First time dry curing chorizo, rustic style. What do you think?

[MJP]

Hi all,

First post here. Over the years I have done number of pig slaughters, sausage making, meat smoking so on so forth. But this is the first time I am trying to do dry curing out of COVID boredom. :)

So while processing a pork shoulder for some kielbasa snack stick I made 2#s of chorizo just to see what happens. The recipe I used is: https://ourdailybrine.com/how-to-make-dry-cured-spanish-chorizo-castellano/

But being a rustic kind of a guy, I made some small tweaks: "Starter culture" was some labneh ( extra strained greek yogurt).

I also did not Mold 600....but I have borrow some spores from dry cured salami I have in my deep freezer that I have bought in Europe from a small village place that been in business making dry cured meats for generations.

Lastly, I went ahead with "rustic" curing environment : simply my mid-west basement, storage tote w/ lid to control humidity, bowl of vinegary water and temp/humidity monitor. The way I see it, people made dry cured products for ages and it didn't take fridges, closed loop systems, etc.

Anyways. I am including some pictures of the progress.

First picture is about day 3. The other pictures are from day 7. Looks like my mold is coming along nicely. Smell is wonderful too!

What say you?

 

[smokerjim]

ya sound like a mad scientist, i guess it looks good, i have no idea what it's supposed to look like

 

[jcam222]

I read the posts on curing and see finish pics that make me want to learn it. I am convinced though I’d likely poison myself lol

 

[gmc2003]

I read the posts on curing and see finish pics that make me want to learn it. I am convinced though I’d likely poison myself lol

Make sure you take plenty of pics Jeff. Video with sound would be better.

Chris

 

[Brokenhandle]

Kinda like the others... would love to learn but good mold bad mold? Kinda like mushrooms... only buy em from the store

Ryan

 

[MJP]

Kinda like the others... would love to learn but good mold bad mold? Kinda like mushrooms... only buy em from the store

Ryan

Funny you mention mushrooms, I'm a mushroom "hunter" as well.

I'm using my nose to judge things on the chorizo. So far the mold does not have any bad/offensive smell to it.

 

[SmokinAl]

White mold is good, your method is a bit unusual, but the results seem to be fine! Looking forward to that first taste test! I personally love dry cured chorizo! But I follow a more conventional recipe.
A

 

[MJP]

Well gents, how much weight loss do you usually go with chorizo. At day 10, I am down to 575g from 843g originally so about 32% weight loss. But the links still feel quite flexible when I weight them. So that tells me they are still pretty moist.

I guess i will continue down to 40% water loss?

 

[MJP]

Well cut into one link at ~36% weight reduction.

Results:

Aroma - excellent. Both the casing and the meat smells exactly as one would expect. Slight hint of fungi "funk" but otherwise not offensive. So the native fungi from the European salami definitely took.

Flavor- excellent. Well balance on seasoning with slight after burn.

Texture- improvement needed. Still too wet for my liking in the center. Will leave it up drying to -40% and try again.

 

[MJP]

46% weight loss did the trick on the texture front....proper dried salami consistency..... and I am still here alive. :)

So now there is 6 pounds of Sec and Chorizo curing in the same tub since Sunday.

 

[MJP]

4 days in, mold is looking good. This time I got some beef casings from local halal marked so that the finished product is bit bigger in diameter