How do you know when chorizo is finished cooking if you want to make something nice with it? Even if it might only be basic cookery, there is probably more for you to learn.
Every country except, perhaps, Japan, has its own traditional meat delicacies. The sausage pride of Spain, Portugal, and Latin America is chorizo - and today we will tell you what it is, from what and how it is prepared, with what it can be eaten. In general, we will share everything that we ourselves know about this delicacy.
What is chorizo?
Spicy chorizo, what kind of sausage is that?
Chorizo is a spicy, rich-tasting meat product in a shell. Their homeland is Spain and Portugal*, but they are also considered their national product by the inhabitants of Latin America.
The main difference between chorizo and similar meat products is the significant amount of red paprika in the composition, which gives the product its typical taste and red color.
*These countries border each other, so it’s not surprising.
What types exist?
Chorizo (pictured above) can be:
- Dry-cured.
- Hot smoked.
- Cold smoked.
The popularity of this or that option, as well as the set of spices, depends on the specific area – everywhere there are traditional options.
What can replace chorizo : any sausage of a similar plan, in which red paprika is clearly felt, will do. And if you need this product to use in cooking, then take what is available, but add a little red paprika to the main recipe.
How Do You Know When Chorizo Is Done?
The interior temperature of your chorizo is the most crucial and secure indicator of whether it is cooked. For the sausage to be deemed completely cooked, the interior temperature must reach 160–165°F.
This is my favorite meat thermometer, which is also quite reasonably priced if you don’t already have one: Chorizo exudes a delicious-smelling scarlet oil as it cooks.
Then, chorizo begins out soft and gets harder and firmer to the touch or crumblier as it browns. It’s prepared to eat at this point. Its hue will also alter, going from a vivid crimson to a drab brownish-red.
How do you know what to eat Chorizo with?
If you want to know what o eat Chorizo with? Here is the answer. You can eat this delicacy like any other sausage, of course: on sandwiches, with herbs, cheese, just like that, and as a snack for alcohol. In addition, chorizo is used in cooking:
- It can be pan-fried and grilled and served as the main meat component of a meal.
- Add stews – beans, lentils, tomatoes, pumpkin, and other vegetables too.
- Add to vegetable stews and other main dishes. An interesting option, for example, is Chile con carne.
- Add to savory baked goods. We advise you to try what is chorizo in pizza.
Chorizo Recipes at Home
You have to try chorizo sausages to understand what it is. Better yet, make your own and see what happens. We will give two options: dry-cured Spanish and Portuguese, hot smoked.
Spanish chorizo
Here we will use only pork. Meat can be from any part of the carcass, the main thing is that 10-15% of its weight is lard (subcutaneous fat). The piece should be slightly frozen – in the future, it will greatly facilitate cutting.
For every kilogram of pork, we take:
- Black pepper – 1 g. It is better if it is not ground but coarsely chopped.
- Sweet paprika – 5-10 g.
- Spicy paprika – depending on how spicy the sausage you like. You can take 1-2 g.
- Dry wine – 10 ml.
- Garlic – 1 large clove or 2 small.
- Nitrite salt – for moderately salted sausage 20 g, for heavily salted 24-25 g.
- Sugar – 1 g.
Cooking process
Minced meat preparation:
- We cut the meat and bacon into cubes, with a side of about 1 – 1.5 cm.
- We pass the garlic through a press and, together with all the spices, put it in minced meat.
- Mix thoroughly but quickly.
- In any convenient way, stuff the minced meat into shells with a diameter of 45 mm. Ordinary thin, collagen ones will do.
Drying. Immediately after stuffing, we hang the sausages in a warm room. The ideal temperature is 25-27 degrees. After a day, we hang them in a cool place. The optimum temperature for drying is 14 ° C, the humidity is average. If you cannot provide such conditions, an ordinary refrigerator, turned on at 5-6 ° C, will also do. We leave the sausages to dry, turning the loaves every 24 hours at 180 ° C (we change the top with the bottom).
Drying and ripening time directly depends on temperature and humidity. Approximately:
- At 14 ° C and the humidity of a normal room, approximately 4.5 – 5 weeks.
- In the refrigerator at 5-6 ° C – about 6 weeks.
After the specified period, the loaves should lose about 40% of their weight.
Please note: the drying period can be extended to continue the maturation of sausages. How much depends on taste. Samples are optimally carried out once a week.
Portuguese smoked chorizo
Here we also take pork, there should be about the same amount of bacon in it as in the Spanish version – 10-15%. Freeze the meat first.
For every kilogram of pork, we take:
- Smoked paprika – 1 tbsp. l. You can partially or completely replace it with hot paprika, the proportions are to taste.
- Cayenne pepper, and ground black pepper – 0.5 tsp each.
- Zira – ⅓ tsp. *
- Ground coriander and dry marjoram – a small pinch each.
- Dry garlic, ground – 0.5 tbsp. l.
- Coarse salt – 1.5 tsp.
- Red wine vinegar – 1 tbsp. l. or red wine – 2 tbsp. l.
Cooking process
Minced meat preparation:
- Cut the meat into strips along the entire length of the piece, about 3×3 cm thick.
- Pour all the salt and spices into a container with meat and pour vinegar or wine.
- Mix everything thoroughly.
- We close the container with a film or lid and send it to the refrigerator for a day.
- The next day, we take out the meat and either pass it through a meat grinder with a large grate (1.4 cm), or cut it with a knife into pieces of about 1.5×1.5 cm.
- Ready stuffing must be beaten off well.
- We stuff pork belly with minced meat (22-24 mm in diameter).
- We twist the belly into separate sausages and put it all in the refrigerator overnight.
Heat treatment:
- We place the sausages in a pre-prepared smokehouse. The temperature inside should be 65-70 °C.
- After 2.5 hours, we check – if the temperature inside the products has reached 65 ° C, then everything is ready. If you do not have a special thermometer, just finish cooking not after 2.5, but after 3 hours.
Please note: if you do not have a smoker, then spicy chorizo can be cooked in the oven. We keep them there for as long as in the smokehouse, and the temperature on the thermometer should be 80 ° C. True, that same smoked taste will not work.