Homemade Linguica

Homemade Linguica. If you’re looking for a recipe to make your own Portuguese Linguica at home, then look no further. You will need specialty equipment to stuff the casings, but you can pick up attachments for Kitchenaid mixers or buy stand alone sausage grinder/stuffers easily on Amazon or other marketplaces. The recipe only requires a few ingredients to make it like pork shoulder, spices, and liquid smoke. Then smoke it on your Traeger or other smokers and it’s ready to go. So simple and delicious. Make extra and freeze it so you never run out.

I am 1/4 Portuguese and grew up eating homemade linguica and the most amazing sweet bread ever.  No not calf brains, but the sweet, buttery bread that the Portuguese are so well known for that is similar to Hawaiian sweet bread.

Love Portuguese recipes? Try my Alcatra in a Slow Cooker or my great grandmother’s Filozes donuts.

Portuguese Traditions

Every year there is a celebration called the Festa or Holy Ghost Festa, read more about the Holy Ghost here.  It’s a Portuguese tradition where the story goes that the Queen of Portugal gave her crown to a peasant girl.  Every year Portuguese communities around the world have a Festa and not only is it a grand parade of queens and past queens but there’s also a feast.  Friday nights dinner usually consist of homemade Linguica and beans with salads and wine.  Sunday is all about church and a huge parade and ends with Alcatra (boiled spiced beef), Sopa (the broth from the beef with cabbage and large hunks of french bread floating), salads and sweet bread.  Lots and lots of sweet bread.

So it’s only natural that I have a love of sausages (and bread).  I have never tried to make my own linguica, until now.  Being a part of the Charcutepalooza challenge has given me some guts in the kitchen when it comes to meats and having the Charcuterie: The Craft of Salting, Smoking & Curing cookbook has changed my view on making homemade sausages forever.  Also, for a small investment of around $84 for the attachments for my Kitchenaid mixer I have been able to make several batches of fresh sausage. I guess I always thought it was a lot tougher to do than it is.  Sit back and relax and take a pictorial ride on just how simple it is to make your own sausage at home.  Check out the recipe at the end for the most amazing Linguica ever.  

p.s. I called my 91 year old grandmother to let her know I made Linguica for the first time and she was probably the most proud of me that she’s ever been.  Ok, maybe not, but close.

Ingredients You’ll Need

• Pork Shoulder – also known as pork butt
• Spices – Hungarian paprika, white pepper, black pepper, chipotle powder, Kosher salt
• Garlic cloves – 3 fresh fat garlic cloves
• Liquid Smoke – just a little goes a long way
• Red Wine – for flavor and color
• Sugar – white granulated sugar
• Fresh Oregano – you can use dried oregano, but fresh will really pack a flavor punch
• Cubed Pork Belly – optional, but more traditional

*NOTE: Find the printable recipe card with exact measurements and instructions below.

How to Make Homemade Linguica

Linguica is a simple sausage to make. You only need a few ingredients, a meat grinder, and a sausage stuffer and it’s time to smoke the juiciest most flavor links.

Step 1: Season the Cubed Meat

Because I made 2 batches of sausage on this day, I only did 2 lbs of pork butt (shoulder) which made about 6 links of linguica.  In this bowl is fresh garlic, salt, white and black pepper, lots of paprika, liquid smoke, red wine, fresh oregano, sugar and chipotle chili powder.  Mix it all together with the cubed pork and it’s time to stuff.

Step 2: Rinse the Hog Casing

I use natural hog casing, but if you’re squeamish about touching hog intestines then you can use synthetic casings with similar results.  This is 10 feet, enough for 5 lbs of sausage.  It needs to soak for a bit and then you’ll need to run water inside of the casing to rinse it out.  I usually add enough water to make a 4 inch long balloon and then run it the entire way down the casing.  It’s a delicate process as you don’t want to make knots.

Step 3: Grind the Meat

Attach the large grinding plate and fire up the mixer.

Lesson learned – don’t over-stuff the chamber with meat.  This results in a not-very-fun sausage making experience.  Let the machine work for you.

See how large the grind is?  This is a good thing to give you texture in your sausage.  Too small and it will look like hot dogs.

If using cubed pork belly, now would be the time to mix it into the ground meat mixture. Make cubes small (1/2″ cubes or less).

Step 4: Fill the Casings with Ground Meat

Cut off the desired amount of casing and slip it over the sausage tube insert.  Some say to grease the tube, but I’ve found it works better without.  Make sure to tie a knot in the end of the casing.

Start filling the casing with the sausage mixture.  You can twist your links as you go, but I’ve found it’s a little easier to wait until the end.  Just don’t stuff the casing too tightly or it will burst when you twist.  Think balloon…too full and POW!

Step 5: Smoke the Linguiça

This process is made much easier with the addition of more than 2 hands.  My darling daughter has become my sausage making sidekick and has perfected the right amount of meat mixture to add to the stuffer to prevent air pockets in the sausages.  She’s such a rock star.  Twist your links and go fire up the smoker.

Smoke the sausages for about 1 1/2 hours.  Flipping them once halfway through.

That’s it.  Can you believe how easy it is?  While I was making Linguica I also made a batch of Italian sausage using the other half of the pork butt (shoulder).  The whole process for both sausages was about 40 minutes start to finish, not including the smoking of the linguica of course.  In the end, you get to determine how much fat goes into making these and you know that no other preservatives were added.  Just fresh tasty sausage.  I hope you give them a try.  You might be hooked just like me.

More Recipes We Love

Filozes Portuguese Donuts

Alcatra Portuguese Pot Roast (Slow Cooker)

Smoked Spatchcocked Turkey

Smoked Almond Pesto Cavatappi

Creamy Sausage and Pea Pasta

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