If you’ve never had a Spanish style chorizo before, you’re in for a treat. It’s a different beast entirely than Mexican or other Latin American chorizos, which are spicy fresh sausages that need to be cooked before eating and are often crumbled into other dishes. Spanish-style chorizo is traditionally made with pork, garlic, and spicy peppers and then hung to dry. It’s sliced into thin rounds and then eaten on its own, on a sandwich, or stewed into hearty winter soups.

This is one of the first charcuteries we made in our new curing chamber, and it turned out incredible. The ratio of pork to venison is a little higher than in some of our other experiments, which gives it this great, unctuous mouthfeel and really brings out the spices. It’s a little spicy, but in a good way, and would go great on a charcuterie board with some hard, Spanish cheeses like Manchego. I’m also looking forward to digging some clams this summer and steaming them in a pot of aromatic broth, with coins of spicy chorizo and crusty bread.

Venison Spanish Chorizo

As always, if you’ve never cured sausage before, please check out our primer before you get started- these instructions assume a baseline knowledge of the process. These ingredients are measured by weight and percentage, not volume, to make them easy to scale to the amount of meat you are working with. Grind the meat you would like to use, weigh it, and then do the math to figure out how much of each of the other ingredients you will need by percentage. Do not substitute or change the ratio of instacure #2 or salt. You may adjust the spices to your liking.

Prep time: 1 hour

Hang time: 12-18 days

Ingredients:

100% venison and pork trim (50:50)

2.48% salt

0.3% instacure #2

0.44% dextrose

0.35% smoked paprika

0.35% half sharp paprika

0.7% ancho chili

0.22% cayenne

1.6% minced garlic

** bactoferm 52 (follow instructions on culture, ½ tsp + ½ cup distilled water)

Method:

Mix all ingredients except bactoferm and water and refrigerate overnight.

Grind through coarse plate. Mix thoroughly and add bactoferm mix. Mix again.

Case in 8-10” links. Record the weight of each link of sausage.

Incubate at 85F 65%+ humidity for 12 hours.

Hang at 65F, 65% humidity for around 18-20 days. Weigh periodically- you are looking for 30% weight loss. Check for mold issues and rotate the sausages to encourage even drying.