Merguez

Merguez

Merguez
Alternative names	مرقاز
Type	Sausage
Region or state	Maghreb
Associated national cuisine	Algeria Morocco Tunisia
Invented	12th century
Main ingredients	Lamb or beef
Ingredients generally used	Cumin and chili pepper or harissa
Cookbook: Merguez   Media: Merguez

Merguez (/mɛərˈɡɛz/, from Arabic: مرقاز‎, also مركاس, مرقاس, مرقاص) is a red, spicy mutton- or beef-based fresh sausage in Maghrebi cuisine. Since the late twentieth century, it has been popular in France and England due to the large Algerian Populations.

Merguez is a sausage made with uncooked lamb, beef, or a mixture stuffed into a lamb-intestine casing. It is heavily spiced with cumin and chili pepper or harissa, which give it its characteristic piquancy and red color, as well as other spices such as sumac, fennel, and garlic.

Merguez is usually eaten grilled. Dried merguez is used to add flavour to tagines and couscous. It is also eaten in sandwiches and with french fries.

Etymology

There are several spellings in Arabic (مِركس mirkas, pl. مراكس marākis; مِركاس mirkās, مَركس markas and مِرقاز mirqāz). The hesitation between k and q probably reflects the pronunciation /ɡ/, for which there is no standard Arabic spelling; further confusing matters is that in some maghrebi dialects, Arabic qāf is sometimes pronounced as /ɡ/, as an allophone of /q/. It is first attested in the 12th century, as mirkās or merkās.

The Arabic terminology for the food is also the likely origin of the Spanish names of the foodstuffs morcon and morcilla.

See also

• List of African dishes
• Berber cuisine
• Maghrebi cuisine

References

• Davidson, Alan, "Merguez", Oxford Companion to Food (1999), p. 497. ISBN 0-19-211579-0
• Ch. Pellat, "Mirkās", Encyclopaedia of Islam, 2nd edition.

External links

• Merguez recipe
• [1]