Homemade chorizo

Step 1

Start by cutting the "pork shoulder" and "pork back fat" in dices from about 2-3 cm.

Step 2

Freeze the diced meat and back fat for 1 hour. This will make it easier to process.

Step 3

Mince your meat with a meat grinder. Use the large blade (8mm.). You need a coarse meat texture with some fat.I got this one for Christmas but I'm sure you can find other quality meat grinders too!

Step 4

Add the spices to the minced meat and mix thouroughly with the red wine. Put back in the fridge for a half hour.

Step 5

While the minced meat is in the fridge: thouroughly rinse the pork casings with cold water for a half hour. Don't skip this. The casings are preserved in salt and you don't want your chorizo to taste overly salty. Hint: spool the casings a couple of times with the cold water and let them rest swollen in the water for the remaining time until you use them.

Step 6

Fold the casings on top of your sausage stuffer (mostly included in the meat grinder kit).

Step 7

Put the spiced mince in the stuffer and turn on the machine at medium speed. Gradually lead the sausages but make sure you stuff them enough. It's a bit of a search to find the right tempo. You need the casings to be filled without air bubbles but they can't be to filled or they might explode. It worked pretty well of the first time. Maybe we had the luck to just do it right or it's not that hard as it sounds... Who will tell?

Step 8

Once the casings are stuffed with the meat you can form the sausages by twisting the homemade chorizo. Shift the direction you twist at each sausage end (to prevent them from unfolding again).

Step 9

Put the sausages in the fridge until you use them. You can freeze them too so make more than you need.

Step 10

Smoke the chorizo with oak wood (or apple) above indirect heat for about 2 hrs. at low temperature (90°C/200°F) until you reach an internal temperature of 65°C/150°F.

Step 11

Before serving grill your homemade chorizo on a high heat fire to get a nice char! The maillard reaction will make your smoked sausage taste even better. Make sure your internal temp. doesn't go above the 74°C/175°F