AI-generated A chipolata is a thin fresh pork sausage stuffed into sheep casing, about as thick as a finger and much slimmer than a British banger. French butchers sell them by the coil for the grill and the frying pan; in Britain they turn up at breakfast and, wrapped in streaky bacon, on almost every Christmas dinner plate as pigs in blankets. The thin casing cooks in minutes and browns all round before the inside can dry out.
History
The name comes from the Italian cipollata, a dish made with onions, yet chipolatas outside Italy contain no onion. Alan Davidson calls the shift in meaning a mystery in The Oxford Companion to Food. The trail runs through French cookery: Le Cuisinier gascon (1740) has chicken wings à la chipolata with small onions and sausages, and Louis Eustache Ude's The French Cook (1816) still treats chipolata as a dish of small sausages and onions stewed white. By the 1830s English and French cookbooks used the word for the sausage itself. Escoffier's Guide to Modern Cookery (1907) lists poularde and young turkey à la chipolata, braised with glazed onions, chestnuts and the little sausages. Britain took the sausage over as its own. Pigs in blankets spread from the 1990s, when Delia Smith put them in her Christmas book and supermarkets began to sell them ready-wrapped.
Ingredients
Preparation
Butchers mince lean pork with back fat, season it with salt, pepper and spice, and fill the mince into narrow sheep casing. The Oxford Companion to Food describes the classic French filling as lean pork, pork fat and cooked rice. French trade sheets give a diameter of about 2 to 2.5 cm and a length of 15 to 20 cm; British butchers twist them shorter. They are sold raw. At home they are fried, grilled or roasted for 15 to 20 minutes, turning them so they brown on all sides.
Taste
Mild pork with pepper in front; the herbs stay in the background. The browned casing gives most of the flavour, which is why chipolatas taste best when the skin has caught all round.
Texture
A thin casing that snaps when browned, around a fine to medium mince. Raw, the links are pale pink with white flecks of fat; cooked, they turn golden brown and stay juicy.
Rituals & Traditions
Pigs in blankets at Christmas
In Britain the Christmas roast comes with chipolatas wrapped in streaky bacon. Butchers take pre-orders for them weeks ahead.
Turn them often
The thin links cook in minutes. Keep them moving in the pan so they brown on every side.
Don't prick the casing
Pricking lets the juice run out; the sheep casing is thin enough to cook through without bursting over moderate heat.
