Ingredients
Meat
- 800 glamb shoulder, well marbled, diced and chilled
- 300 glamb fat or beef fat, diced and chilled
- 100 mliced water
Seasoning
- 20 gfine salt
- 2 tbspharissa paste
- 1 tbspsweet paprika
- 1 tbsphot paprika
- 1 tbspground cumin
- 1 tspground coriander seed
- 1 tspground fennel seed
- 1 tspground caraway
- 6garlic cloves, crushed to a paste
- 1 tspblack pepper
- ½ tspground cinnamon
Casings and serving
- 3m lamb casings, soaked and rinsed
- olive oil, for the grill
- crusty baguette, harissa and chips, to serve
Directions
- Keep everything ice cold: chill the diced meat and fat in the freezer for 30 minutes and the mincer parts too, so the fat stays in solid pieces and does not smear.
- Mince the meat and fat together through a 6 mm plate into a chilled bowl.
- Add all the spices, salt, harissa and garlic, then the iced water, and mix hard with your hand or a paddle for 2 to 3 minutes until the mixture turns visibly sticky and clings to your palm when you turn it over.
- Fry a teaspoon of the mix in a pan and taste it; adjust salt and heat now, because you cannot change it once it is in the casing.
- Cover and refrigerate the mixture overnight so the spices bloom and the paprika colours the meat right through.
- Rinse the casings inside and out, thread one onto the stuffing horn and fill without air pockets, keeping the sausage loosely packed rather than tight.
- Twist into 12 cm links, prick any visible air bubbles with a fine needle, and hang or lay them uncovered in the fridge for 4 hours to dry the surface slightly.
- Grill over medium charcoal, not fierce heat, for 8 to 10 minutes, turning often, until the skins are blistered and lacquered and the juices run clear at 72°C (160°F) internally.
- Rest 2 minutes, then serve tucked into split baguette with harissa and chips, which is the standard Algerian street serve, or alongside couscous.
Technique
- Merguez is a lamb or lamb-and-beef sausage. It is never pork, and its red colour comes from paprika and harissa rather than from any curing salt.
- Fat content around 25 per cent is what keeps it juicy over a grill. Leaner than 20 per cent and it turns dry and crumbly.
- Fierce heat splits the casing and renders the fat straight into the fire. Medium coals, patience and frequent turning give the blistered skin you want.
- This is a fresh sausage, not a cured one. Cook it within two days or freeze it.
Substitutions
- No casings: roll the mixture into finger-thick koftas around flat skewers and grill the same way.
- Harissa can be replaced by 2 tbsp hot paprika plus 1 tsp cayenne and 1 tbsp tomato puree, though the flavour is less rounded.
Variations
- Algerian merguez runs hotter and more garlicky than the Tunisian original, which leans on caraway.
- A Constantine style adds a spoon of dried mint to the mix.
- Merguez sandwiches in Algiers are dressed with hmiss and chips inside the bread.
History
From Amazigh and Arabic mirkas, a spiced sausage recorded in medieval Maghrebi cookery; Algerian migration carried it to France, where it became a barbecue fixture.
Frequently asked questions
What is Merguez?
Merguez is a street food from Algeria: spicy grilled lamb sausage with harissa, tucked into crusty bread. From Amazigh and Arabic mirkas, a spiced sausage recorded in medieval Maghrebi cookery; Algerian migration carried it to France, where it became a barbecue fixture.
How long does Merguez take to make?
Merguez takes 1 hr plus overnight resting of preparation and 10 min grilling of cooking. The recipe makes about 1.2 kg, 20 to 24 sausages. It is rated hard to make.
What can I substitute in Merguez?
Yes, within limits. No casings: roll the mixture into finger-thick koftas around flat skewers and grill the same way. Harissa can be replaced by 2 tbsp hot paprika plus 1 tsp cayenne and 1 tbsp tomato puree, though the flavour is less rounded.
What is the most important thing to get right in Merguez?
Rinse the casings inside and out, thread one onto the stuffing horn and fill without air pockets, keeping the sausage loosely packed rather than tight.
