More Columbian Santarosano Chorizo (St. Rose Sausage)

[DougE]

I've wanted to try this recipe as well... dang it you just enhanced that need! Looks fantastic! Waiting for the finale!

Ryan

Do it! It's a really good sausage.

 

[Brokenhandle]

Do it! It's a really good sausage.

Gonna wait till after all the crops are in. But have to admit... I went back and looked at that patty pic... dang it looks good!

Ryan

 

[DRKsmoking]

If this does not make anyone want to try this one out , just does not like sausages.

It's got that run down your chin kind of juiciness to it . I just love this.

David

 

[geostriata]

So I think I made a mistake in the last version by using fresh garlic. Excellent aroma, but a bit overpowering in sausage (tasted great in smash-burger form however).

I also was given a couple of recommendations, so I decided to make two more side-by-side batches that explore:

1. Roasted garlic only (Fixing my prior mistake)
2. Quality merlot instead of water ( SmokinEdge recommendation)
3. Mincing instead of coarse-grinding the meat ( I I-am-Chorizo recommendation)

I decided to create two new batches, both with minced meat and both with roasted garlic only. This is because I felt like these two variables will still be comparable with the past batch. However, since the wine can impact both texture, mixing, and flavor, I decided to do two batches made exactly the same way with the only difference being one with water and one with wine.

I started with the same pork shoulder cuts before and minced the leaner portion. I didn't want to mince too much connective tissue, so it ended up about 30% minced 70% ground. I food processed it, filtered out the less fine bits, and manually minced those bits to make it as coarse (but consistent) as possible):

This came to 930g medium grind and 431.3 minced lean-ish, which is almost exactly 3 pounds. I used the scale to divide the mince and the grind equally into two batches, then measured out two sets of ingredients according to the recipe in this thread:

I splurged on my favorite merlot, so that quality of wine wasn't a concern for me.

Mixed both batches separately. The beauty of the 1.5 lb weight is that it works perfectly with my kitchenaid (my larger mixer has more difficulty with small batches). Interestingly, the wine version took 5:05 to achieve full binding and the water version took 4:00 (when at 1.5lb, the kitchenaid is fast!).

Stuffed and labelled.

Obligatory burger. Unlike usual, I was not worrying about any remnants left in the stuffer. I LOVE these Columbian Chorizo smash burgers.

Both batches after smoking. I then wrapped in chainmail and put in my sous vide at 152F for 30mins.

After sous vide. It's immediately apparent which is wine and which is water.

I then pan fried both from each batch as consistently as possible, and even took care to rotate their relative pan position.

Water batch on left. Merlot batch on right.

My conclusions:

1. Fully roasted garlic is the way to go. Garlic flavor is too strong otherwise.
2. Mincing the meat did not improve the sausage much, if at all. Part of me wants to think it's better, but part of me also thinks maybe I think that because I worked harder mincing it. Regardless, the improvement in mincing is negligible in my opinion.
3. As for wine... The wine made the fresh ingredients (especially the green onions) stand out less and blend more with the sausage. It's a far more balanced feel, closer to what I expect a sausage to taste like. It's smoother with wine -- sort of like the difference between blended whisky and single malt. However, it's a bit 'lighter' with the water and I feel like the strength/distinction of Columbian Chorizo is in the fresh ingredients, and I rather enjoy the sharp contrast between these fresh ingredients and the sausage.

Regardless, all variants tasted great. This is an absolutely stellar sausage! Definitely also try a smash burger out of this! I'm a bit abashed and surprised to mention, but I really can't decide which I like better: the sausage or the smash burger. I'm on the fence...

Hope that analysis helps!

 

[SmokinEdge]

Yup I completely agree with your analysis. I still prefer the wine in, but at any rate your cut shots are $$$$$. Nice work.

 

[HushyQ]

So I think I made a mistake in the last version by using fresh garlic. Excellent aroma, but a bit overpowering in sausage (tasted great in smash-burger form however).

I also was given a couple of recommendations, so I decided to make two more side-by-side batches that explore:

1. Roasted garlic only (Fixing my prior mistake)
2. Quality merlot instead of water ( SmokinEdge recommendation)
3. Mincing instead of coarse-grinding the meat ( I I-am-Chorizo recommendation)

I decided to create two new batches, both with minced meat and both with roasted garlic only. This is because I felt like these two variables will still be comparable with the past batch. However, since the wine can impact both texture, mixing, and flavor, I decided to do two batches made exactly the same way with the only difference being one with water and one with wine.

I started with the same pork shoulder cuts before and minced the leaner portion. I didn't want to mince too much connective tissue, so it ended up about 30% minced 70% ground. I food processed it, filtered out the less fine bits, and manually minced those bits to make it as coarse (but consistent) as possible):

View attachment 697314

This came to 930g medium grind and 431.3 minced lean-ish, which is almost exactly 3 pounds. I used the scale to divide the mince and the grind equally into two batches, then measured out two sets of ingredients according to the recipe in this thread:

View attachment 697315

I splurged on my favorite merlot, so that quality of wine wasn't a concern for me.

View attachment 697316

Mixed both batches separately. The beauty of the 1.5 lb weight is that it works perfectly with my kitchenaid (my larger mixer has more difficulty with small batches). Interestingly, the wine version took 5:05 to achieve full binding and the water version took 4:00 (when at 1.5lb, the kitchenaid is fast!).

View attachment 697318

Stuffed and labelled.

View attachment 697320

Obligatory burger. Unlike usual, I was not worrying about any remnants left in the stuffer. I LOVE these Columbian Chorizo smash burgers.

View attachment 697319

Both batches after smoking. I then wrapped in chainmail and put in my sous vide at 152F for 30mins.

View attachment 697321

After sous vide. It's immediately apparent which is wine and which is water.

View attachment 697322

I then pan fried both from each batch as consistently as possible, and even took care to rotate their relative pan position.

View attachment 697323

Water batch on left. Merlot batch on right.

My conclusions:

1. Fully roasted garlic is the way to go. Garlic flavor is too strong otherwise.
2. Mincing the meat did not improve the sausage much, if at all. Part of me wants to think it's better, but part of me also thinks maybe I think that because I worked harder mincing it. Regardless, the improvement in mincing is negligible in my opinion.
3. As for wine... The wine made the fresh ingredients (especially the green onions) stand out less and blend more with the sausage. It's a far more balanced feel, closer to what I expect a sausage to taste like. It's smoother with wine -- sort of like the difference between blended whisky and single malt. However, it's a bit 'lighter' with the water and I feel like the strength/distinction of Columbian Chorizo is in the fresh ingredients, and I rather enjoy the sharp contrast between these fresh ingredients and the sausage.

Regardless, all variants tasted great. This is an absolutely stellar sausage! Definitely also try a smash burger out of this! I'm a bit abashed and surprised to mention, but I really can't decide which I like better: the sausage or the smash burger. I'm on the fence...

Hope that analysis helps!

Your last line cracks me up. My last 5 batches of sausage found my wife and I making patties and freezing because the test patties were so good. She is a bigger fan of the patties and I of the smoked links but I love breaking my batches up into both.
By the way, Inspired by you, SmokinEdge and of course I Am Chorizo, I picked up all my ingredients to make this sausage. ground everything tonight and I will stuff tomorrow and smoke Saturday. By the way, the test patties were AWESOME. I did one without liquid after mixing crazily and did one after adding the wine. I liked the wine patty better. Couldn't really pick it out but the depth of flavor was just better IMHO. Thank you so much for your multiple posts on this and also thanks to SmokinEdge and of course the guy who started this whole SantaRosanoPalooza, I Am Chorizo!!!!!

 

[SmokinEdge]

Nice review.
Btw, if you type a @ in front of the user name all one word, you can tag them, like this,
H HushyQ

 

[HushyQ]

Thanks for the tip SmokinEdge . I am a social media and forum derelict so I'm not entirely sure what "tagging" actually does. Slowly but surely I'll get this. Thanks to you all and this killer site.

 

[SmokinEdge]

Thanks for the tip SmokinEdge . I am a social media and forum derelict so I'm not entirely sure what "tagging" actually does. Slowly but surely I'll get this. Thanks to you all and this killer site.

It gives me a notification that you mentioned me. So I know and will look at the thread again. That’s the “tag”

 

[geostriata]

Your last line cracks me up. My last 5 batches of sausage found my wife and I making patties and freezing because the test patties were so good. She is a bigger fan of the patties and I of the smoked links but I love breaking my batches up into both.
By the way, Inspired by you, SmokinEdge and of course I Am Chorizo, I picked up all my ingredients to make this sausage. ground everything tonight and I will stuff tomorrow and smoke Saturday. By the way, the test patties were AWESOME. I did one without liquid after mixing crazily and did one after adding the wine. I liked the wine patty better. Couldn't really pick it out but the depth of flavor was just better IMHO. Thank you so much for your multiple posts on this and also thanks to SmokinEdge and of course the guy who started this whole SantaRosanoPalooza, I Am Chorizo!!!!!

So glad you liked it, and that I'm not the only one who weirdly likes the patties over (or equal to) the links. And thanks for letting us know how it went with the comparison! St. Rose Chorizo ftw! :)

 

[Brokenhandle]

So glad you liked it, and that I'm not the only one who weirdly likes the patties over (or equal to) the links. And thanks for letting us know how it went with the comparison! St. Rose Chorizo ftw! :)

Appreciate the feedback as well! By looks, I'm still sold on those patties... looks delicious!

Ryan

 

[Dave in AZ]

G geostriata great test, solves many choices!

 

[I-am-Chorizo]

So I think I made a mistake in the last version by using fresh garlic. Excellent aroma, but a bit overpowering in sausage (tasted great in smash-burger form however).

I also was given a couple of recommendations, so I decided to make two more side-by-side batches that explore:

1. Roasted garlic only (Fixing my prior mistake)
2. Quality merlot instead of water ( SmokinEdge recommendation)
3. Mincing instead of coarse-grinding the meat ( I I-am-Chorizo recommendation)

I decided to create two new batches, both with minced meat and both with roasted garlic only. This is because I felt like these two variables will still be comparable with the past batch. However, since the wine can impact both texture, mixing, and flavor, I decided to do two batches made exactly the same way with the only difference being one with water and one with wine.

I started with the same pork shoulder cuts before and minced the leaner portion. I didn't want to mince too much connective tissue, so it ended up about 30% minced 70% ground. I food processed it, filtered out the less fine bits, and manually minced those bits to make it as coarse (but consistent) as possible):

View attachment 697314

This came to 930g medium grind and 431.3 minced lean-ish, which is almost exactly 3 pounds. I used the scale to divide the mince and the grind equally into two batches, then measured out two sets of ingredients according to the recipe in this thread:

View attachment 697315

I splurged on my favorite merlot, so that quality of wine wasn't a concern for me.

View attachment 697316

Mixed both batches separately. The beauty of the 1.5 lb weight is that it works perfectly with my kitchenaid (my larger mixer has more difficulty with small batches). Interestingly, the wine version took 5:05 to achieve full binding and the water version took 4:00 (when at 1.5lb, the kitchenaid is fast!).

View attachment 697318

Stuffed and labelled.

View attachment 697320

Obligatory burger. Unlike usual, I was not worrying about any remnants left in the stuffer. I LOVE these Columbian Chorizo smash burgers.

View attachment 697319

Both batches after smoking. I then wrapped in chainmail and put in my sous vide at 152F for 30mins.

View attachment 697321

After sous vide. It's immediately apparent which is wine and which is water.

View attachment 697322

I then pan fried both from each batch as consistently as possible, and even took care to rotate their relative pan position.

View attachment 697323

Water batch on left. Merlot batch on right.

My conclusions:

1. Fully roasted garlic is the way to go. Garlic flavor is too strong otherwise.
2. Mincing the meat did not improve the sausage much, if at all. Part of me wants to think it's better, but part of me also thinks maybe I think that because I worked harder mincing it. Regardless, the improvement in mincing is negligible in my opinion.
3. As for wine... The wine made the fresh ingredients (especially the green onions) stand out less and blend more with the sausage. It's a far more balanced feel, closer to what I expect a sausage to taste like. It's smoother with wine -- sort of like the difference between blended whisky and single malt. However, it's a bit 'lighter' with the water and I feel like the strength/distinction of Columbian Chorizo is in the fresh ingredients, and I rather enjoy the sharp contrast between these fresh ingredients and the sausage.

Regardless, all variants tasted great. This is an absolutely stellar sausage! Definitely also try a smash burger out of this! I'm a bit abashed and surprised to mention, but I really can't decide which I like better: the sausage or the smash burger. I'm on the fence...

Hope that analysis helps!

Hello There

Very interesting findings and very thoughful chorizo analisis. It surprises me the fact that you find little difference between the all-ground and the Minced-Ground version. I'm at pains because I think that I might have misused language here. By mincing I mean knife-chopping small fairy irregular cubes or chunks of variable size rather coarsely. From your picture I get that you Knife-chopped very finely, almost to the point of "Ground". I am afraid I should have used a different word like "cubing" or "Chopping".

I attach a picture of two former batches where I consider the difference is visible. I believe it also has different bite and a different mouthfeel to the all-ground version.

Very sorry if I led your experiment to mistake.

 

[geostriata]

Hello There

Very interesting findings and very thoughful chorizo analisis. It surprises me the fact that you find little difference between the all-ground and the Minced-Ground version. I'm at pains because I think that I might have misused language here. By mincing I mean knife-chopping small fairy irregular cubes or chunks of variable size rather coarsely. From your picture I get that you Knife-chopped very finely, almost to the point of "Ground". I am afraid I should have used a different word like "cubing" or "Chopping".

I attach a picture of two former batches where I consider the difference is visible. I believe it also has different bite and a different mouthfeel to the all-ground version.

Very sorry if I led your experiment to mistake.

Ah, I see! No problem, as I'll always be happy to make more of this sausage :)

So would you say it's more of a medium dice cube? Like around 12mm x 12mm?

Do you dice/chop the same type of meat as you grind, or do you try to dice/chop more of the leaner parts of meat?

 

[I-am-Chorizo]

Ah, I see! No problem, as I'll always be happy to make more of this sausage :)

So would you say it's more of a medium dice cube? Like around 12mm x 12mm?

View attachment 697370

Do you dice/chop the same type of meat as you grind, or do you try to dice/chop more of the leaner parts of meat?

Hello Guys! I join the chorizo party!

Here are my 20kg of Colombian Chorizo with a few questions in retrospective. The process is in the curing stage so far. I am stuffing today evening. I expect to get about 250 chorizos. Here I attach some pictures of the mixture before protein extraction, the seasoned mixture and the test patty. We chopped/cubed 50% of the meat (About 10kilos) It was a disheartening task but it is already done. Let's see what happens.

1. I broke the total mixture into 2kg batches and added cure/seasoned them individually, batch by batch...are there any dangers or disadvantages in this procedure?
2. For some reason I bought Sodium Eritorbate but did not use in the end...Am I missing something?
3. I let the seasoned mixture resting for about 24 hrs in the fridge and I am stuffing tonight. I am planning on letting the stuffed chorizos rest/cure for 12 hrs more...does it do any good or it is irrelevant?

 

[Brokenhandle]

Boy, if that doesn't just make a guy hungry!

Ryan

 

[SmokinEdge]

1. I broke the total mixture into 2kg batches and added cure/seasoned them individually, batch by batch...are there any dangers or disadvantages in this procedure?

This is wise. Breaking into smaller batches will help you mix better and get a better protein extraction.

2. For some reason I bought Sodium Eritorbate but did not use in the end...Am I missing something?

Sodium Erythorbate is not necessary, but it does help preserve the color of the meat and vegetables and herbs. I like using it in most all of my cured meats, but you don’t have to.

3. I let the seasoned mixture resting for about 24 hrs in the fridge and I am stuffing tonight. I am planning on letting the stuffed chorizos rest/cure for 12 hrs more...does it do any good or it is irrelevant?

24 hours is all you really need. However another 12 hours will allow for more flavor development, and is not harmful.

 

[HushyQ]

So, not sure if I'm supposed to start a new post but I thought I'd keep this one going as others have with my attempt at Santa Rosana sausage. I made one major change in the meat selection and I fear it was my downfall. Any advice would be appreciated.

So, I made the sausage as the recipe lists with one major change, er, f up. When I went to pick up pork I noticed prices were pretty steep and the cheapest by far was pork tenderloin. Since I I-am-Chorizo mentioned that this type of sausage is usually lean I decided to go for it. I used pork tenderloin and fatty pork belly as well as some additional pork fat to make this sausage. I normally use butt and belly but figured this would be a good experiment. Wrong. While the taste was delicous, the texture was off. I thought my bind was good. Nice and sticky but my results as you can see by my cut shot was not great. A bit mealy and a but mushy. I got no complaints from family and in fact they all ate plenty but the texture thing just disappointed. So, here are my questions.
Was it a Big Mistake to use pork tenderloin?
Was it a mistake to add the wine at the grind and did letting it cure with wine for 48 hours do damage to my texture. Here are the pics.

Hey, at least I'm getting the hang of linking, LOL,
I usually like bold flavored sausage but this was an excellent change of pace. I did a much lighter smoke than usual and really enjoyed the flavor. Any thoughts on the texture problems is much appreciated, Thanks?
edit.... My fat ratio was estimated at 21% and I usually go closer to 30%.

 

[I-am-Chorizo]

So, not sure if I'm supposed to start a new post but I thought I'd keep this one going as others have with my attempt at Santa Rosana sausage. I made one major change in the meat selection and I fear it was my downfall. Any advice would be appreciated.

So, I made the sausage as the recipe lists with one major change, er, f up. When I went to pick up pork I noticed prices were pretty steep and the cheapest by far was pork tenderloin. Since I I-am-Chorizo mentioned that this type of sausage is usually lean I decided to go for it. I used pork tenderloin and fatty pork belly as well as some additional pork fat to make this sausage. I normally use butt and belly but figured this would be a good experiment. Wrong. While the taste was delicous, the texture was off. I thought my bind was good. Nice and sticky but my results as you can see by my cut shot was not great. A bit mealy and a but mushy. I got no complaints from family and in fact they all ate plenty but the texture thing just disappointed. So, here are my questions.
Was it a Big Mistake to use pork tenderloin?
Was it a mistake to add the wine at the grind and did letting it cure with wine for 48 hours do damage to my texture. Here are the pics.
View attachment 697796View attachment 697794View attachment 697793View attachment 697795View attachment 697797
Hey, at least I'm getting the hang of linking, LOL,
I usually like bold flavored sausage but this was an excellent change of pace. I did a much lighter smoke than usual and really enjoyed the flavor. Any thoughts on the texture problems is much appreciated, Thanks?
edit.... My fat ratio was estimated at 21% and I usually go closer to 30%.

This looks a lot like my first chorizos, the texture, I mean. But no idea which could have been the issue. I can't be 100% sure it was the tenderloin, but when I have used it in chorizos, I always got disappointing results. I don't use it anymore in spite of being a cheap lean cut. I blame it (maybe unfairly) of giving me dry and somehow crumbly chorizos.

 

[geostriata]

Was it a mistake to add the wine at the grind and did letting it cure with wine for 48 hours do damage to my texture.

So in my comparison between wine and water, the most the wine really did was to cause it to take another minute for me to reach "sticky." In my batch, I let it cure with the wine for ~18hrs or so, so I don't think that's the culprit here.

I looked at your mix and the first think I thought was "protein extraction from not mixing enough." That being said, you mix looked similar to I I-am-Chorizo 's, so I'm not sure about that. Here's a 3-way side by side with yours on the left:

You also didn't mention much fat-out, so I'm guessing that your hypothesis is mainly correct: the lean/fat ratio was off. The tenderloin you purchased needed some back fat or other pork fat to increase the fat content.

Did you estimate your fat by volume or by weight? If you used volume, then perhaps your actual ratio was more like 15% instead of 21%.

That being said, I've also had batches with low fat content and they still had a more consistent cut. So I wonder if you also had partial or incomplete extraction. I find I have to mix with wine about 20% longer than without, so maybe you mixed as you usually did, but it needed a little more...

My two cents, anyways. Your pictures look really good, and you're so much better at linking than me, haha. I'm glad your family enjoyed it, and that indicates to me that you were at least most of the way there with this sausage, I think.