[Bodger]

Just to wet your appetite, we our going to make our first attempt at making chorizo sausage this evening. We've gathered the ingredients and I finished off by getting hold of some garlic cloves on the way into work this morning.
We have bastardised HFWs recipe from his DVD 'Pig in a Day'. I say this because it is'nt really as clear on it as it could be as to how much of the ingredients he actually puts into his mix and secondly, I've struggled to get hold of some of the more obscure ingredients that he mentions. Mr Ignorance here didn't realise just how many types chilli and pepper there are.  :shock:  
Still, it will be interesting to see how things go.
For people who are unaware, chorizo are actually hung out in an outbuilding somewhere to air dry for a few weeks and are not cooked as such but cured. One of the problems that I have got to address this afternoon, is to actually find a spot where there's a enough through draft to dry them and even more importantly, somewhere where the cat and or the birds can't get at them.    
I've been dying to do this for ages, and we'll be using parts of the pig that we had slaughtered last month.
Please watch this space for piccies this evening.  


 

First of all we started with 3kg or reasonably lean saddleback pork and 500g of back fat.





The next thing we did was to run the back fat through the mincer.





Followed by the pork.








Then I mixed the two evenly together.





Then I got the ingredients together ready to mix into the mince.
They were
1) 2.2% of the total weight of the meat and fat combined in salt, I'm told this came to 77g

2) 90g of paprika

3) 60g of cayenne pepper

4) 30g of fennel seeds

5) 6 crushed garlic cloves.





Start the mixing  :thumbup:











As the actress said to the bishop ! "Its sausage time !"  :shock:





I know this looks slightly kinky  :oops:   but its kaz tying the end of the first sausage out of the stuffer.  :roll:  





The finished article.





We made quite a few.





A word of warning. This is the first time that we have made these and we'll have to wait at least six weeks or longer to see how they taste.
   

The next picture on this thread will be of me and Rob hanging our sausages in the barn tomorrow morning. :q33:

PS The red wine was used to make the mixing of the mix go easier in two ways   and for doing this post Aunt Sally, under the influence of drink, can I have the thumbs up emoticon put onto this forum?

[mabel]

Wow, they look amazing.  Fingers crossed they taste as good in 6 or so weeks.

[shaun]

they look fine to me bodge,

[Aunt Sally]

Are your inviting us all round to sample them Bodger    

They look great  

[agapanthus]

They look delish Bodge!!!!

[agapanthus]

karl asks where are his 3kgs?  

[Bodger]

We hung the chorizos to dry this morning thank goodness    The smell of the garlic was stinking the study out. :shock:
We have a row of four wooden kennels with covered runs and the end one is a spare, so we've used that. The video says that you need some where cool, dry and with a good through put of air. Hopefully the kennel is going to fit the bill.
Here they are hanging, it gives a nice rewarding feeling of satisfaction to see them.

[Aunt Sally]

How do you cook them Bodger  :?:

[compostqueen]

They're cured so I reckon you just eats em

They look fab  

[Aunt Sally]

:shock: Raw Pork  :?:  :shock:

[compostqueen]

I dunno, not an expert     Fry it then just to be sure  

[shaun]

a bit like parma ham then  :?

[Aunt Sally]

Where's Bodger  :?:

How do you eat it Bodger - raw or cooked  :?:

[shaun]

i thought you boiled em 1st like a black pudding then hang em up

[Bodger]

They are ready to eat as they are after about six weeks of hanging, the salt content in them hopefully stops them from going off.
Chorizo is the round savoury bits that appear on some pizzas.

Guess what we are having a go at next week  :shock:  The dreaded brawn made with pigs heads.

Here's the raw materials.




It must be nearly fifteen years since I made any brawn but I fully intend making some next weekend. I think I've got either one and a half pigs heads available, or a full two.
This is where I'm looking for a bit of forum involvement. Have any of you got any recipes for brawn that you can post. Its such a long time ago, that I've literally forgotten what I did or what I put into the mixture.
Thanks in anticipation.
Bodger. :thumbup: