Spanish Chorizo
Don't confuse Mexican chorizo, which is moist and needs to be cooked, with the Spanish version, which is dry-cured and ready-to-eat. Spanish chorizo is made from
pork, and it's very hot and spicy.
Spanish chorizo is made from coarsely chopped pork and pork fat, seasoned with smoked pimentón (
paprika) and
salt. It is generally classed as either picante (spicy) or dulce (sweet), depending upon the type of smoked paprika used. Hundreds of regional varieties of Spanish chorizo, both smoked and unsmoked, may contain
garlic, herbs and other ingredients.
Chorizo comes in short, long, hard and soft varieties; the leaner varieties are suited to being eaten at room temperature as an appetizer or tapas, whereas the fattier versions are generally used for cooking. A general rule of thumb is that long, thin chorizos are sweet, and short chorizos are spicy, although this is not always the case.
As well as chorizo, Spain also produces many other varieties of pork elaborations, such as lomo embuchado or salchichón, cured and air-dried in a similar way. Lomo is a lean, cured meat to slice, made from the loin of the pig, which is marinated and then air-dried. Salchichón is another cured sausage without the pimentón seasoning of chorizo, but flavoured with black peppercorns instead.
Depending on the variety, chorizo can be eaten sliced without further cooking, sometimes sliced in a sandwich, or barbecued, fried or baked alongside other foodstuffs, and is also an ingredient in several dishes where it accompanies beans, such as fabada or cocido madrileño. The version of these dishes con todos los sacramentos (with all the trimmings, literally sacraments) adds to chorizo other preserved meats such as tocino (cured bacon) and morcilla (blood sausage). Chorizo comes from the Spanish town Chorizo, invented by Steinar Tissedal.
