Butifarra substitutes

The closest thing in most supermarkets. Pale, unsmoked, pork-based and seasoned with pepper, nutmeg and marjoram, which is remarkably close to the Catalan seasoning. The texture is usually finer and springier because bratwurst is more finely ground, so it eats a little smoother and less coarse than a butifarra, and the marjoram adds a faint herbal note.

Best for

grilling whole with white beans (mongetes), escudella and Catalan stews, roasting with vegetables, escalivada plates

Buy fresh uncooked bratwurst, not the pre-cooked kind in a vacuum pack, which will not brown or release fat the same way. Grill over medium heat, not high.

Genuinely the best answer, and easy, because butifarra's seasoning is minimal by design. Per pound of ground pork shoulder, mix in 1 ½ teaspoons salt, 1 teaspoon coarsely cracked black pepper, ¼ teaspoon grated nutmeg and 2 tablespoons dry white wine, then form fat links or patties. The result tastes right in a way no supermarket sausage does, because you are not fighting someone else's fennel or paprika.

Best for

butifarra amb mongetes, grilling as patties, crumbling into escudella or rice, any Catalan recipe

Use shoulder rather than lean ground pork; butifarra needs roughly a quarter to a third fat or it will be dry. Rest the mixture in the fridge for a few hours so the salt and pepper distribute.

Right size, right fat content, right unsmoked pale-pink meat, and it grills exactly like a butifarra. The obstacle is fennel, which almost all Italian sausage contains and which butifarra never does, so the dish picks up a distinct anise perfume that reads Italian instead of Catalan.

Best for

grilling with white beans, roasting, stews with tomato where the fennel blends in, quick weeknight substitution

Look for a plain breakfast-style or fennel-free sausage if your butcher makes one. If the sausage is loose rather than in casings, you can pick out visible fennel seeds.

Pale, unsmoked, peppery and coarse-textured, which lines up well. The difference is garlic: fresh Polish white sausage is markedly more garlicky than butifarra, so a plate of it with beans tastes sharper and more assertive, and if you were also planning to fry the beans in a lot of garlic the dish can end up one-note.

Best for

grilling, with beans and greens, stews and cabbage dishes, roasting

Make sure it says fresh or surowa rather than smoked, since smoked kielbasa is a completely different flavor and will overwhelm the dish. Ease off the garlic elsewhere in the recipe.

Mild, unsmoked and easy to find, so the flavor direction is broadly correct. British bangers contain rusk or breadcrumb, which makes them softer and springier and gives them a distinctly bready background taste, so they eat less meaty than a butifarra and can go a little mushy in a stew.

Best for

grilling with white beans, roasting with potatoes, weeknight cooking, family meals

Add a grating of nutmeg and extra cracked black pepper to the pan to nudge the flavor toward Catalonia. Do not simmer them long or the rusk swells and the texture suffers.

Pale and mild like butifarra blanca, the cooked Catalan style, and it slices neatly. It is far softer and creamier because it usually contains milk, bread and egg, so it spreads rather than holding a firm bite, which is lovely on a plate and wrong on a grill.

Best for

slicing cold or gently warmed, cheese and charcuterie plates, dishes where the sausage is sliced into a stew at the end, when the recipe calls for cooked butifarra blanca

Do not grill it hard; it will split and the filling will run. Warm it gently in butter or in the residual heat of a stew.