The butcher Xesc Reina, the driving force behind Can Company, publishes 'Porca miseria: the trades of meat', a work that delves into the making of sobrasada and other sausages from Mallorca.
The renowned Mallorcan butcher Xesc Reina, at the helm of Can Company, has launched the book 'Porca miseria: the trades of meat', a work that goes far beyond a simple recipe book. Reina, born in Girona but settled in Mallorca for decades, condenses in its pages decades of experience in the art of charcuterie, with special attention to Mallorcan sobrasada, one of the island's star products.
A tribute to the trade and the pig
The book not only includes production techniques but is also a declaration of love for the trade, the pig, and the culture of meat transformation. Reina writes as he works: with passion, precision, and a perspective that combines popular knowledge, technique, and memory. In its pages, the reader will find the butcher who has dedicated years to understanding how meat, fat, salt, paprika, casing, drying, and time behave. Each of these elements can completely alter the final result, and Reina dissects them with discernment.
The work explains that behind every sausage there is much more than a recipe: there is criteria, context, territory, and a way of looking at the product that is not learned solely from manuals but through years of practice. The book is designed for both professionals and enthusiasts who wish to delve into the home production of sausages.
The importance of grinding and the drying room
One of the great successes of the publication is explaining issues that often remain outside the superficial gastronomic narrative: the importance of the size and clarity of the grind, the influence of that gesture on the evolution of the product, the diameter of the holes in the grinding plates, the mixing and kneading process, or the necessity for the ingredient dosages to be precise. In this logic, the drying room takes on a central role, a space where the sausage begins to tell the truth. Reina understands it almost as a territory of reading: observing, smelling, pausing, understanding how each piece breathes and how it evolves according to time, air, and humidity. Curing, understood this way, is a phase of accompaniment.
The book also addresses the preservation systems that are part of the heart of the trade: from refrigeration or vacuum packaging to salting, curing, marinating, seasoning, drying, aging, airing, or fermentation. All of this is explained from the experience of someone who has worked with the raw material until knowing it inside out.
The porc negre and sobrasada as stars
The porc negre, an indigenous breed from the Balearics, occupies a prominent place in the book. Reina approaches it from the perspective of the producer, attentive to how that breed expresses itself in the carcass, in yield, and, above all, in the quality of fat, which he considers fundamental to understanding many of the island's sausages. From there, elaborations such as butifarrons, camaiot, and, of course, sobrasada appear, pieces that function not only as a recipe book but as gateways to a specific gastronomic culture.
In that context, sobrasada is placed in the realm of criteria: meat, salt, and paprika —preferably tap de cortí— are just the starting point; then come into play the proportion, the casing, the drying, the curing, and that ability to intervene just enough that distinguishes the trade from mere formula. For lovers of Mallorcan cuisine, 'Porca miseria' becomes an essential reference.
The book is already available in bookstores in Mallorca and through the Can Company website. A unique opportunity to discover the secrets of charcuterie from one of its greatest experts.
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