Merguez
Meat
Top 10 pairings
Merguez is a fresh, fiery red sausage of North Africa — coarse-ground lamb (often blended with beef), seasoned heavily with harissa, cumin, garlic and red pepper, then stuffed into narrow lamb casings. Slim and deeply spiced, it is grilled over charcoal, fried or simmered into stews and couscous across the Maghreb and, today, much of France.
Picking a good onedrag
Butcher fresh: taut, dry, cumin and chilliOff: slimy, sour or rancid
Counter freshEveryday bestThe tray or coil as bought: fresh and uncured, not a salami. Keep it cold, cook it through, and look for steam rising from the middle when cut.
Colour of the coilEven red, a shade darker at a cut or sealed face
Casing and surfaceFirm, casing faintly moist from the pack, nothing clings
Smell at the endSpice still leading, the lamb quieter beneath it
The label and the chillCold and sealed, the date now only days off