Everything about Chorizo totally explained
Chorizo (in Latin American
Spanish or in Castillian
Spanish) or
Chouriço (
pronounced [ʃoˈwɾisso] in
Portuguese) is a term encompassing several types of
pork sausage originating from the
Iberian Peninsula.
Sometimes mispronounced as "choritso", it can be a fresh sausage, in which case it must be cooked, but in
Europe it's more frequently a
fermented cured smoked sausage, in which case it's usually sliced and eaten without cooking.
Spanish chorizo and
Portuguese chouriço get their distinctive smokiness and deep red colour from
dried smoked red peppers (
pimentón/
pimentão or
colorau).
Chorizo can be eaten as is (sliced or in a
sandwich),
simmered in
apple cider or other strong
alcoholic beverage such as
Aguardente,
barbecued or
fried. Like
breakfast sausage, it's used as an ingredient of other dishes. It also can be used as a partial replacement for ground
beef or pork.
Spanish chorizo
Spanish chorizo is made from coarsely chopped fatty pork and usually seasoned with
chili, paprika and
garlic. The mild Spanish
paprika used gives this sausage its characteristic flavour. The Chorizo itself can be found as either
picante (hot) or
dulce (sweet). Only the spicy variety incorporates chiles
guindillas secas (small dried hot chilies). Some varieties are hung in cold dry places to cure, as happens with
jamón serrano (ham). It often contains varietal parts of the animal, such as cheeks, salivary glands or lymph nodes. The
Pamplona variety grinds the meat further. In some regions of Spain, such as
Extremadura where the pork was for centuries basic for subsistence, a usual dish is
huevos con chorizo (
Spanish for "eggs with chorizo"). This dish consists of fried chorizos (in
olive oil or pork
fat) accompanied with deep-fried
eggs. The frying pan for the eggs must contain at least 3 centimeters (1 1/3 inches) of oil or melted fat, with a high temperature,
for example when the oil starts to release smoke. The chorizo used for this dish is less cured and can't be eaten without being cooked. The chorizo is also popular in
Basque cuisine.
Portuguese chouriço
Portuguese chouriço is made with pork, fat, wine, paprika and salt. It is then stuffed into
tripe (natural or artificial) and slowly dried over smoke. There are many different varieties, changing in colour, shape, seasoning and taste. Many dishes of
Portuguese cuisine and
Brazilian cuisine make use of chouriço -
Cozido à portuguesa and
Feijoada are just two of them.
Portuguese style
Linguiça, can also be found in
New England and
Hawaii, generally known as Portuguese sausages.
In Portugal there's also a blood chouriço (
chouriço de sangue) very similar to the
Black Pudding, amongst many other types of
Enchidos, such as
Alheira,
Linguiça,
Morcela,
Farinheira,
Chouriço de Vinho,
Chouriço de ossos,
Cacholeira,
Paia,
Paio,
Paiola,
Paiote,
Salpicão and
Tripa enfarinhada.
Image:Chouriço.jpg|Cooked Portuguese chouriço
Image:Enchidos portugueses2.jpg|A variety of Portuguese chouriços
Image:Chouriço de sangue.jpg|Portuguese blood chouriço
Image:Enchidos portugueses.jpg|Other Portuguese enchidos
North America
Better known in the
United States (and seldom encountered in Europe) are the
Mexican and
Caribbean versions. Based on the uncooked Spanish
chorizo fresco, these versions are made from fatty pork (however,
beef,
venison,
kosher, and even
vegan versions are known) that's ground rather than chopped and different seasonings are used in addition to chili.
Most Mexican chorizo is a deep reddish colour, but green chorizo is also made, being popular in the vicinity of
Toluca,
Mexico. In some supermarkets in the southwestern US, chorizo is sold packaged loosely ground, having an appearance much like ground beef, except for the colour, which is closer to orange than pink and consists of simple ground pork with the spicing of chorizo. It is an urban legend that "authentic" Mexican style chorizo, either pork or beef consists of only lips and salivary glands rather than the muscle cuts. Chorizo proteins like any sausage depends on the maker. This is finely ground and stuffed in plastic tubes to resemble sausage links but it's never prepared as links. The tubes are cut open and the nearly paste-like mixture is fried in a pan and mashed with a fork until it resembles finely minced ground beef.
In the United States, chorizo is generally known as a food for
breakfast, although Mexican restaurants in both the United States and Mexico make
tacos,
burritos, and
tortas with cooked chorizo.
Chorizo con huevos is a popular breakfast dish in Mexico and areas of Mexican immigration in the United States. It is made by preparing the chorizo as mentioned above till it's thoroughly cooked before stirring in the eggs to create the chorizo
scrambled eggs, or Chorizo con Huevos.
Chorizo con huevos is often used in making breakfast
burritos or
taquitos. In Mexico, Chorizo is also used to make the popular appetizer
chorizo con queso, which is small pieces of chorizo served in or on melted cheese, and eaten with tortilla.
Tapas bars that serve Spanish style chorizo have appeared in some United States cities.
Puerto Rico and Dominican Republic
In Puerto Rico and in the Dominican Republic, chorizo and longaniza are considered two separate meats. Spanish Chorizo is a smoked, well seasoned sausage nearly identical to the smoked versions in Spain. Puerto Rican and Dominican longanizas however, has a very different taste and appearance. Seasoned meat is stuffed into pork intestine and is formed very long by hand. It is then hung to air-dry. Longaniza can then be fried in oil or cooked with rice or beans. It is eaten with many different dishes. http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1329/595212251_07f43d7838.jpg
South America
In
Argentina and
Uruguay, chorizo is the name for any coarse meat sausage. Argentine chorizos normally contain pork meat and don't tend to be terribly spicy. Some Argentine chorizo producers occasionally add other types of meat in order to improve the flavour, such as
donkey meat; however, consumers are not always aware of this, and may consider such additions cheating. In Chile, a fresh chorizo is known as a
longaniza. In Argentina, a fresh chorizo, cooked and served in a bread roll, is called a
choripán.
In
Brazil there are many varieties of Portuguese style chouriço and linguiça used in many different types of dishes, such as the
Feijoada.
Goan chouriço
In
Goa, a former
Portuguese colony (for 451 years) in present day
India, chouriço has made a deep impact among the local community. Here chouriço are deep red pork sausage links made from pork, vinegar, chili, garlic, ginger, cumin, turmeric and other spices and are extremely hot, spicy and flavourful. These are enjoyed either plain, or served with potatoes, or pearl onions, or both. They are also used in a dish called pulav (for example sausage pulav). They are never consumed raw due to health concerns, although if aged well, they do stand up.
One can find three kinds of chouriço in
Goa: dry, wet, and skin. Dry chouriço is the one aged in the sun for much longer periods (for example 3 months or more). Wet chouriço has been aged for about a month. Skin chouriço, also aged, is rare and difficult to find. Skin chouriço consists primarily of pork skin and some fat.
All three chouriço come in variations such as hot, medium and mild. Other forms of variations that exist depend on the size of the links which range from 1 inch (smallest) to 6 inches. Typically the wet variation tends to be longer than the dry variation.
In Goa, tourists often refer to chouriço as "sausage" which causes it to be often confused with "Goan
Frankfurters". These are very different from chouriço. In looks, they're similar to sausage links as found in the
United States and they taste similar to Portuguese sausage links, known as
Linguiça. The meat is a coarse grinding that has primarily a peppercorn flavour.
Philippines
Longaniza (
Filipino:
longganisa) are
Philippine chorizos flavoured with indigenous spices. Longaniza making has a long tradition in the Philippines, with each region having their own specialty. Among others,
Lucban is known for its garlicky longanizas;
Guagua for its salty, almost sour, longanizas.
Longganisang hamonado (Spanish:
longaniza jamonada), by contrast, is known for its distinctive sweet taste. Unlike Spanish chorizos,
longanizas can also be made of chicken, beef, or even tuna.
Further Information
Get more info on 'Chorizo'.
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