A little seasoning, ground meat, patience, and some funky science and the results are crazy good. Spicy, mind blowing sticks of an omlette’s best friend. Eggs? Why stop there, try some Spanish Chorizo and black beans and you’ll never go back to that digusting supermarket slop in a tube. Pizza? How about Grilled Peach and Spanish Chorizo Pizza with a Thyme Pesto? Corn Bread with Chorizo and Jalapenos? Yep, that’s your mind being blown.

Every once in a while I’m home alone and I think about making, cooking or eating  homemade Spanish Chorizo I start singing Aerosmith’s mega-hit Sweet Emotion. Only it’s probably not exactly the same song, at all. Here’s a hint, try it with me, Sweeeeeet Cho-reeeee-zoh. Power Chords DA DUH TA DAH TA DAH TA DAH Sweeeeeet Cho-reeeee-zoh. Ok so now you understand why I try not to think about Chorizo when people are around.

I was in Italy awhile back and was introduced to Braesola, a seasoned, cured, and air dried Charcuterie (finally got to use that word in print). I was hooked, I had the purveyor wrap some up for me and seal it for travel home. He assured me as long as it was packaged correctly there would be no problem at U.S. Customs. I guess you can figure where this is going. Some Customs Agents’ family is also hooked now. I bet they’re not singing Sweet Chorizo like I do.

The upshot of that unfortunate interaction with another Gov’t agency was my introduction into making Charcuterie at home. The costs were relatively minimal financially, although my relationship suffered another torching when I told her I was going to convert our perfectly good wine cooler into a “Charcuterie Curing Chamber”. Sometimes I just don’t get her….

So here’s what you need if you ever decide to test the strength of your relationship:

A refrigerated box that you can control the humidity in. If you contact me I can help you with that. During parts of the year in many places, you can get by without that. A book on the art of Charcuterie. I strongly recommend “Charcuterie, The Craft of Salting, Curing and Curing” by Michael Ruhlman and Brian Polcyn. This has been my bible for everthing from recipes to techniques and suppliers. I even emailed Michael the other day and he responded the next day.

I’ll get these recipes out in a day or so, Vegas is waiting and I’ve got pack……