Pork is very popular meat and there are a great variety of hams and sausages.
Presunto is smoked ham, laboriously prepared and extremely tasty, although quite salty. It is used as a raw snack or added to certain dishes. Presunto is made from whole legs of pork preserved in a mixture which includes a paste made with salt, paprika, wine and crushed garlic which must cover the raw meat thickly. Then the meat is left between layers of salt for several weeks, after which the salt is rubbed off and the legs of pork are hung in the fumeiro (smoking place). Once the smoking is finished, the ham is brushed with olive oil, paprika and a little borax (which acts as a preservative). At this stage the presunto is not at its best. A good presunto must have been cured for a year. There are still cottages to be found which do not have a chimney since they want the smoke of the fire to surround the presunto hanging in the ceiling – when the smoke is too much for the occupants they open the door. Chouriços is the most popular of Portuguese sausages, highly seasoned and tasty. A few slices can be used to season a dish and good quality chouriços are delicious eaten raw. Chouriços are about 2.5 cm in diameter and either short (13-18 cm) in length or double that size tied up in a loop. They are filled with lean and fat pork meat and seasonings (mainly garlic and red pepper paste) and are thoroughly smoked.