Meats and Sausages
Chorizo de Calabaza
Pumpkin is used in Spanish sausage known as Chorizo de Calabaza or in Portuguese Chouriço de Abóbora de Barroso-Montalegre which carries the prestigious PGI award.
| Materials | Metric | US |
|---|---|---|
| Pork butt | 500 g | 1.10 lb |
| Pumpkin | 500 g | 1.10 lb |
Ingredients per 1000g (1 kg) of materials
| Salt | 25 g | 4 Tbsp |
| Cure #2 | 2.5 g | 1/2 tsp |
| Dextrose | 1.0 g | 1/4 tsp |
| Sugar | 2.0 g | 1/2 tsp |
| Allspice | 0.5 g | 1/2 tsp |
| Bay leaf, crushed | 1 leaf | |
| Pimentón (smoked paprika), sweet | 10 g | 5 tsp |
| Nutmeg | 1.0 g | 1/2 tsp |
| Cinnamon | 0.5 g | 1/4 tsp |
| Cloves, ground | 0.3 g | 1/8 tsp |
| Ginger, ground | 0.5 g | 1/4 tsp |
| White wine | 30 ml | 1 oz fl |
Instructions
- Cut meat into small pieces and marinate with salt, cure #1, bay leaf, all spices and wine.
- Scrape the flesh of the pumpkin, discard the seeds. Mash the flesh with potato masher. Wrap around with a cheese cloth, place in a colander, add some weight on top and let it drain overnight.
- Mix meat, pumpkin and all ingredients together. Hold for 24 hours in refrigerator.
- Stuff into 36 mm hog casings.
- Ferment at 20º C (68º F) for 72 hours, 90-85% humidity.
- Dry at 16-12º C (60-54º F), 85-80% humidity for 30 days. The sausage is dried until around 30% in weight is lost.
- Store sausages at 10-12º C (50-53º F), <75% humidity or refrigerate.
Notes
To make 1 kg of cooked pumpkin you need about 4 kg of raw pumpkin.
Pumpkin puree: cut pumpkin into smaller sections, remove seeds and fiber. Cook pumpkin for 25 minutes in water, 15 minutes in steam or bake for 30 minutes at 176° C (350° F). Remove the skin (it peels off easily) and cut the pieces into smaller parts. Place the pumpkin flesh in food processor and emulsify it into the puree. Don’t add any water as pumpkin has plenty of it. Place pumpkin puree in a draining bag, place some weight on top and let it drain overnight.
Pumpkin puree: cut pumpkin into smaller sections, remove seeds and fiber. Cook pumpkin for 25 minutes in water, 15 minutes in steam or bake for 30 minutes at 176° C (350° F). Remove the skin (it peels off easily) and cut the pieces into smaller parts. Place the pumpkin flesh in food processor and emulsify it into the puree. Don’t add any water as pumpkin has plenty of it. Place pumpkin puree in a draining bag, place some weight on top and let it drain overnight.
