Chorizo Sausage - ☺♥

This recipe is for making Mexican Chorizo sausage, which is not the dry-cured product of Spain, but a fresh sausage, spicy and kind of hot. It is typically used with other foods, like cooked and sliced for tacos, served hot with beans, or cooked, diced and stirred into a warm cheese dip.

Note that you control the amount of spices when you make any sausage, so you might put in half the amount of cayenne pepper indicated in this recipe to make a less hot sausage, then taste test it (cooked) and if necessary add some cayenne pepper and mix well.

Pork shoulder is used because it typically has about 20% fat content, which is very good when making sausage. Avoid trying to make sausage with lean pork as it will be too dry and dense after cooking, and probably burned in spots as well.

This recipe is from J. Kenji Lopez-Alt's great food science book, the Food Lab©. I will test it and if necessary make minor ingredient changes, and so indicate in this recipe description.

Ingredients:

2.2 lbs. of boneless, skinless pork shoulder

1 1/2 tbsp. of Kosher salt

2 medium garlic cloves, minced

1 tbsp. of paprika

3 tbsp. of red wine vinegar

1/2 tsp. of cayenne pepper

1/2 tsp. of ground coriander (optional, not in Kenji's recipe)

1/4 tsp. of ground cinnamon

1/4 tsp. of ground cloves

1 tsp. of ground cumin

1 tsp. of dried oregano

1/2 tsp. of fresh ground black pepper

Directions:

Cut the meat/fat into cubes about 3/4" on a side.

Mix the salt with the meat by hand.

Mix in all of the spices by hand.

Put the mixture into a one gallon Ziploc® freezer bag, expelling the air and sealing it.

Refrigerate the bag of meat/salt/seasonings overnight or up to 24 hours.

Grind the meat on medium speed using the 1/4" diameter holes die with the meat grinding attachment for the electric mixer.

Use the mixer paddle attachment and mix the ground sausage on medium low speed until the ingredients are well mixed and tacky.

Cover the sausage, putting plastic wrap in direct contact with the sausage to avoid air exposure, then refrigerate the sausage overnight to allow the flavors to blend well.

Test fry a small 1/2" thick patty for about three minutes per side, flipping it a few times during frying, on medium heat in a small non-stick skillet, with a small (1 tsp.) amount of canola oil.

Taste the sausage and if needed adjust the seasoning(s), making small adjustments to avoid adding too much seasoning. Then repeat the test frying, tasting and adjustments as necessary.

Make 2 ounce patties about 1/2" thick, separating layers using wax paper, or stuff the sausage into pork casings using whatever appliance/tool you have for stuffing sausage.

Put the patties or sausage links into a one gallon Ziploc® bag.

Refrigerate and use the sausage within five days, or, vacuum seal and freeze it and use it within six months.

If you are going to vacuum seal and freeze the chorizo then freeze it first, keeping the pieces from touching each other (use a cookie tray and wax paper), then vacuum seal in whatever quantities you want, then return the vacuum sealed sausage to the deep freeze. That method will keep the vacuuming process from distorting the shape of the sausage, whether it is in patty form or as sausage links.