Chorizo on the cheap !

[yotmon]

Whilst waiting for my copy of 'Charcuterie the soul of Spain' to arrive, I been dabbling in the black arts of producing a palatable but cheap fancy sausage. For UK members, Lidl sell 'Simply cooking' bacon which is basically the end pieces of bacon and ham. This retails at £1.50 for a kilo pack. Most of them are of very lean ham - either smoked or plain and sometimes contain quite large pieces of meat rather than fiddly bits. I bought 2 packets, one a lot fattier than the other and proceeded with this recipe which I've slightly adapted from one of 'banned' Graham's recipes. (he must be a bad 'un to get banned from a sausage forum )

1kg bacon/ham- lean ( I used mostly lean smoked ham and some fatty bacon loin)
300g back fat
6.g white pepper (prob' better with black but I've got an abundance of white).
2 fat cloves garlic minced with the meat.
20g pimenton dulce.
20g smoked pimenton (picante) - thought it was 'ordinary' smoked until I put my glasses on !
5g pimenton picante - added for a bit of heat not realising that the smoked was also a picante...
12.5g golden sugar
2.5g citric acid
Small drop of red wine.
( No salt added as already in the meat - plus no need to smoke seeing as the meat had already gone through this process and the paprika was a smoked version.)

I minced the lean twice and the fat once. Mixed in the kenwood chef and added a splash of red wine to soften. Then added all the blended spices and mixed thoroughly until done. Bagged it up and placed in the fridge to fill into hog skins later.
I tried a patty in the frying pan straight after mixing and it was very tasty, although I expect the spices to develop quite a bit. The texture was good and the meat held together well. I might poach the sausage first before frying to colour them up - have to see on the day.

So, for £1.50 a kilo for the main body of the meat I would say that its well worth trying out.

Yotmon.

[kil2k]

For UK members, Lidl sell 'Simply cooking' bacon which is basically the end pieces of bacon and ham. This retails at £1.50 for a kilo pack.

Holy cow. I'll definitely be checking this out