Overview
Puerto Rican Chorizo is a locally seasoned pork sausage that reflects Spanish chorizo ancestry and Caribbean ingredients. The Curesmith branch is cured and warm smoked but remains a cook-before-eating refrigerated sausage.
Where it's from
The cut
Identity and terminology
The title identifies a Puerto Rican variation, not a protected island-wide specification. Fresh, cured and commercial Spanish-style chorizos all occur in Puerto Rico, so process status must be stated.
Composition and characteristics
Pork and fat are flavoured with garlic, oregano, paprika or pimentón, annatto and vinegar or sour citrus. The seasoning produces a red-orange link with a distinctly Caribbean herbal character.
Production and process
The meat is cured under refrigeration, stuffed and warm smoked in the selected branch. Smoking develops flavour and colour but the recipe retains a cooking requirement.
History and regional forms
Spanish sausage traditions arrived during colonial rule and were adapted to Puerto Rican adobo, annatto and oregano. Local chorizo became part of the wider family of island embutidos alongside longaniza and morcilla.
Use, storage and related products
It can be fried with rice, beans, eggs or root vegetables, or grilled. It differs from Puerto Rican longaniza, which is typically longer and strongly annatto-seasoned, and from ready-to-eat Spanish chorizo.
Recipe and cure
This is not a finished recipe. It is a window into how this meat is traditionally cured. Before you follow any process, run it through one of our curing calculators so the salt, cure and timings are right and safe for your own batch.
Make this — the measured Curesmith version →“Make this” opens the same cure as a measured recipe, scaled to your batch.
- Meat
- Pork shoulder
- Cut
- Pork shoulder
- Salt (%)
- 1.6
- Curing salt
- Cure #1 as specified in the recipe
- Fermented
- No
- Smoked
- Yes
- Maturation
- ≤4°C for up to 3 days or freeze
- Basis
- per 1,000 g pork shoulder
- Style
- Cured, warm-smoked, cook-before-eating pork sausage
Ingredients
- Pork shoulder100% · 1000 g
- Pork back fat25% · 250 g
- Fine salt1.6% · 20 g
- Cure #1, 6.25% nitrite0.25% · 3 g
- Ground black pepper0.2% · 2.5 g
- Sweet paprika0.4% · 5 g
- Cayenne0.1% · 1.5 g
- Ground annatto0.3% · 2.5 g
- Ground cumin0.2% · 2.5 g
- Rubbed oregano0.6% · 7.5 g
- Fresh garlic, crushed0.7% · 9 g
- Ice-cold water3% · 37.5 g
Method
- Chill meat, fat, water and equipment to 0–3°C.
- Grind shoulder and back fat through 8 mm.
- Dissolve salt and Cure #1 in water; mix into meat until tacky, then add seasonings.
- Stuff into 36 mm casings and form 20 cm links.
- Refrigerate 12–24 hours at 2–4°C.
- Dry at 45–50°C without smoke for 30 minutes, then apply smoke at 50–60°C for 60 minutes.
Safety. Curing and warm smoking do not automatically make the sausage ready to eat. Follow the cook-before-eating status.