Chorizo Queretano de Cadereyta

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •Cast-iron comal for toasting chiles
• •Molcajete or spice grinder
• •Blender for the ancho adobo
• •Meat grinder with coarse plate
• •Large nonreactive bowl
• •Clay cazuela, copper cazo, or cast-iron skillet for cooking

Instructions

1. 1

   Toast the anchos

   Heat a dry comal over medium. Toast the chile ancho one at a time, about 15 to 20 seconds per side, just until the skin softens, darkens slightly, and smells like raisins and warm tobacco. Do not blacken them. Ancho is not there to punish anyone with heat. It gives Cadereyta chorizo its brick color, round sweetness, and body.

2. 2

   Soften the chiles

   Put the toasted anchos in a bowl and cover with the hot water. Press them down with a small plate and let them soften for 15 minutes. Drain them, reserving 2 tablespoons of the soaking water only if the blender needs help. Too much water makes loose chorizo. The paste should cling to the meat, not run away from it.

3. 3

   Grind the spices

   Toast the cloves, peppercorns, and cumin seeds on the comal for 30 to 45 seconds, moving them constantly. Grind them in a molcajete with the oregano, mejorana, canela, piloncillo, and salt until the mixture is sandy and fragrant. The clavo must be present, not bossy. Three cloves are enough. No me vengas con atajos.

4. 4

   Blend the adobo

   Blend the softened chile ancho with the vinagre de piña, garlic, and ground spice mixture until completely smooth. Use the reserved chile water only if the blades refuse to move. You want a thick, deep red adobo that smells sharp from vinegar, sweet from ancho, and warm from clavo. Taste the paste before it touches the pork. It should be salty and intense because it has to season all the meat.

5. 5

   Grind the pork

   Keep the pork shoulder, back fat, grinder parts, and bowl cold. Grind the meat and fat through a coarse plate into a chilled bowl. Cold fat cuts clean. Warm fat smears, and smeared fat gives you a greasy sausage with no bite. If you asked the butcher to grind it, make sure it is coarse and at least 20 percent fat. Lean chorizo is a scolding waiting to happen.

   Do not use prepackaged lean ground pork for this. Cadereyta chorizo needs shoulder and fat. La manteca es el sabor, here it lives inside the sausage.
6. 6

   Mix and test

   Pour the adobo over the ground pork. Mix with clean hands for 3 to 4 minutes, folding and pressing until the meat turns evenly brick red and feels tacky. Fry a tablespoon of the mixture in a small skillet until fully cooked. Taste it. Adjust salt or vinegar now, before the rest. Once the chorizo cures overnight, the flavor sets.

7. 7

   Rest the chorizo

   Pack the chorizo into a nonreactive bowl, press plastic wrap directly on the surface, and refrigerate for at least 24 hours. Forty-eight hours is better. This is fresh chorizo cured by salt, vinegar, and time in the refrigerator. It is not a shelf-stable sausage, so do not hang it on the counter unless you are set up for proper charcutería. Así se hace y punto.

8. 8

   Stuff if wanted

   If you want links, stuff the rested mixture loosely into soaked hog casings, twist into 5-inch links, and prick any air pockets with a clean needle. Lay the links uncovered on a rack in the refrigerator overnight so the surface dries slightly. For almuerzo, bulk chorizo is just as correct. The señoras who taught me in Querétaro cared more about the adobo than the casing.

9. 9

   Brown for almuerzo

   Crumble 8 ounces of chorizo into a hot clay cazuela or cast-iron skillet. Add a teaspoon of manteca de cerdo only if the pan looks dry. Cook over medium heat, breaking it up with a wooden spoon, until the fat renders, the pork browns at the edges, and the red oil stains the pan, 8 to 10 minutes. The pork should reach 160F if you are checking with a thermometer. Do not scorch the chile.

10. 10

    Serve the table

    Spoon the browned chorizo beside frijoles charros and nopalitos. Set out totopos de maíz azul, bolillos, and a molcajete of salsa de xoconostle or salsa molcajeteada. This is breakfast food from Querétaro's semi-desert, not a pile of yellow cheese and lettuce. Cada estado, su propia cocina.

Chef Tips

• •At the Mercado de la Cruz in Querétaro, ask for chile ancho that is flexible, dark red-brown, and leathery. If it snaps like an old leaf, it has been sitting too long and your chorizo will taste dusty.
• •This chorizo is not about aggressive heat. Chile ancho gives raisin sweetness, color, and body. If you want to make everything burn, you are not listening to the dish.
• •Use pork with real fat. Twenty to twenty-five percent fat is correct. If your butcher grinds shoulder and back fat together, good. If all you can find is lean supermarket pork, buy extra pork belly and grind it in.
• •Vinagre de piña gives the clean bite I want here. Vinagre de manzana works when that is what you can find, but it is a compromise, not an improvement.
• •Fresh chorizo is perishable. After the 24-hour rest, cook it within two days or freeze it. Traditional does not mean careless.

Advance Preparation

• •The chorizo must rest at least 24 hours before cooking. Forty-eight hours gives a deeper flavor and a firmer texture.
• •After resting, raw chorizo keeps refrigerated for up to 2 days or frozen for up to 3 months. Freeze it in 8-ounce portions for quick breakfasts.
• •Cooked crumbled chorizo keeps refrigerated for 4 days. Reheat it in a skillet with a spoonful of its own rendered fat or a little manteca de cerdo.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 115g)