Merguez is a thin, spicy sausage of ground beef and/or lamb, flavoured with red peppers, cumin, caraway, paprika and stuffed inside a lamb intestine that originated in Algeria. It became popular in France in the 1950s and has been a barbeque mainstay ever since.
You can also find merguez de volaille, made from poultry.
Image by Benoît Prieur