Chorizo and Butifarra

The Chief loves to make tasty sausages, especially chorizo and butifarra. Spanish chorizo, not to be confused with the Beaner version frequently sold and served in this country, is simply ungodly tasty. Beaner chirozo will give you the shits. Prepared with copious quantities of garlic, smoked paprika and marjoram, then cold smoked over apple, the Chief's Spanish version is perfect for paellas. This version, not to be confused with the dry-cured type that we use for our Catalan Toast, requires cooking before consumption.

Butifarra, the beloved sausage of the Catalans, is quite similar to Polish Kielbasa. Prepared with garlic, cumin and nutmeg, this sausage is perfect when served with white or fava beans. It does well in paella, too. Venison makes good butifarra, too. You can also add lots of sweet red peppers to make a lovely butifarra. You can even add some hog blood to achieve the highly desirable Catalan Negro Butifarra.

Beautiful butifarra sausage ready for the smoker

The Chief prefers to make his sausages from pork loin and eliminating the pork fat which is almost essential for good chorizo and also essential for clogging up arteries. The Chief prefers lean sausages over another heart surgery.

Chief's Chorizo ready for smoking

Here's how the Chief makes his chorizo...Pork is cut up into 1/2 inches pieces and seasoned with lots of Spanish smoked paprika, granulated garlic, black pepper, marjoram, salt, sucrose and Spanish sweet sherry. Phosphate and Cure #2 must be used if you go to dry-curing. The mixture is then bagged and placed in the refrigerator to let the flavors develop overnight. The next day the Chief stuffs into hog casings and cold smokes his chorizo over applewood from his spring pruning.

Applewood cut on evenly on bandsaw allows for controlled smoking

The Chief loves his Brinkman Cooker, but it is too hot for smoking. Being the genius that he is, he replaces the original electric heating element that produces 250 degree temperatures with a charcoal starter that will generate only around 100 degrees.

Original element on top and low temp element on bottom

The Chief's second-hand Hobart grinder is a real workhorse

The chorizo is now in the smoker, after it is dunked into ice cold water and vacuum bagged, the Chief will head off to Big Fishing Creek on this beautiful overcast day! Two more weeks of Lent and it's back to beer drinking!

Chorizo is great in omeletes, rice and pasta dishes, or just sliced thin and eaten. Butifarra can be eaten with most anything. It is great grilled.