Hi everyone, I'm scrodumb and I am a retail butcher and sausage maker in Toronto, Canada.
My culinary experience extends far beyond that but these days my specific interests are mostly meat and meat processing. Starting to get into charcuterie and expanding my sausage repertoire into fermented, cured, smoked and emulsified products. Will be making my first coppa and pancetta this coming week. Have some Cantonese style lap cheong drying too.
I'm happy to help with any meat related questions or troubleshooting, feel free to ask here or message me directly. Love bouncing ideas back and forth especially with other foodheads.
A couple weeks ago I ordered a half hog of Meishan pork for myself and made a bunch of sausages for my friends and family. The pic is my personal versions of Barese sausage (coiled) and Chipolatas (breakfast sized links). Both are super popular and I'm happy to share the formulations if anyone is interested. I have dozens more sausage formulations too, just ask. I can turn nearly any red sauce pizza recipe into a sausage. Hawaiian absolutely SLAPS. Other dishes too. I created a Cubano sausage that tastes just like the sandwich.
I'll try to post every week or two but seriously if you have any meat related queries hit me up I'm always happy to help. Next post will likely be some tips and tricks I've learned and discovered in my journey.
How do I make a great chorizo? and is there any way to skip the nitrates?
That's a tricky question. Thousands of chorizo variants by region and style.
If you want a cured chorizo, guessing by asking about nitrate, I'd look into a curing agent called Eco Cure. I've never used it myself but I've heard good things. Avoid celery powder, it's full of nitrate.
A basic chorizo formulation would look like:
You can add water at about 3.5% if desired but with a nice rich grind it isn't necessary. This is for fresh chorizo. For cured keep in mind curing agent will count towards salt content and don't add water. For smoked you'll want to add water AND binder so water can go up to 5-10% and binder ratio will vary depending on what product you use.