Homemade Chorizo (raw)

(about 1 lb of raw sausage meat)

I love chorizo. It's a spicy sausage usually made from pork. I had never tried it before moving to Texas where I've had it served to me as a side, scrambled in eggs, in soup, as fillings..   yet I had never actually cooked with it.

When I decided to make some tamales this weekend, I thought chorizo would make a nice filling. Trying to decide which package of chorizo looked better at the grocery store, I did as I always do in those situations, I checked out the ingredients. Pork salivary glands, pork lymph nodes, pork fat... what? All of a sudden I didn't feel like chorizo tamales anymore.

I felt stupid because I love the taste of chorizo and usually I don't shy away from the ingredients. I know what's in haggis for heaven's sake and I still eat the stuff, lol. I'm usually willing to try most things at least once. (At the moment the only things that come to mind that I don't care for, are tripe and brains [texture] and chitterlings [can't stand the smell].)

When I got home I decided to google chorizo and get a bit more information. Although I didn't come across a single recipe that called for salivary glands, I did find mention of it in wikipedia, "Chorizo can be made from a variety of meat cuts, including lips, lymph nodes, and salivary glands.

The following is a recipe I found on Chow which I changed up a little bit.


1 pound ground lean pork
2 tbsp chili powder
2 tbsp smoked paprika
2 tbsp hot paprika
2 tbsp sweet paprika
2 tsp salt
1 tsp freshly ground black pepper
1 tsp dried oregano
1 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp ground cloves
1/2 tsp ground allspice
1/2 tsp cinnamon
3 tbsp red wine vinegar
3 cloves garlic, finely minced
1 tbsp lemon zest, finely minced

Combine all the ingredients thoroughly and refrigerate at least overnight to give the flavours a chance to blend together.

Use or freeze.