Adoration of the Sausage

Traditionally speaking, the Three Magi arrived in Bethlehem on January 6, Epiphany, and there bestowed their gifts to the infant Christ. The details are muddled -- were they kings, wizards, or astronomers? were they Persian or from disparate locations? -- but this is what custom tells us. This is the story of the Traditional Mini Jesus as taught in Sunday schools.

In the Basque region, there is another tradition. The Basque make a red pepper sausage called txistora. They also make a sausage they call Petit Jésu, a variation of salami. It is bursting with sweet, marbled flavor. It is also bursting with sweet, marbled irony: a pork sausage named for a man who lived a Jewish life.