Chorizo is the quintessential Spanish sausage and is familiar to most people. We explore its history, how and where it’s made and its culinary uses.

Chorizo, being a sausage, is a chopped meat mixture stuffed into a tubular casing It is made by curing and not cooking. The origin of  sausages is lost in antiquity, but they arose as a desirable way of preserving the blood and less valuable parts of a pig rather than eating them straight away after the animal was slaughtered. The casing for the sausage was, and often still is, made from the intestines of the pig. What is true for sausages in general, is also true for chorizo. Chorizo has been a by-product of the matanza del cerdo (slaughtering of the pig) in Spain for several thousand years, although centuries ago it would have been  different to the chorizo that we know today due to the absence of pimentón (paprika), which coming from peppers was not available until Europeans reached the Americas. The matanza throughout history has been a family affair and there are still a lot of villages where it continues today. The pig is slaughtered in the winter months by having its throat cut and the first thing to be done is to collect the blood to make blood sausage or black pudding. The different cuts of meat will then be removed with the loins and the front and back legs being selected for salt curing to make caña de lomo and hams respectively. Other cuts such as sirloin will be used for cooking, and meat which is considered of a lesser quality will be set aside to make the different kinds of chorizo. 

So, how is chorizo made? Pork meat and fat are ground up, with a typical mixture of around 70% meat and 30% fat. This is then seasoned with salt, garlic and paprika and sometimes herbs such as oregano. The paprika is normally the dried powder of the ground sweet red pepper but spicy paprika obtained from hot peppers is often added as well. The mixture is then left to marinade for 24 hours in a cool place before being stuffed into a large or small intestine.

The chorizos that are made using the large intestines tend to be around 30-40cm in length and are cured for 2-3 months by being hung up, often in rooms that allow the outside air to circulate  It is quite common as well for part of the curing to use charcoal fires in the curing rooms which help in the drying process. This type of chorizo is always eaten uncooked, cut into thin slices. The best chorizo of this type is the chorizo ibérico, with the meat coming from acorn-fed Iberian pigs.

Lots of Spanish homes will have a large chorizo hanging up in the kitchen or the pantry, readily available  for a quick tapa while lunch is being prepared  or as an entrée when friends or family come to eat. Un bocadillo de chorizo (chorizo sandwich) has always been a popular mid-morning snack for schoolchildren and people doing heavy manual work.

The smaller chorizos are made by stuffing smaller intestines and can be of varying sizes from 6cm long to over 20cm. You often see these in the shops in long strings. They are normally cured for anything between 2 to 4 weeks. The curing process may just be a question of hanging up the chorizos in a cool place where ventilation allows the outside air to circulate, or as is often happens they will be smoked. Small fires with logs of holm oak are placed around the curing rooms which have holes in the roof to let the smoke out and the cool air in. These smaller chorizos are usually softer than the large ones and are normally used for cooking, being an important  ingredient in a whole range of dishes made with vegetables and pulses.  Theses include lentils with chorizo, green beans with chorizo, chorizo cooked in red wine and the famous Asturian white bean stew called fabada.

Chorizo has been traditionally made in the more hilly or mountainous regions of Spain where the cool air helps in the curing process. This is still the case for many producers and of course for home-made chorizo. However, many of the bigger producers have large factories in other areas where they artificially reproduce the conditions necessary for curing. Also, some of the cheaper more industrially produced chorizos have artificial casings instead of natural ones.

Chorizo is produced all over Spain with a thousand variations on a basic theme. You’ll see them thicker and thinner, longer and shorter, with the use of different herbs and so on; but always with the taste of paprika. There are even towns that have been heralded as a Mecca for chorizo, such as Cantimpalos in the province of Segovia.

Along with chorizo Spain boasts other kinds of cured sausages :

Salchichón is made in the same way as chorizo but black pepper substitutes the paprika and spices such as nutmeg are added. There may also be a small addition of wine to the mixture before it is macerated. Salchichón is always eaten uncooked in the same way as the larger sliced chorizo.

Longaniza and fuet  are long thin versions of salchichón and can be sliced and eaten or used in cooking in the same way as the smaller chorizos.

Morcón is another quality product related to chorizo, with its bulbous shape making it look like a wrapped up parcel. The meat used to make it is usually of a high quality from the shoulder of the pig and is cut up coarsely instead of being minced. The rest of the ingredients are the same as for normal chorizo.

Mallorca is famous for a cured sausage known as sobrasada. Finely chopped meat, pork fat, salt and paprika are macerated for a day before being stuffed into an intestine which may go from small to very large. Depending on the size of the sobrasada it will be air-cured anything from 3 or 4 weeks up to a year! The filling takes on a smooth texture that is almost like pâté and is a popular snack spread on bread.   

Chorizo like salami can be bought freshly sliced or ready sliced in vacuum packs. These packs can be put in the fridge, but always take them out a few hours before you open them. If you buy whole chorizos to use at home always hang them up in a cool place, but never in the fridge as they will dry out. If you have bought one of the large chorizos or salchichones; once you have cut some slices, hang it up again and cover the end with some silver foil to avoid it going dry and hard.

The next time you have friends round serve them a plate of sliced chorizo and/or salchichón together with some cured Manchego or Zamorano cheese, and of course a dish of olives. To accompany this fare choose a full-bodied Spanish red or surprise everyone with a fine dry oloroso or amontillado from the Jerez region. ¡que aprovechen!

Lentejas con chorizo (lentils with chorizo)

Ingredients

½ kilo green lentils (Spanish of course!)

1 chorizo for cooking

1 blood sausage (optional)

1 onion

1 head of garlic

2 medium-sized potatoes

1 bay leaf

2 dessertspoons of olive oil

salt

Method

Soak the lentils overnight. In a large saucepan put the lentils, chorizo, blood sausage, garlic, bay leaf and coarsely chopped onion. Cover with water and add salt and the olive oil. Bring to the boil and then simmer for around 45 minutes. Add the potatoes which have each been quartered and cook for another 20 minutes. As an option you can add one or two chopped carrots along with the potatoes. This is a great dish for a cold winter’s day.