The difference between longganisa/longaniza and chorizo

While the difference between the has been discussed and contested by some, here are insights lifted from www.asturianus.org's longaniza thread:

In my family, the difference between longaniza and chorizo was always that the first was made as one continuous link and the second as individual links of about about 5 or 6 inches each.I would treat the longaniza as chorizos. I you want the smokey flaor and can't actually smoke it, you could always pour a little smoke flavoring over it an hour or two before cooking. I have done this with commercially available Portuguese linguica with fairly good results. It's not the same as home-made Asturian style chorizos, but it's certainly a move in the right direction. 

- Bob
From http://www.asturianus.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=227

Longaniza was a favorite sausage of the Spanish people of Spelter. Several families had small out buildings in their yards to "age" their Longaniza. I don't remember anyone eating chorizo, and if they did they probably called it Longaniza. Longaniza that I remember as a kid in the 1950's was in lengths of about 12 inches, or longer.I remember our neighbor Lourdes Lorenzo Menendez (Sergio Menendez' wife) making Longaniza, and storing in her outbuilding for curing. Mildred Alvarez, as I understand it, still makes Longaniza. She is located in Spelter on Route 19 at the foot of the Spelter bridge.My grandfather, Joe "Mike" Alvarez sold the sausage in his store in Spelter, when it was available.Good eating. 

- Ken MenendezFrom http://www.asturianus.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=227

So based on Ken's definition, simply put, longganisa is longer than chorizo. Cebu's round-like longganisa would qualify as chorizo, while Laoag's long tube of grounded meat would be longganisa.

Do you have insights on the difference between the two? Share it here!

Longganisa is the new adobo!

Longganisa’s varied tastes compare to that of our famous adobo

Longganisa
Sausage
casing stuffed with spicy meat: a tube of animal intestine or another tube-shaped casing stuffed with finely chopped pork or other meat

Microsoft® Encarta® 2006. © 1993-2005 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.
[15th century. Via Old French saussiche < medieval Latin salsicius "made by salting" < Latin salsus, 14th century past participle of sallere “to salt”]
Microsoft® Encarta® 2006. © 1993-2005 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.


If longganisa is chorizo and chorizo is a sausage, the root word of sausage suggests that chorizo is actually salted meat encased in animal intestine. Perhaps back in the 1600s, chorizo was made and preserved by salting alone. The Iberian sausage was introduced to Manila and later, to the other regions of the country. However, people in some regions may have lacked the necessary ingredients in making chorizo, and given the Filipinos ingenuity, they substituted it with the indigenous spices, altering the recipe and making it their own.

For instance, in the arid lands of Ilocos, only heat and dry-tolerant garlic and tobacco grow throughout the year. Rains are hard to come by in the northernmost tip of Luzon. Know for their frugality, Ilokanos make do with what they have — signature vinegar and garlic — and use it to make longganisa with that distinct tangy flavor with an aftertaste of vinegar.

In Luzon’s central plains, the land is more fertile and the sky, more forgiving. Here, rice is produced abundantly, earning the name the rice bowl of the Philippines. Where rice grows, the sugar can too and the Tagalogs use this sugar to add flavor to their local longganisa, the most famous being the Pampanga longganisa. Much of its success is owed to a family business which turned the sweet longganisa to a lucrative and almost-national business venture.

As for longganisa’s the other regions, I’ve yet to discover how the flavors came to be. I’ve a long way to go.