Grind and mix
6 – 8 mm plate, everything below 2 °C.
Dry cured
Spanish cured chorizo
A cousin of salami, but it plays a different game: less acidity, more drying, and paprika as a technical protagonist rather than decoration. Paprika brings antioxidants that hold the colour for months.
Formulation per 100 kg of batter
| Component | Amount | Why it is there |
|---|---|---|
| Pork (lean shoulder) | 70 – 75 kg | Medium grain, 6 – 8 mm. |
| Back fat | 25 – 30 kg | Diced or ground according to regional style. |
| Sweet paprika | 2.0 – 2.5 kg | The signature of the product. Its capsanthin protects the fat from oxidation. |
| Hot paprika | 0.2 – 0.8 kg | According to market. |
| Common salt | 2.4 – 2.6 kg | |
| Curing salt | 0.25 kg | |
| Garlic | 0.4 – 0.6 kg | |
| Dextrose | 0.3 – 0.5 kg | Less than in salami: you want less acidity and more cured flavour. |
| White wine | 1 – 2 kg | Traditional and functional: adds aroma and some acidity. |
Process
Step by step, with the temperatures.
Rest the batter
12 to 24 h at 2 – 4 °C. The paprika needs to hydrate and stain the fat.
Stuff
Natural hog casing, 34 – 40 mm, in strings or horseshoes.
Short conditioning
20 – 22 °C for 24 – 48 h. Shorter and gentler than salami.
Dry
12 – 14 °C with humidity stepping down from 82 % to 72 %.
Cure
30 to 60 days depending on calibre, to 30 – 35 % weight loss.
| Control point | Value |
|---|---|
| Target weight loss | 30 – 35 % |
| Final pH | 5.2 – 5.6 (higher than salami) |
| Drying temperature | 12 – 14 °C |
| Curing by calibre | 30 – 60 days |
| Paprika on batter | 2.2 – 3.0 % total |
Troubleshooting
What went wrong, and why.
Half the craft is reading the defect. These are the ones that keep coming back.
| What you see | What caused it |
|---|---|
| Colour turning brown | Poor quality or already oxidised paprika. Old paprika loses capsanthin and with it the colour. |
| Rancid after two months | Badly selected fat, or exposure to oxygen and light during curing. |
| Gritty texture | Fat that crystallised through mishandled prior freezing. |
| Case hardening | Same cause as in salami: humidity dropped too fast. |
Frequently asked
What people ask before they start.
What is the real difference from salami?
Salami acidifies hard and fast (pH < 5.3) and leans on fermentation; Spanish chorizo barely acidifies and leans on drying and paprika. Two different strategies to reach the same stability.
How much paprika is too much?
Above 3 % the batter turns dry to the touch and hard to stuff, and the flavour buries the meat. The comfortable industrial range is 2.2 – 2.5 %.
Can it be cured hanging in a cool room, without a chamber?
That is how it was always done in temperate climates with a winter. In the tropics, no: ambient temperature in Maracaibo sits far above the 15 °C drying demands, and the product spoils before it cures.
Contact
Ask us from wherever you are
We answer in English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, Italian and Arabic. If your question is technical and specific, so is the answer.