Salchichón
Salchichón is a patient, peppery cured sausage that relies on good pork, salt, coarse black pepper and time rather than paprika for its character. Making it at home is a curing project, best attempted in cool, humid conditions.
Approximate, per several slices (~50g). Values vary by recipe and portion.
Ingredients
- ·800 g lean pork shoulder, well chilled
- ·200 g pork back fat, well chilled
- ·26 g fine salt (about 2.6% of the meat weight)
- ·3 g curing salt (nitrite, for safety)
- ·3 g coarsely cracked black peppercorns
- ·1 g whole black peppercorns
- ·3 g sugar
- ·1 g ground nutmeg
- ·Natural hog casings, soaked and rinsed
- ·Starter culture (optional, per packet instructions)
Method
- 1
Keep everything cold: partially freeze the pork and fat, then dice and grind through a medium plate into a chilled bowl.
- 2
Mix in the fine salt, curing salt, sugar, cracked and whole pepper, nutmeg and starter culture if using, kneading until the mixture turns sticky and binds.
- 3
Rinse the soaked casings and stuff the mixture firmly into them, pricking out any air pockets, then tie into links about 25-30 cm long.
- 4
Weigh each sausage and note it; you are aiming for roughly 35% weight loss by the end of curing.
- 5
Hang for 24 hours at warm room temperature (around 20C) if using a culture to kick off fermentation, otherwise proceed straight to curing.
- 6
Move to a cool, humid, airy spot (ideally 12-14C and 75-80% humidity) and cure for 4-8 weeks until firm and dried.
- 7
Check periodically; a light white mould on the casing is normal and desirable, but wipe away any fuzzy green or black growth with vinegar.
- 8
When the sausage has lost about a third of its weight and feels firm throughout, it is ready to slice thinly and eat.