What Is Spanish Chorizo? Chorizo vs Salchichón vs Lomo vs Fuet

Spanish chorizo explained: how it differs from Mexican chorizo, salchichón, lomo and fuet, which you eat raw or cook, and how to serve them on a tapas board.

By The Spain at the Table team · Updated 22 October 2026

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Spanish chorizo is a cured pork sausage seasoned with pimentón (Spanish paprika) and garlic. The paprika gives it its red colour and smoky, sweet or spicy flavour. Most Spanish chorizo is dry-cured and ready to eat in thin slices, like salami. That’s the big difference from Mexican chorizo, which is raw and has to be cooked.

Spanish cured meats at a glance

Want to taste it? Our pick to start with:

Spanish chorizo vs Mexican chorizo

• Spanish chorizo is usually cured: firm, sliceable and ready to eat. Its flavour comes from pimentón and garlic.
• Mexican chorizo is fresh: soft, raw ground pork seasoned with chiles and vinegar, sold to be cooked and crumbled into eggs, tacos or potatoes.
• Spain also has fresh chorizo for cooking (chorizo fresco or para cocinar), used in stews and grilled. If the label says “fresco” or “para cocinar”, cook it.

You can’t swap them one for one: a cured Spanish chorizo won’t crumble in a pan, and a raw Mexican chorizo can’t be sliced for a board.

Chorizo vs salchichón

They look alike, but the seasoning is different. Chorizo is red because of the paprika; salchichón has none. It is seasoned mainly with black pepper, so it is paler, milder and closer to an Italian salami. On a tapas board, they work well together: one smoky, one peppery.

What is lomo?

Lomo (lomo embuchado) isn’t a sausage at all. It’s a whole pork loin, marinated in paprika and garlic, stuffed into a casing and cured. It’s the leanest of the Spanish cured meats and is sliced very thin. In its Ibérico de bellota version, it is one of the products covered by Spain’s Ibérico quality standard, with the same coloured labels as the ham. → Iberico ham labels explained

Fuet vs chorizo: what’s the difference?

The difference is the paprika. Chorizo is seasoned with Spanish pimentón, which makes it red and smoky; fuet has no paprika, just salt and black pepper, so it’s pale, mild and peppery.

Fuet is a long, thin Catalan sausage, mild and peppery, often covered in a natural white bloom. You peel off the skin and cut it into rounds: an easy snack and a favourite with children.

Ibérico chorizo and salchichón

Chorizo and salchichón can be made from white pigs or from Ibérico pigs. The Ibérico versions, especially de bellota, are richer and more marbled, with fat that melts on the tongue, much like Ibérico ham. Spain’s official colour labels cover Ibérico ham, shoulder, loin and meat; for chorizo and salchichón, read the label for “Ibérico” and “bellota”.

How to serve them

• At room temperature: take them out of the fridge 20–30 minutes before. Cold fat has little flavour.
• Thin slices, single layer: a few slices of each on a plate, with bread, olives and Manchego.
• Peel the casing of chorizo and salchichón if it’s thick or not edible (it usually comes off easily).
• With a drink: a dry fino, a young Rioja or a cold beer. → What to drink with tapas

The easiest way to taste them side by side is a selection with all of them:

Keep reading

→ Iberico vs Serrano ham · 10 easy Spanish tapas with no cooking · A Spanish tapas bar at home

Sources: Spain’s Ibérico quality standard (Real Decreto 4/2014, BOE)