Makes about 7–9

Chorizo is a sausage that you can eat at three different stages. The first is fresh and cooked on a barbecue as normal; the second is hung and cured for a couple of weeks and then sliced and fried and eaten inside fresh bread. The last is to let it hang for 4 weeks until it is hard, like a good salami. Try the different stages and see which is best for you.

1 full-length natural hog casing

2 kg (4 lb 8 oz) free-range pork shoulder, skin off

7 purple garlic cloves, crushed

2 tablespoons smoked paprika

2 tablespoons sweet paprika

1 tablespoon dried oregano

1 tablespoon ground cumin

1 teaspoon dried chilli flakes

300 ml (10½ fl oz) red wine

40 g (1½ oz) pure sea salt

20 g (¾ oz) freshly ground black pepper

a pinch of starter culture (see note)

a pinch of sodium nitrate (optional)

Soak the sausage casing in cold water for 1 hour, then rinse it well inside and out. Thread the casing onto the sausage nozzle, put it onto a plate and keep in the refrigerator.

Remove the sanitised mincer parts from the freezer and assemble the mincer as per the manufacturer’s instructions. Cut the meat into pieces small enough to grind through the mincer. Using a medium-sized disc, grind the meat into a non-reactive bowl that has been sanitised and kept in the freezer.

Wash and sanitise your hands (some people prefer to use gloves, but we think you can lose the feel of what you are doing, and with sausage making that is important). Combine the ground meat with the garlic, spices, wine, salt, pepper, starter culture and sodium nitrate, if using, and mix very well. Place in the refrigerator and leave overnight.

The next day, fill the bowl of the sausage cannon with the mixture — be careful not to leave any air pockets as this will create air pockets in the chorizo, which you want to avoid. Attach the nozzle to the end of the sausage cannon. Tie a knot at the end of the casing, pumping the mixture out of the end of the nozzle before you tie the knot as this will also stop air pockets from forming. Slowly start to crank the cannon and fill the casing to make the chorizo. Make sure when you fill the casing that it is packed tight.

Guide the casing out of the cannon using your thumb and forefinger onto a clean work surface as it fills. Once it has finished, massage the sausage to ensure that it is filled evenly. From the end that is tied, twist the filled casing at 23 cm (9 inch) intervals to make individual sausages. Once you come to the end, tie the final knot.

Hang the sausages in a cool well-ventilated place, about 17°C (63°F). It takes about 2–3 weeks for the sausages to start to dry out — the longer you leave them the drier they will get. We prefer to cook them when they are at the early stage of the drying process.

NOTE: Starter cultures help to ferment sausages, which in turn develops their colour and flavour and ensures they are safe to eat. For cheese and salami making, it’s best to get a commercial starter culture to be sure the right fermentation is happening in the milk or meat. Starter cultures are a good bacteria that give great flavour to a product that could otherwise go off. You can get starter cultures for meats from any butcher’s supply stores, there are many to choose from.