Making Chorizo

[Bob]

CHORIZOS CASEROS ASTURIANOS (Asturian home-style sausages)


25 pounds pork butts with bone
OR
20 pounds coarsely ground pork

1 teaspoon salt (not iodized) per pound of meat
3 teaspoons black pepper
1.5 teaspoons red pepper
5 handfuls sweet paprika (judge amount by final color of mixture: it should be quite orange)
12 garlic cloves (I use 24 good size ones)
1 hank, hog casings, thin


If using whole pork butts, bone the meat, retaining moderate fat. You will need a very sharp, thin-bladed knife to do this. The first one or two are a learning experience - funny shaped bones. After that, it`s easier. Grind the meat coarsely. Alternately, buy the pork already ground from a store that makes its own Italian sausage.

If using fresh casings, run water through them before placing them on the sausage stuffer funnel. If using salt-packed casings, soak them first in several changes of water and run water through them before using. Leftover casings can be packed in salt and frozen.

Squash the garlic to a pulp with 5 teaspoons of the salt in a mortar and pestle, or press the garlic in a garlic press. Mix all the ingredients with the meat. Let set 12 to 24 hours under refrigeration. Stuff into casings and stick with pins or a toothpick to let out trapped air. Smoke the sausage with 3 pans of apple wood chips.

Luhr Jensen makes a Little Chief smoker that does a fine job of smoking the chorizos, and also sell wood chips for smoking. Brinkman's smoker does a good job too, but be sure not to let it get hot enough to cook the sausages.

Try frying two chorizos slowly until they are well done, and then frying an egg or two in the rendered fat.

[Art]

Thanks for the great recipe, Bob.

Can you give us an idea of how much time is involved in making chorizos? How long would it take a beginner to cut the whole pork butts and stir the mix? Then, how long do you expect it to take to fill casings with 20 pounds of meat? And, last, how long will the chorizos have to be smoked?

Do you buy the pork butts in the grocery store? Where do you get the casings such a large quantity of sweet paprika?

Art

[Bob]

Can you give us an idea of how much time is involved in making chorizos?

The time for making the chorizos, in my experience, is from 1 to 3 hours the first day (dependeding on whether or not you start with coarsely ground pork, or bone the pork butts and grind the meat yourself.

How long would it take a beginner to cut the whole pork butts and stir the mix?

I strongly recommend buying the pork already coarsely ground. A local facility that makes its own Italian or Polish sausage is usually a good source of ground pork. Boning, cutting up, and hand grinding grinding 30 pound of pork butts takes about 2 to 3 hours, in my experience. Your hands will get very cold and numb, so you will have to stop occasionally to heat them under warm running water. Do not continue to bone the meat if your hands are too numb to feel what you are doing. The risk of serious injury is too high,

Filling the casings is a two person job, and will take about an hour. One person turns the crank. The other tells the first when to stop cranking, twists off a link, and gives the order to resume cranking.

I usually smoke the chorizos with several (2 to 3) pans of applewood or oak chips. This take about 6 hours altogether in a Luhr Jensen smoker, but to some extent it is dependent on the ambient temperature.

You can buy the pork butts (usually sold under the name Boston butts, at least in the northeast), but it may require a special order through the meat department of your supermarket. Most grocery stores have the casings in the frozen food section, packed in salt in plastic containers, or in the meat department. If your meat source makes its own sausage, it will usually be willing to sell you fresh casings as well.

The paprika can be purchased in lerge quantities from a bulk spice source, such as Penzeys http://www.penzeys.com/cgi-local/SoftCa ... ?E+scstore Spanish paprika is available from La Tienda.



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[Vince Carril]

In your recipe for Chorizo, am I correct in using 1.5 tsp red pepper for the whole 25 # of pork butts? Also what is pote asturiano?

[Bob]

Yes, use about 1.5 teaspoons of crushed hot red pepper for 25 pounds of pork butts, or 20 pounds of coarsely ground pork. Of course, you can use more or less according to taste.

[Eli]

Out of curiosity, what are pork butts?

Pigs dont have buttocks so I know that's not it. Google has no definition for 'pork butts', Google images comes back with all sorts of things, Dictionary.com is no help either, the best they come up with is "#3. A short or broken remnant; a stub." so it could be any pork leftover I'm assuming, is that correct?

[Bob]

No, it's just the term for a particular cut of pork. It has a bone in it that has a "T" shape in cross section and makes boning the pork butts a little tricky for those who have never done it before. I thihk they are actually shoulder butts of pork. In any event, a butcher will most likely know what youy mean by the term.

[Art]

I usually smoke the chorizos with several (2 to 3) pans of applewood or oak chips. This take about 6 hours altogether in a Luhr Jensen smoker, but to some extent it is dependent on the ambient temperature.

Does that mean that you put wood chips in the pan several times to keep it "smoking" for all six hours? How much wood do you put in the pan?

Thanks for all your tips on chorizo, Bob. I'm actually getting closer to making some. I've got the Luhr Jensen smoker now.

[Bob]

I use 3 pans of wood chips per batch, but it is a matter of taste, of course.

[Art]

Bob, when you finish smoking the sausage, is it "cooked" or do you still have to heat it to make it safe to eat?

[Bob]

It is still a raw food and requires cooking.

[Xose]

I had homemade chorizo last night for dinner. MMMMMMMMMMMM.......

[Art]

That's interesting, Bob. Do you know how the harder (cured, ready to eat) chorizo that you can buy in Spain prepared?

Xose, where'd you get your chorizo?

[Bob]

Of course, but I leave making it to the experts. I don't want to risk botulism.

[Art]

Ah, Bob, where's your sense of adventure!?! (I'm joking here.)

Well, I was actually asking about the process. Do you think they just smoke it longer?

I think my grandparents used to preserve sausages by smoking them, but I wasn't around then, so I'm not sure what they did. They also preserved meat in containers packed with grease and salt, I think. (Sounds pretty awful.)