Chorizo Sonorense Casero

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •Meat grinder with medium plate (4.5mm)
• •Sausage stuffer (manual or stand-mixer attachment)
• •Cast iron comal for toasting chiles
• •High-powered blender
• •Fine-mesh strainer
• •Wooden dowel or curing rack for hanging
• •Sterilized sausage pricker or thin needle

Instructions

1. 1

   Chill the meat and equipment

   Place the cubed pork shoulder and back fat on a sheet pan in a single layer. Put it in the freezer for 30 minutes, until the edges are firm but the meat is not frozen through. Cold meat grinds clean. Warm meat smears the fat and you end up with a greasy paste instead of a chorizo with texture. Put the grinder parts, the bowl, and the auger in the freezer at the same time. No me vengas con atajos here. Temperature is the difference between a chorizo that holds together and one that falls apart.

2. 2

   Toast and rehydrate the chiles

   Heat a dry comal over medium. Toast the chile ancho and chile colorado separately, about 20 to 30 seconds per side. They should puff slightly and smell like the inside of a Hermosillo spice market. Do not let them blacken. If you are using whole chiltepín, toss them onto the comal for 5 seconds, no longer. They are tiny and they burn instantly. Transfer the toasted chiles to a heatproof bowl. Cover with hot tap water, not boiling, and let them soften for 20 minutes.

   Chiltepín is the wild bird's-eye chile of the Sonoran desert, harvested by hand from desert shrubs in late summer. It is not a substitute for any hot pepper. If you cannot find it, leave it out before you replace it with something it isn't.
3. 3

   Build the chile-vinegar adobo

   Drain the rehydrated chiles. Place them in a blender with the apple cider vinegar, white vinegar, garlic cloves, oregano, cumin, black pepper, cloves, canela, kosher salt, and curing salt. If using ground chiltepín, add it now. Blend on high until completely smooth, about 2 minutes. The mixture should be a deep brick red, thick like a loose paste. Strain through a fine-mesh sieve, pressing hard on the solids to push the flavor through. Discard the skins. You want a clean adobo with no fibrous pieces that will clog the grinder.

4. 4

   Marinate the pork

   In a large non-reactive bowl, combine the chilled pork cubes and back fat with the strained adobo. Toss until every piece is coated in the chile paste. Cover and refrigerate for at least 12 hours, ideally 24. The vinegar tenderizes the meat. The salt and the curing salt do their work. The chile penetrates the muscle. This is not a step you skip. Sonoran chorizo is defined by this long marinade. A chorizo ground and stuffed the same day will taste raw and one-dimensional.

5. 5

   Grind the meat cold

   Set up your grinder with the cold parts and fit it with the medium plate (about 4.5mm). Grind the marinated pork and fat directly into a chilled bowl set over ice. Work fast. The meat should come through the grinder in clean ribbons that hold their shape. If you see any smearing or greasy streaks, stop, return everything to the freezer for 15 minutes, and start again. Pour in the melted, cooled lard and mix with your hands for about a minute, until the mixture turns sticky and pulls together when you grab a handful. La manteca es el sabor.

6. 6

   Test the seasoning

   Pinch off a small patty and fry it in a skillet over medium heat until cooked through. Taste it. Now adjust. More salt? More chiltepín? More oregano? This is your only chance to fix the seasoning. Once it is in the casing, what you have is what you get. The cooked patty will tell you the truth that the raw mixture cannot.

   Sonoran chorizo should taste of vinegar first, chile ancho second, and warm spices in the background. If the cumin is shouting over the chile, you used too much. Pull back next time.
7. 7

   Stuff the casings

   Rinse the hog casings inside and out by running cold water through them like a hose. Slide a casing onto the stuffer tube, leaving 4 inches hanging off the end. Push the meat through slowly and steadily. Fill the casing firmly but do not pack it tight. Tight casings burst when you twist the links. As you fill, run your fingers along the casing to push out air pockets. When the casing is full, tie off the trailing end with a knot.

8. 8

   Form the links

   Lay the filled casing on a clean work surface. Pinch off a 6-inch length and twist it three or four times to seal. Move down another 6 inches, pinch, and twist in the opposite direction. Continue down the rope, alternating the direction of each twist. The alternating twists are what keep the links from unraveling when you hang them. Use a sterilized needle to prick any visible air pockets along the casing.

9. 9

   Hang to cure

   Hang the links from a wooden dowel or sturdy string in a cool, dry, well-ventilated place. The traditional Sonoran method hangs chorizo in a dry pantry or a covered porch where the desert air does the work. You want a temperature of 50 to 60 degrees Fahrenheit and humidity around 70 percent. Hang for 48 to 72 hours, until the casings feel dry to the touch and the chorizo has firmed up but still gives slightly when pressed. The color will deepen from bright red to a dark brick. If you do not have a curing space, hang the links in the refrigerator on a rack with good airflow for 4 to 5 days. It is a compromise. The flavor will not develop the same way it does in open air, but it is safer and it works.

10. 10

    Store and use

    Once cured, the chorizo is ready. Cut links as you need them and refrigerate the rest in butcher paper for up to 3 weeks, or freeze for up to 3 months. To cook, slice or crumble the chorizo into a hot skillet with a teaspoon of lard and brown it slowly over medium heat. The fat will render out and color the pan a deep red. Use it for chorizo con huevo at breakfast, folded into a flour sobaquera with refried beans, or scrambled with potatoes. Cada estado, su propia cocina, and this one belongs to Sonora.

Chef Tips

• •Buy pork shoulder with visible marbling and a good cap of fat. Lean shoulder will give you a chorizo that crumbles dry in the pan. The 80/20 meat-to-fat ratio is non-negotiable. La manteca es el sabor and in a cured sausage, it is also the structure.
• •Oregano sonorense is the wild oregano of the Sonoran desert, more pungent and slightly citrus-edged compared to the Mexican oregano grown commercially. If you can find it at a noroeste mercado or specialty spice shop, use it. If not, regular Mexican oregano is the right substitution. Greek or Italian oregano is the wrong one and the chorizo will taste like pizza.
• •If you have never stuffed sausage before, recruit a second pair of hands. One person feeds the meat into the stuffer, one person guides the casing. Working alone is possible but the first batch is rarely pretty.
• •Chiltepín is hard to find outside the noroeste. Look for it at Sonoran specialty markets, online from desert-foraging cooperatives, or skip it and accept that your chorizo will be milder. Substituting árbol or pequín changes the dish into something else.

Advance Preparation

• •The chile-vinegar adobo can be made up to 3 days ahead and refrigerated. The flavor deepens overnight as the spices bloom in the vinegar.
• •The marinated pork must rest at least 12 hours before grinding, ideally 24. Plan the timeline backward from when you want to hang the chorizo.
• •Cured chorizo keeps in the refrigerator for up to 3 weeks wrapped in butcher paper, or up to 3 months frozen. The flavor continues to develop in the first week of refrigeration.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 105g)