The best traditional egg sausage in Catalonia this year is found in the Baix Ebre, in the butchery of Glòria Curto, Paulo de Camarles. The jury of the National Artisanal Egg Sausage Contest has also awarded the best single egg sausage award to Xavier Alemany from the Alemany butchery in Girona.
From the store he runs, Curto has won with a sausage “made with quality products that follows the family recipe that my father taught me and that over the years we have improved without losing the initial essence,” he explained. The butcher feels this award as a recognition of the work they do in Paulo de Camarles and the history of the business, which he opened in 1910.
In the singular botifarra category, Alemany has presented a botifarra d'ou with Girona sauce – a root traditionally planted in this area of the Mediterranean – and artichoke. The winner used these two “proximity and seasonal” products with the aim of “transferring to the consumer the essence of traditional dishes and products from our closest territory.” In 2021, his delicatessen was also awarded this award in the same category.
The jury, made up of experts from the delicatessen and gastronomy sector, took into account the external and internal appearance of the sausages, the organoleptic characteristics, taste and aroma.
In the ninth edition of this competition, organized by the Confraria del Gras i el Magre and the Fundació Oficis de la Carn, 34 butifarras have been presented in the Traditional Artisan category, and 25, in the Unique Artisan category, from 20 counties of Catalonia
In a statement, the president of Oficis de la Carn, Pròsper Puig, values that, through this contest, “the botifarra d'ou has been consolidating itself as a gastronomic icon of Carnival even in areas where there was not so much tradition.” . And, Josep Dolcet, secretary of the jury, affirms that these sausages "have reached a level of qualitative consolidation", and that the unique sausages presented demonstrate a "significant evolution in imagination and the search for new flavors."
