Ruhlman\'s Charcuterie, page 190

Boilermaker Ben

Many thanks to AZRP, Grandpas Grub, Little Chef, fishless, Weekend Warrior, Cruezen, Hoss and Angela for your honest comments and advice on the grinder. I'm now the proud owner of an LEM 1/4hp #5 meat grinder. Drove up to Polish-town yesterday afternoon to pick it up. Supposedly unused, but at the very least, only lightly used. Very good condition mechanically, just a couple spots of rust on one of the non-stainless parts, after having sat in the guy's garage for a couple years. Much quieter than I was expecting, although I suppose it might be louder when it's processing meat. At about half price, and either unused, or at least only used a couple times, I think it was a pretty fantastic deal.

Ok, I know I'm starting with advanced stuff here, but I can't find Spanish chorizo or Portuguese chaurice locally, and I've got kale in the garden waiting for frost. I'm looking forward to making Portuguese kale soup this fall/winter with good fresh kale, and I need some chorizo. I acknowledge that failure with a first crack at dried sausage is a good possibility, but I'm willing to try.

I re-read through the applicable parts of Charcuterie last night (and will do so a few more times before I actually execute this), and wrote down the supplies I'd need to purchase, but sadly, I left the list at home this morning. Can someone please check page 190 and let me know which starter culture the recipe for spanish chorizo calls for? If I recall correctly, it also calls for curing salt #2, as opposed to pink salt, and recommends hog middles for the casing. I'll take care of the standard grocery ingredients later, but I'd like to order the sausage supplies today, if I can.

Hungry Celeste

Here's the ingredients list:
5 lb boneless pork shoulder butt, diced
2 oz kosher salt
1 tsp Insta Cure #2 or DQ Curing Salt #2
1 T dextrose
1/4 cup Bactoferm F-RM-52 (live starter culture)
1/4 cup distilled water
2 T pimenton
2 T ancho chile powder
1-1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
2 T minced garlic
10 feet hog casings

Hope this helps...I skimmed the recipe, and I didn't see any references to middles regarding the casings. (But I didn't read the whole section.)

AZRP

Congrats Ben! You are really jumping in head first with the dried sausage, I haven't even gone there yet. Can't help you with the book, I'm at work, books at home. One other thing is you can damage a grinder running it dry. -RP

Boilermaker Ben

Thanks! I totally forgot about the dextrose. Will have to order that, too. Looking at the hog casing options online, I think I'll go with 32/35mm...the size recommended for brats. Ruhlman/Polcyn suggest to go with thinner sausages for the first few times making fermented sausages, as they're a little more forgiving.

I've got cayennes and anchos from the garden hanging up to dry...excited to be able to put the fruits of our labor to good use.

Boilermaker Ben

Thanks, Randy. Chorizo is one of the big reasons I wanted to get into sausage making. Just can't find it around here (along with linquisa, good andouille, etc). So I'm excited to give it a try. I'm just going to take it step by step and proceed carefully.

Thanks for the tip. I had read that yesterday, but I did fire it up for a few moments before purchasing it. I figured a few seconds or so wouldn't hurt, and I wanted to make sure it ran before I bought it.

TheDirtyBurger

Dude you live in Aurora! How can you not find good chorizo?

Boilermaker Ben

Espanish chorizo, not mehican chorizo. We can find (dang good) Mexican chorizo in lots of places, but that's not what I'm looking for. I want stuff for paella, kale soup, etc.

AZRP

Check out all the different Spanish chorizos. -RP

http://www.tienda.com/food/chorizo.html

Boilermaker Ben

Drool.

We were laughing about the American concept of "Italian" dressing at dinner last night. What would someone from Italy think of such a thing? Do you think someone somewhere refers to a BBQ pulled pork sandwich as "American Pork"?

RogerT

Ben,

You have email.

Smokin' not stirred

Hey Ben, if you wanted to order Portuguese chourico here are some sites:

From the city where I grew up (the chourico capital of the world):

http://www.melloschourico.com/
http://www.furtados.com/

Next town over New Bedford:

http://www.amarals.com/store/index.php

Good stuff, best of luck.