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Homemade (fresh) chorizo?


petit cochon

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I've just had an epiphany - it's possible to make fresh chorizo?!?! In my kitchen?! I just stumbled across a recipe in my Sunset Mexican cookbook (browsing, thanks to various cookbook usage threads), which seems to indicate that it's as simple as mixing ground pork with chiles, onion, vinegar, various spices...

Now this blows my mind because:

1) As a former SoCal native, I grew up on huevos con chorizo for breakfast. This is literally at the top of my must-eat list for visits home - probably because I have spent years coming to terms with the idea that elsewhere, chorizo seems to exist (almost) only as a dried product - not at all the same thing as far as I'm concerned.

2) I'm generally not a stupid girl. It's not like I thought chorizo grew on some rare warm-climate kind of tree... did I? OF COURSE it's a seasoned ground pork mixture! Why is this news to me?!?!

Is it really as easy as just mixing up a batch using store-bought ground pork? Has anyone tried this? Will this really give me the 'real thing'? I'm going to try the Sunset recipe - but would love to hear others' recipes / experiences... Exciting times ahead for my freezer!

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I make the Chorizo Toluqeno from Rick Bayless "Authentic Mexican" cookbook, page 55. It has pasillas and ancho chiles; coriander, cinnamon, clove, oregano, black pepper, nutmeg, ginger, paprika, cider vinegar and pork/pork fat. I then freeze it in 8 oz portions since that is the quantity he usually calls for in his recipes. It turns out fantastic....just like the sausage we enjoy when in Mexico.

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There are fresh and dried chorizos. If you are referring to fresh chorizo and you buy the pork already ground and you don't need to stuff into casings then, yes, it really is that easy. Grinding and stuffing are not hard by any means just some additional equipment. Drying is a bit more involved.

Anyone who says I'm hard to shop for doesn't know where to buy beer.

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I'm going back a couple of years ago, maybe more, but I had asked for help making fresh chorizo. We love chorizo and eggs as well as other dishes that call for fresh chorizo. We are lucky to have

Mexican stores where we can buy the "real thing". The only problem is that once you remove the chorizo from the casings, you have a bit too much fat, as well as unidentifiable clumps of stuff you

don't really want to injest. After picking much out of the sausage before cooking it, I figured that we could just make it a bit more healthy by starting with pork butt and going on from there. I

did get some responses, which we did try. While what we made was good and definitely seemed healthier, it was still missing something that I couldn't put my finger on. It did not have quite the

right spices and it did not drip the right color of fat. If I remember correctly, someone wrote and suggested ?? annato ??

Anyway, I second the plea for a really good fresh chorizo recipe. The "real" stuff we were buying made us think that we could only do it to our bodies every six months or so. It would be great not

to ration at all. If anyone has more specifics, I would love to hear them also.

"My only regret in life is that I did not drink more Champagne."

John Maynard Keynes

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What am I doing wrong? I keep copying and pasting the web address that Paul McMichael wrote about, and I can only find a beef chorizo recipe. Can anyone help please?

Thanks.

"My only regret in life is that I did not drink more Champagne."

John Maynard Keynes

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