Choripán, a Traditional Classic Eaten with Good Humor

This dish, similar to a hot dog, can be found among street food offerings all across the country. In its beginnings, it would be served outside stadiums and from mobile carts in squares, markets, and the city’s suburbs. Over time, in step with the worldwide boom in street food, it has become widespread in specialist stores, restaurants, and butchers, who flaunt their innovation with their own experimental recipes.

It was generally made from 70% beef and 30% pork, and preferably seasoned with nutmeg, sweet paprika, fennel, or clove. Its gourmet reinvention involved all different kinds of bread, seasonings, and cuts of meat, including lamb, boar, or German-style lunchmeat. There are even vegan choripáns, which aim to emulate the sensations generated by the original: greasy and crispy.

The love for choripán is in keeping with the local passion for meat. Even in lean times, during the economic crises, Argentina’s consumption of animal protein never dropped below an average of 265 pounds (120 kg) per citizen per year. This high-protein diet was made up of around 110 pounds (50 kg) of beef, 88 pounds (40 kg) of poultry, 35 pounds (16 kg) of pork, and the rest other meats. This positions Argentina as one of the greatest consumers of meat in the world.

Most choripán fans eat them with chimichurri and salsa criolla: classic condiments made locally.

Historians suggest that the custom of eating sausage in bread dates back to the mid-19th century in rural areas, where gauchos would improvise an open-air grill, rigged up with a long knife and a block.

The ritual spread to the city in the 1960s with the emergence of carts, or mobile grills, along the seafront in Buenos Aires. The recipe also spread to the mountains of Córdoba, where sausage carts were used to seduce passers-by with the most captivating aroma in the country. 

Others who study traditions directly attribute the concept and its name to Córdoba, to the middle of the previous century in Sarmiento Park in the capital.

What is known for sure is that the province popularized the creation and is home to true artisans who compete in their originality. Every year, the town council organizes a well-attended World Festival of Humor and Choripán, celebrating the dish as well as the indisputable talents of its citizens to make people laugh.