One mans way of making Chorizo

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One mans way of making Chorizo
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Bodger

Joined: 23 May 2006
Posts: 13524

Posted: Mon Mar 31, 08 9:02 am Post subject: One mans way of making Chorizo

Just to wet your appetite, we our going to make our first attempt at making chorizo sausage this evening. We've gathered the ingredients and I finished off by getting hold of some garlic cloves on the way into work this morning.
We have bastardised HFWs recipe from his DVD 'Pig in a Day'. I say this because it is'nt really as clear on it as it could be as to how much of the ingredients he actually puts into his mix and secondly, I've struggled to get hold of some of the more obscure ingredients that he mentions. Mr Ignorance here didn't realise just how many types chilli and pepper there are.

Still, it will be interesting to see how things go.
For people who are unaware, chorizo are actually hung out in an outbuilding somewhere to air dry for a few weeks and are not cooked as such but cured. One of the problems that I have got to address this afternoon, is to actually find a spot where there's a enough through draft to dry them and even more importantly, somewhere where the cat and or the birds can't get at them.

I've been dying to do this for ages, and we'll be using parts of the pig that we had slaughtered last month.

This is an account of what we actully did.
__________________________________

First of all we started with 3kg or reasonably lean saddleback pork and 500g of back fat.

The next thing we did, was to run the back fat through the mincer.

Followed by the pork.

Then I mixed the two evenly together.

Then I got the ingredients together ready to mix into the mince.
They were
1) 2.2% of the total weight of the meat and fat combined in salt, I'm told this came to 77g

2) 90g of paprika

3) 60g of cayenne pepper

4) 30g of fennel seeds

5) 6 crushed garlic cloves.

Start the mixing

As the actress said to the bishop ! "Its sausage time !"

I know this looks slightly kinky

but its kaz tying the end of the first sausage out of the stuffer.

The finished article.

We made quite a few.

A word of warning. This is the first time that we have made these and we'll have to wait at least six weeks or longer to see how they taste.

The next picture on this thread will be of Rob and I hanging our sausages in the barn tomorrow morning. :q33:

PS The red wine was used to make the mixing of the mix go easier in two ways

And here they are as promised.

We hung the chorizos to dry this morning thank goodness

The smell of the garlic was stinking the study out.
We have a row of four wooden kennels with covered runs and the end one is a spare, so we've used that. The video says that you need some where cool, dry and with a good through put of air. Hopefully the kennel is going to fit the bill.
Here they are hanging, it gives a nice rewarding feeling of satisfaction to see them.

Last edited by Bodger on Mon Mar 31, 08 9:06 am; edited 1 time in total

Jonnyboy

Joined: 29 Oct 2004
Posts: 23956
Location: under some rain.

Posted: Mon Mar 31, 08 9:05 am Post subject:
Looks great, well done! Excuse my ignorance though, but I though some kind of culture was required as well?

sean
Downsizer Moderator

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 42219
Location: North Devon

Posted: Mon Mar 31, 08 9:06 am Post subject:
Looking good Bodge.

Fee

Joined: 21 Mar 2005
Posts: 15922
Location: Earth

Posted: Mon Mar 31, 08 9:07 am Post subject:
Yumm

Nick

Joined: 02 Nov 2004
Posts: 34535
Location: Hereford

Posted: Mon Mar 31, 08 9:07 am Post subject:

Jonnyboy wrote:

Looks great, well done!

Excuse my ignorance though, but I though some kind of culture was required as well?

It's recommended, for sure. It might be worth finding another salami/chorizo with the white fluff on the outside, and rubbing it over the surface of them.

but, they look good!

Bodger

Joined: 23 May 2006
Posts: 13524

Posted: Mon Mar 31, 08 9:08 am Post subject:
Nobody has culture like wot I've got JB. Is that the kind of culture you're referring to ?

Blue Sky

Joined: 30 Jan 2005
Posts: 7658
Location: France

Posted: Mon Mar 31, 08 9:09 am Post subject:
Excellent. They look really good. I hope they taste good too. You obviousely used previousely frozen pork then. I may have a go at making some of those myself. The pig in a day DVD is great. How many times did I hit the back button last week? It's a shame there's no way of muting the annoying bl%dy jingle between scenes.

Bodger

Joined: 23 May 2006
Posts: 13524

Posted: Mon Mar 31, 08 9:10 am Post subject:
No mention of that in the DVD Nick. I'm at a loss, its news to me. and Simon, I know exactly what you mean about that bloody music.

Jonnyboy

Joined: 29 Oct 2004
Posts: 23956
Location: under some rain.

Posted: Mon Mar 31, 08 9:13 am Post subject:

bodger wrote:

Nobody has culture like wot I've got JB.

Is that the kind of culture you're referring to ?

The white itchy culture, that's the one you need

judith

Joined: 16 Dec 2004
Posts: 22789
Location: Montgomeryshire

Posted: Mon Mar 31, 08 9:13 am Post subject:
Chorizo doesn't normally have the white mould on the outside - or does it? They look good Bodge. Let us know how they taste. My own attempts at chorizo have been disappointing so far.

Nick

Joined: 02 Nov 2004
Posts: 34535
Location: Hereford

Posted: Mon Mar 31, 08 9:15 am Post subject:
Quick hunt finds this.

Bodger

Joined: 23 May 2006
Posts: 13524

Posted: Mon Mar 31, 08 9:18 am Post subject:

Jonnyboy wrote:

bodger wrote:

Nobody has culture like wot I've got JB.

Is that the kind of culture you're referring to ?

The white itchy culture, that's the one you need

I've been trying to get rid of it for years mate.

The recipe states that its getting the exact right amount of salt is what does the preserving.

My first attempt might be a little hotter than those of Huge Fearking Wicklows, because I couldn't lay my hands on the sweet chilli recommended in the recipe, so we made the weights up with ordinary chilli.

We fried some of the left over bits up at the end of the evening and my youngest scoffed them without batting an eye. Being a somtime gout sufferer, I gave it a miss.

dougal

Joined: 15 Jan 2005
Posts: 7184
Location: South Kent

Posted: Mon Mar 31, 08 1:00 pm Post subject:

Nick wrote:

Jonnyboy wrote:

Excuse my ignorance though, but I though some kind of culture was required as well?

It's recommended, for sure. It might be worth finding another salami/chorizo with the white fluff on the outside, and rubbing it over the surface of them.

The surface "chalky" white mould is a different strain of stuff to the culture that should be inside the sausages.

The usual food safety advice (belt AND braces) is to use a culture that will acidify the sausage AND to use nitrate (nitrAte for long term {"Ages"} rather than nitrIte for Immediate).

However Bodger's recipe specifies no belt and no braces either.

It is simply not true that exactly 2.2% salt will protect against food poisoning.

Nick linked to a thread on River Cottage where Franco posted this: -

Quote:

Nitrite (-NO2) releases nitrogen monoxide (NO). This reacts with myoglobin (muscle colour agent) and haemoglobin (blood colour agent) of the muscle to give the typical red cure colour.

Nitrite also suppresses the growth of food poisoning microorganisms like chlostridium botulinum and salmonellae.

Many people assume that saltpetre and nitrite just give the meat a nice red colour, this is only a side effect their main use is preservation!

The use of nitrates and starter cultures in salami making are not optional, they are an essential part of safe curing.

Modern food writers (Hugh included) have started a dangerous trend in giving recipes for salami and other cured meat products listing saltpetre or nitrites as optional ingredients. Without the use of these there is a serious risk of fatal food poisoning.

Its a significant risk of serious consequences.
Its not a certainty.
But it is a form of russian roulette.
And totally unnecessary.
To advise anyone (even Bodger) to go without either culture or nitrate/nitrite is quite a bit worse than naughty.
It is even possible that the recipe-writer has been unaware that there are some types of "chorizo" that are not for curing -- but rather for cooking (and keep up to a fortnight in the fridge) and got confuesed while 'researching' various recipes.

I'd be happy with either a properly incubated culture or nitrate/nitrite.
With NEITHER, personally, I wouldn't touch the stuff.
This is not a risk I would knowingly take. And I've flown a glider solo, raced and rallied cars, been potholing, skied off piste... but I wouldn't do this.

If they were mine, I'd remix them with 1.2g of Cure No. 2/Prague No. 2 per kg of meat - and I'd freeze or refrigerate them until I had the cure ready to use. Then restuff after mixing in the cure.
Seriously.

This advice is given *entirely* in the interest of the health of Bodger & family & friends.

Bodger

Joined: 23 May 2006
Posts: 13524

Posted: Mon Mar 31, 08 1:43 pm Post subject:

I've followed HWFs instructions as far as possible. If I snuff it, send the bill to him.
Surely he wouldn't be allowed to advocate methods that would lead to the decimation of the River Cottage faithful. It wouldn't be good business either, who'd be left to eat all those free range chickens.
Check the DVD and the RC Meat Book , there's no mention of the nitrate mumbo jumbo at all. Thats why I chose to do it.

"To advise anyone (even Bodger) to go without either culture or nitrate/nitrite is quite a bit worse than naughty. "

Dougall, I hold you in similar high esteem, but on a more serious note, I need to find out about this for certain.

Jonnyboy

Joined: 29 Oct 2004
Posts: 23956
Location: under some rain.

Posted: Mon Mar 31, 08 2:47 pm Post subject:

What can Bodger do now, could he unpack his sausages, refrigerate and then quickly get the required culture?

Or even treat them as a uncured sausage and freeze then defrost and cook thoroughly when required?

EDIT: missed the end of Dougal's reply.

EDIT EDIT: it seems that there are a lot of recipes out there that do not specify the culture..Now confused.

Last edited by Jonnyboy on Mon Mar 31, 08 2:48 pm; edited 1 time in total

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