Chorizo

Unashamedly plagiarised from the gentleman who lets me have a half pig, here’s a recipe for home cured chorizo.

Ingredients:

5kg pork with 20% fat

110g salt

70g smoked paprika

50g toasted fennel seeds

1 to 2 glasses of red wine

Large casings (beef)

110g sweet paprika

25g cayenne paprika

10 cloves chopped garlic

 

Method:

Soak casings

Mince pork through coarse plate and mix thoroughly with all the ingredients with your hands.

Fry off a small amount and taste for seasoning.

Stuff the casings by tying a knot allowing about 25mm spare skin which is then folded back over the knot and a second knot tied.

Make them 8 to 10 inches long – any longer and they have a tendency to pull out of the knot and fall.

Hang for about 8 weeks in a cool and breezy place. The chorizo can be used for cooking after a couple of weeks and for eating after about 5. At 8 weeks they can either be left to hang in which case they will continue to dry and shrink, or alternatively take them down and freeze, either whole or sliced.

Here’s the chorizo after 6 weeks.

Here’s the chorizo after 10 weeks, sliced and ready to eat.