Chipolata

A chipolata (Template:IPAc-en (British) or Template:IPAc-en (American))<ref name=oed>Template:Cite OED</ref> is a type of small sausage, usually containing minced pork, or sometimes minced chicken.

History

In the Oxford Companion to Food, Alan Davidson gives the derivation of the name as the Italian {{#invoke:Lang|lang}}, meaning a dish containing onion ({{#invoke:Lang|lang}} being the Italian for onion), but adds that the sausages called chipolatas contain no onions: "the origin of this usage is a mystery".<ref name=ocf/> Both Davidson and the Oxford English Dictionary give instances of early French and English uses of the Italian-derived term to mean dishes containing onions and small sausages.<ref name=oed/><ref name=ocf/> {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} (1740) gives a recipe for chicken wings à la chipolata, which includes {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} – small blanched onions and little sausages gently cooked in fat.<ref>Le Cuisinier gascon, p. 59</ref>

A 1750 English cookery book refers to "Tendrons of veal {{#invoke:Lang|lang}}", and "Fillets of pork {{#invoke:Lang|lang}}".<ref name=ocf/> In the nineteenth century Louis Ude in his The French Cook (1816) gives a recipe for "Tendrons of veal {{#invoke:Lang|lang}}" which includes the direction, "take a few small sausages, some small onions stewed very white".<ref>Ude, p. 61</ref>

Davidson suggests that the French came to apply the term "chipolata" to the sausages rather than the accompanying onions. By the 1830s the name had widely been transferred to the sausages. Richard Dolby in The Cook's Dictionary and Housekeeper's Directory (1832), gives a recipe for stuffed goose containing "twenty chipolata sausages [pre-cooked], twenty large mushrooms, twenty truffles" etc.<ref>Dolby, p. 281</ref> The Comte de Courchamps, in his {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} (1853) defines chipolata as "a kind of stew of Italian origin", and gives a recipe calling for "twelve little sausages called {{#invoke:Lang|lang}}".<ref name=ocf/>

Content

File:Fried cipollata from Switzerland.jpg

In Switzerland, cipollate are small sausages containing veal, milk and pork.

Davidson writes that "chipolatas are popular in France, where they are finger width, relatively long, and usually pan fried".<ref name=ocf>Davidson, pp. 174–175</ref> In both American and English usage, chipolatas are small sausages, including the very small cocktail sausages and other miniature versions of ordinary sausages.<ref name=ocf/><ref>Beck and Child, p. 377</ref> They are typically made from minced pork seasoned with salt and {{#invoke:Lang|lang}}, a mixture that may contain ground bay leaf, basil, cinnamon, clove, mace, marjoram or oregano, nutmeg, paprika, sage, thyme and white pepper.<ref>Beck and Child, pp. 385–387</ref> Chicken chipolatas are also on sale in France and Britain.<ref>"Mini saucisses de volaille nature", Franprix. Retrieved 19 May 2025; and "Collection British Chicken Chipolata Sausages", Marks and Spencer. Retrieved 19 May 2025</ref>

Chipolatas are popular in Britain. They frequently appear as part of a Christmas dinner wrapped in streaky bacon as pigs in blankets.<ref>Oliver, Jamie. "Pigs in blankets", Jamie Oliver. Retrieved 19 May 2025</ref> In French cuisine, a {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} consists of onions, chipolata sausages, chestnuts, salt pork, and sometimes carrots and olives, in a demiglace sauce.<ref>Escoffier, p. 39</ref>

Sources

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See also

• List of sausages