We Grow Our OwnWhat we grow, what we cook, what we eat …

As you know if you’re a regular reader of my blog, one of my New Year’s Resolutions was to make chorizo and salami.

Since we were able to get a very heavy duty home mincer and sausage maker from Ebay just before Christmas, we thought there was no time like the present, and decided this weekend was going to be ‘Chorizo D-Day!’

A sausage making machine will make filling the casings easier, but if you are only planning on doing a few here and there, you can use a plastic funnel to fill the casings instead.

You will need the following before you start:-
Ox-runners – more about these below!
Butcher’s string
800g lean pork – either coarsely minced already, or to mince at home
200g back fat – cut into small pea-sized pieces
500g sausage meat
30g fine cooking salt
200ml red wine
4 cloves of garlic crushed to a paste
Tablespoon of good smoked paprika
Teaspoon of cracked black peppercorns (optional)
Teaspoon of fennel seeds
Teaspoon of acidophilus – available from Holland & Barratt, and other health food shops. This is needed to promote the growth of mould, which is all part of the process.

Ox-runners are extra large natural casings for the chorizos, and are salted cow’s intestines. Granted this may not sound pleasant to some of you, but they are the perfect strength and size for making chorizos. It is very likely that your butcher will not have these in, so, like we did, we gave him a week’s notice, and picked them up with the rest of the meat at the weekend.

You’ll be keen to get cracking, but first you need to put the ox runners into a large bowl of fresh water, rinse off the salt , and then run the tap through the inside of them to flush out any remaining salt inside and wash them clean. When they feel slippery, flexible, and you have got rid of all of the salt, they are ready to use.

I found that it was easier to have everything already measured out, as my hands got gradually more messy as I went along!

First I minced the pork on a coarse setting

Then I added the sausage meat and mixed thoroughly.

Then the salt …

Then the chopped back fat, and gave it a little mix …

Next were the fennel seeds

The acidophilus came next …

Garlic!

Red wine (we obviously had to drink the rest of the bottle to celebrate after we had finished!)

And finally, the paprika. As I mentioned before, it is worth investing in some good smoked paprika, as this will make all of the difference.

Get your hands into the bowl, and give everything a good mix around, so that all the ingredients are distributed as evenly as possible.

Now comes the fun bit, and until you get to be an expert at this, it is better to have someone else on hand to help you with filling the casings!

If you are using a machine, you will need to slide a suitable amount of the ox-runner onto the nozzle. Tie a knot in the end of the casing to stop it escaping – nothing fancy, just tie it in the same sort of knot that you would use to tie a balloon. Then tie a short length of the butcher’s string inside the knot in the runner.

Then, fill the casing with the mix until you have the length of the chorizo you want. Cut the runner off , leaving enough runner left to tie another knot in the end.

Hold the filled casing upright (obviously with the knotted end at the bottom!) and gently squeeze the mixture down the casing, so that the mixture is tight. Then tie another knot in the open end, and tie a length of butcher’s string in that knot as you did with the other end.

The chorizos should then be hung individually by the string loops in a well ventilated place, which should also be cool, so that the temperature does not rise over about 12 degrees Celsius. It is important to make sure that they are not touching a wall or each other.

You will remember that I mentioned that you needed the acidophilus to promote the growth of mould, which is all part of the process. Whilst they are hanging and maturing, a rainbow of mould may form on the casings, ranging from white to grey/green, and possibly even orange. This is ok, so don’t panic if this happens!

The chorizos can take anything from four to ten weeks to mature. However, this is obviously dependent on the conditions where they are hanging, and also your personal preference. They can be tried as soon as they are fairly firm and dry looking.

If you cannot wait that long, you can try them sliced and fried after they have been hanging for a week.

Hopefully this will encourage you to have a go yourselves, and if you do, leave me a message to let me know how you got on.

Happy Chorizo making!