Chistorra substitutes

A raw, soft, heavily seasoned pork sausage that renders a deep red, paprika-and-chile-scented fat exactly the way chistorra does, and is available in almost every American supermarket.

Best for

pintxos and tapas, chistorra on bread, scrambled eggs and potatoes, bean stews, grilled skewers

The right job, a slightly different accent. Mexican chorizo is made with vinegar and often clove and cinnamon, so it tastes noticeably more acidic and spice-forward, and a pintxo made with it reads tangier than the Navarran original. Skip any vinegar or wine the recipe adds. It is usually sold loose or in a soft casing, so if you want links, squeeze it into a thin sausage shape on the griddle.

Fresh, uncured Spanish-style sausage seasoned with pimenton and garlic, sold in Spanish delis and some Latin markets, and the same family of product as chistorra.

Best for

pintxos, grilling, tapas plates, cooking with white beans or lentils, sandwiches

As close as you will get without buying chistorra itself. The only real difference is thickness: chorizo fresco is usually two or three times fatter, so it needs longer to cook through. Slice it on a steep diagonal or split it lengthwise so it cooks in the same few minutes and gets the same amount of browned surface.

A fatty fresh pork sausage rebuilt in the pan with the two seasonings that define chistorra: pimenton and raw garlic.

Best for

pan dishes, bean and lentil stews, eggs, pasta, sandwiches

The fat content and the raw texture are right, and the added paprika gets the colour and the sweet smokiness close. The giveaway is fennel, which reads unmistakably Italian, so buy a fennel-free breakfast-style sausage if you can. Add the paprika to the pan with the sausage so it blooms in the rendering fat, and pull it off the heat before it darkens or it turns bitter.

Dry-cured, ready-to-eat Spanish chorizo, which shares chistorra's paprika and garlic flavour but has already lost most of its water.

Best for

adding smoky depth to stews, quick tapas, paella and rice dishes, when nothing fresh is available

Same flavour family, different animal in the pan. It is firm and chewy rather than juicy and yielding, it renders far less fat, and it never gets that soft-inside, crisp-outside quality that makes chistorra worth eating. Slice it thin, fry it 60 seconds a side, and use the rendered fat. If you serve it whole in place of chistorra on bread, it will be dry.

A fatty fresh sausage that gives you the right amount of pork fat and salt to work with, seasoned up toward chistorra.

Best for

bean and cabbage dishes, one-pan potato dishes, stews, sandwiches

Honest about its limits: even seasoned up, this is sweeter, milder and much paler than chistorra, with no chile heat at all and a noticeably Northern European marjoram-and-pepper background. Fine when the sausage is just the fatty savoury element in a stew, wrong when it is the star of a pintxo.

Mix 1 pound of fatty ground pork with 1 tablespoon sweet paprika, 1 teaspoon smoked paprika, 2 teaspoons fine salt, 3 grated garlic cloves, ½ teaspoon black pepper and 1 tablespoon dry white wine, then rest it in the fridge for at least an hour.

Best for

pintxos, griddling, eggs and potatoes, when you want the real flavour

The closest flavour match of anything here, and genuinely easy because chistorra is a fresh sausage with no curing involved. You get a loose mixture rather than a link, so shape it into thin ropes on the griddle or form small patties. Let it rest an hour so the salt and garlic penetrate; mixed and cooked immediately it tastes raw and disjointed.