making chorizo
A delicious addition to any pasta, rice or soup dish
Making Chorizo
This favourite Spanish sausage is loved all around the world, and has many uses, but what people don’ t realize is that it comes in many forms. Paul Peacock explores more...
Chorizo is a spicy sausage flavoured with garlic and a special version of paprika, known as pimenton. It is made from the dried fruits of red peppers, and smoked in the drying process in specially built houses where huge oak fires provide the smoke. There are three grades of pimenton used in making chorizo:
Pimenton dulce, or sweet paprika made from round red peppers, somewhat like capsicums.
Pimenton agridulce is medium sweet, slightly hotter than dulce, and is made from long red peppers.
Pimenton picante is made from shorter, thin red peppers, and is quite hot.
In essence, the smaller and thinner the pepper, the hotter it is. Often these are blended, and you can get smoked and unsmoked versions. It is supposed that Christopher Columbus brought paprika to Spain from South America on his second voyage, and seemingly it wasn’ t a great hit. However, it is now the characteristic flavour of Spanish cooking. On the whole, chorizo is made from medium sweet pimenton, but recipes vary from town to town, and even family to family.
Types of chorizo
Essentially there are three types of chorizo, though if you go on a tour of Spain you will find that there are millions of varieties, especially when eating in tapas bars.
There are cooking chorizos, which do not keep so well and are to be cooked before consuming. You will find these on pizza and in stews, and are fairly easy to make at home.
Then there are the Sobrasadas, from the Balearic islands where the humidity is higher, making it more difficult to air dry the sausages. These are extra spiced, very heavily laden with pimenton and have extra salt.
Then there are the Salchichones, which are usually air dried, for slicing, and contain a fermentation agent