Larder: Spanish Chorizo, and our first "sale"...

After stumbling home from the Dakota Tavern, Patrick Krzyzanowski  officially became the first buyer of Trinity Reach Farms product.  Pat is now the proud owner of a small vac-pack of saucisson sec.  With blatant disregard for monetary defamation law, we nailed up that first fiver for good luck.

Since the saucisson came out so well, we decided to start a new batch of sausages.   I wanted to do something that could be used for cooking, as well as snack-fodder.  We settled on Spanish chorizo.

Having never actually made a fermented sausage before, I consulted a few resources:  the Ruhlman "Charcuterie" book; Paul Bertoli's, "Cooking By Hand"; and my friend Johnny Poon.  Johnny is the new head chef at Delux Bistro on Ossington, and has always been a great help when it comes to curing, cutting, or salting any piece of meat.  Turns out, Johnny was putting in an order from his sausage supplier for a live bacterial culture.  This acts as a starter for sausage fermentation.

Armed with bacteria and gorgeous, farm-raised pork shoulder from Vince Gasparro, we set to work grinding the meat, and hand-cutting the fat.  After all the meat was processed, I stuffed the sausage into hog casings, while Paul started on dinner.

More updates to come.