, each round has a dark, almost crackling crust over a soft, smoky, faintly oniony interior, the rice giving texture rather than mush, and the bread crisp enough to stand against it. Done badly, the slices are seared too gently and stay pasty, they break apart into a heap of loose rice, or the bread is soft and the fat turns it greasy from the inside.
Variations are restrained because the sausage is the point. The plainest version, seared morcilla and bread alone, is the one that lets the Burgos style show most clearly. Sweet fried green peppers are the traditional addition, their grassy mildness offsetting the rich, iron-edged sausage; some add a fried egg to push it toward a fuller plate. Toasting the bread on the same griddle, picking up a little of the rendered fat, is a common and worthwhile touch. The broader national bocadillo de morcilla, which may use onion-bound or sweeter regional sausages prepared differently, is a distinct subject that deserves its own article rather than being crowded in here. Here, the Burgos rice sausage and a hard sear are non-negotiable.
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