Meats and Sausages
Chorizo de León
Chorizo de León is a dry sausage from León region of Spain. This is rather a fat sausage which is heavily smoked during fermentation. The sausage is made from white pig quality meats such as pork shoulder, rear leg (ham) trimmings, pork belly, dewlap and back fat.
| Meats | Metric | US |
|---|---|---|
| Pork, lean | 750 g | 1.54 lb |
| Pork back fat, belly | 250 g | 0.55 lb |
Ingredients per 1000g (1 kg) of meat
| Salt | 25 g | 4 tsp |
| Cure #2 | 2.5 g | 1/2 tsp |
| Dextrose | 3.0 g | 1/2 tsp |
| Pimentón, sweet | 20 g | 3.5 Tbsp |
| Pimentón, hot | 2.0 g | 1 tsp |
| Oregano, ground | 2.0 g | 1 tsp |
| Garlic, diced | 3.5 g | 1 clove |
Instructions
- Grind meat and pork fat through 10 mm (3/8") plate.
- Mix meats with spices and hold for 24 hours in refrigerator.
- Stuff into 36 mm pork casings forming U-shaped loops with ends tied together.
- In other locations apply cold smoke at <18° C (64° F) and dry sausages at 12-15° C (53-59° F), 85-75% humidity.
- Apply a thin smoke at 22-24º C (72-75º F) and dry/ferment sausages at 22-24º C (72-75º F) for 24-48 hours.
- Dry at 15-12º C (59-53º F), 75-80% humidity for 30 days. The temperature in LeΌn can reach low levels so a slow burning fire is started to warm up the drying chamber. This means that the sausages are additionally cold smoked during the drying stage .
- Store sausages at 10-12º C (50-53º F), 65-70% humidity or refrigerate.
Notes
Sodium nitrite/nitrate and sugars are not added in the traditional manufacturing process.
