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Fermentation Atlas

Meat from Portugal

Alheiraalheira

Pork and chicken are boiled, pulled from the bone and mixed hot with wheat bread soaked in the cooking broth, olive oil, lard, garlic and paprika. The paste is stuffed into beef casing, tied into a horseshoe and smoked over a low oak and olive-wood fire for about 8 days while lactic bacteria sour it. It is kept cold and grilled or fried before eating. Made in 5 steps over 2 days – 8 days. The longest step, smoke over a low fire, takes 2–8 days (Associação Comercial e Industrial de Mirandela). Enterococcus faecium and Leuconostoc mesenteroides do most of the fermenting.

Key numbers
Main step2–8 daysSet[ce-mirandela][fernandes2024]Smoke over a low fire
Temperature100 °CSet[ce-mirandela]Boil the meats and pull them from the bone
AciditypH 3.9–4.7Measured[fernandes2024]Smoke over a low fire
Fully documentedMeat2 days – 8 daysMore meatMore from Portugal

Recipe

Amounts from a sourcePercentages of the mix in the Alheira de Mirandela IGP specification, which also requires at least 60 % meat in total.
10–15 %Pork (shoulder, head and belly; no offal) · From Bísaro pigs or crosses with at least 50 % Bísaro blood[ce-mirandela]
45–50 %Chicken (any part except offal) · Duck, partridge, rabbit, hare or pheasant may also go in[ce-mirandela]
15–25 %Regional wheat bread, sliced and rested at least 48 hours · Round loaf of about 1.5 kg of type 55 flour, made with little or no leaven[ce-mirandela]
4–8 %Trás-os-Montes PDO olive oil, or olive oil like it[ce-mirandela]
Lard, salt, garlic and sweet or hot paprika · No onion or chopped parsley in the Mirandela type[ce-mirandela]
Salted natural beef casing, tied at both ends with cotton string[ce-mirandela]
Starterspontaneous

Total time across the recorded steps: 2 days – 8 days

Start
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100 °C

What changes: Pork and chicken boil with seasoning, then the meat is pulled from the bone

Step 1 of 5
Boil the meats and pull them from the bone
Time
at least 30 min
Set
Temperature
100 °C
Set
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented
Which microbes the steps name, step by step
Lactic acid bacteria
Enterococcus faecium
L. mesenteroides
Latilactobacillus sakei
L. plantarum

Output: pulled meat and a rich broth (calda).

Flavour
Not documented
Texture
Not documented
Colour
Not documented

Microbes at work in this step

Not documented for this step.

Method

Measured measured in a studySet fixed by a specification or tested recipeReported one source reports itTypical a general value, not sourced for this fermentUnconfirmed not yet checked against a source

What makes this one different

Alheira is made from meat that is cooked first and bulked out with bread soaked in the broth, and it is smoked rather than dried. It is soft and must be cooked before eating, unlike dry raw sausages such as salami.

Related ferments

Variants

  • Alheira de Mirandela IGPBísaro pork, more olive oil and garlic, no onion or parsley, smoked over oak and olive wood.
  • Alheira de Vinhais IGP and Alheira de Barroso-Montalegre IGPThe other protected alheiras of Trás-os-Montes.

Safety

Its pH and salt are not enough to make it safe, and the meat can be contaminated after cooking, so alheira must be kept chilled and cooked before eating. E. coli, S. aureus and Listeria were found in several samples, and Salmonella was traced to contaminated casings.

Hazards the sources name: Escherichia coli, Staphylococcus aureus and Listeria (in several samples); Salmonella (traced to contaminated casings and surfaces).

History and sources

Every number is labelled with how it is known. How this atlas is made

Folk history links it to New Christians who avoided pork in the 16th century; the story is contested.

  1. [ce-mirandela] Associação Comercial e Industrial de Mirandela, Caderno de Especificações da Alheira de Mirandela IGP (DGADR, Produtos Tradicionais Portugueses)spec
  2. [fernandes2024] Fernandes N., Faria A.S., Carvalho L. et al. 2024, Genetic identification and technological potential of indigenous lactic acid bacteria isolated from alheira, a traditional Portuguese sausage, Foods 13(4):598paper
  3. [ferreira2006] Ferreira V., Barbosa J., Vendeiro S. et al. 2006, Chemical and microbiological characterization of alheira, a typical Portuguese fermented sausage with particular reference to factors relating to food safety, Meat Sciencepaper
  4. [esteves2007] Esteves A., Aymerich T., Garriga M. et al. 2007, Tracing Salmonella in Alheira processing plants, Journal of Applied Microbiologypaper