Chorizo Mexican Sausage

By á-5765

A spicy (to taste), savory sausage that goes well with scrambled eggs, whole or mashed pinto beans (refritos), all of which can be wrapped in a flour tortilla (burrito).

Ingredients

• 2 pounds ground pork.
• 3 1/2 teaspoons salt
• 6 tablespoons pure ground red chile
• 6 to 20 small hot dried red chiles; tepine, Thai dragon, pico de gallo, crushed
• 4 to 6 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 tablespoons dry leaf oregano
• 2 teaspoons whole cumin seed, crushed or 1 T powdered
• 1 teaspoons fresh ground black pepper
• 1 1/2 teaspoons sugar
• 4 tablespoons good cider or wine vinegar
• 2 1/2 tablepoons water

Preparation

Step 1

Have the ground pork chilled. (Note: you can grind your own pork butt, but buy some extra fat back to be sure the final product is not too dry, about 1/3 fat to 2/3 lean meat.)

Spread the meat on a cookie tray. Sprinkle the rest of the ingredients evenly over the meat.

Knead the spices into the meat until well mixed. Rubber gloves work well for this.

Let the sausage meat season for a couple days in your refrigerator. Then shape them into patties that can be wrapped and frozen.

Optionally, if your meat grinder has a sausage-tube adapter, you can buy casings from the local butcher and churn the meat into the casings, twisting every five inches or so to form individual sausages. Lay them on a tray in the refrigerator for 4-5 days, turning each day so the casings dry.

Chorizos can be smoked like any other pork sausage.