www.sausagemaking.org

vagreys wrote:

solaryellow wrote:...I think each have their place. I can't see enjoying spanish chorizo with my eggs or nachos nearly as much as I enjoy mexican chorizo with them.

True. You should try Spanish chorizo in a Spanish tortilla (egg, potato and onion frittata). Equally good. Very different.

That does sound good Tom.

I don't suppose anyone has a decent fresh Spanish chorizo recipe do they? I fancy making some.

For a fresh Spanish Chorizo, I'd just omit the cure (and any culture etc) and adjust the salt in a recipe for a dried one.

In my case it would be this one but without the culture, dextrose and cure and with the salt reduced to 1.5%:

http://www.localfoodheroes.co.uk/?e=529

HTH

Phil

Phil you truly are a legend. Yet again, you've come good!


I was wondering. Do you think there would be any benefit to semi curing them? i.e putting cure in and letting them dry for just a week so they were a bit firmer etc. or would this just be a waste of time?

adventureswiththepig wrote:[---]
I was wondering. Do you think there would be any benefit to semi curing them? i.e putting cure in and letting them dry for just a week so they were a bit firmer etc. or would this just be a waste of time?

I have done that. It's a great improvement. Bear in mind though that you should use a lactic acid culture and ferment them first. Because of this, the taste will be different, more sour. If the original recipe contains vinegar and wine, you can reduce or skip that.

According to my notes, I used yoghurt and fermented for 24 hours at 27 C (it was in Summer). Dried for four days (12% weight loss). Sorry, no pictures.

I disagree Grisell. You could add a starter if you chose to, but there's no 'should' about it.

For a 'fresh sausage' (albeit aged), i.e. a sausage for cooking, I don't see any particular need to add anything other than cure #1 for a cure/dry of 1 week. However, I'd hold them at <8°C (<46°F) whereas I guess that you'd be talking 12 - 15°C?

Phil

Yes, I made mine with the same method as a dried sausage. Just interrupted the drying early.

Don't you think there's a health risk of keeping fresh unfermented sausages for a whole week, even at a low temperature? I don't know, but I've always read that around 3 days is maximum if you don't ferment.

With cure #1 - no problem, but if worried add a sodium metabisulphite type preservative (sold on the shop site as Supapres) at 0.08%. This will allow you to keep the 'fresh' chorizo flavour profile.

Phil

Thanks. I might try that myself. If I get sick, I will call down curses on you...

Most people don't wait till they're sick to do that!

wheels wrote:Most people don't wait till they're sick to do that!

Hahaha.

Right, got these badboys drying in the fridge now. They look great although perhaps not quite as brick red as I would like....