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Meat from Spain and Portugal

Chorizo (Spain) and chouriço (Portugal)chorizo

Chilled pork and fat are minced, seasoned with salt, pimentón (paprika) and garlic, and rested cold before they are stuffed into natural pork casing. The sausages then cure for three to six weeks or more in cool, ventilated rooms, where lactic bacteria and cocci grow, the pH barely drops and the chorizo loses a quarter or more of its weight.

Fully documentedMeat35 days – 36 days

Recipe

Chorizo (Spain) and chouriço (Portugal), a photo from Wikimedia Commons
Photo: Amasuela-Luis Lafuente Agudín, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Amounts from a sourceThe amounts are the Chorizo Riojano recipe used in a 2021 University of La Rioja study, based on a survey of 10 traditional PGI makers. Chorizo Riojano allows no additives and no sugar; Chorizo de Cantimpalos allows oregano and permitted additives.
Ground pork lean700 g[gonzalez2021]
Pork fat300 g[gonzalez2021]
Salt20 g per kg of meat[gonzalez2021]
Pimentón (paprika)3 g per kg of meat[gonzalez2021]
Garlic, raw and peeled5 g per kg of meat[gonzalez2021][riojano]
Natural pork casing, about 40 mm across[gonzalez2021][riojano]
StarterNo starter culture is added to Chorizo Riojano (González-Fandos et al. 2021).

Total time across the recorded steps: 35 days – 36 days

Start
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0–2 °C

What changes: Cold pork and fat are cut through the mincer plate

Step 1 of 6
Mince the chilled pork and fat
Time
Not documented
Temperature
0–2 °C
Set
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented
Which microbes the steps name, step by step
Lactic acid bacteria

Chorizo Riojano requires meat with a pH below 6.3, not frozen, and a handling area no warmer than 12 °C. Output: minced lean and fat.

Flavour
Not documented
Texture
Not documented
Colour
Not documented

Microbes at work in this step

Not documented for this step.

Method

Measured measured in a studySet fixed by a specification or tested recipeReported one source reports itTypical a general value, not sourced for this fermentUnconfirmed not yet checked against a source

At a glance

Chilled pork and fat are minced, seasoned with salt, pimentón (paprika) and garlic, and rested cold before they are stuffed into natural pork casing. The sausages then cure for three to six weeks or more in cool, ventilated rooms, where lactic bacteria and cocci grow, the pH barely drops and the chorizo loses a quarter or more of its weight. Made in 6 steps over 35 days – 36 days. The longest step, dry in curing rooms, takes at least 21 days (Single document 'Chorizo de Cantimpalos' 2007) and runs at 6–16 °C (Single document 'Chorizo de Cantimpalos' 2007). Salt is 2 % (Gonzalez-Fandos E 2021). Lactic acid bacteria and Micrococcaceae do most of the fermenting.

Key numbers
Main stepat least 21 daysSet[cantimpalos][gonzalez2021]Dry in curing rooms
Temperature6–16 °CSet[cantimpalos][gonzalez2021]Dry in curing rooms
Salt2 %Reported[gonzalez2021]Season with salt, pimentón and garlic
AciditypH 5.9Measured[gonzalez2021]Mature cold

What makes this one different

Chorizo gets its colour and flavour from pimentón, and the protected styles cure cold, at 6–16 °C (Cantimpalos) or 16 °C or less (Riojano), and Chorizo Riojano adds no starter, sugar or nitrite. The pH stays near 5–6, so little acid forms.

Related ferments

Variants

  • Chorizo Riojano IGPLa Rioja; sarta form, no additives, made cold; see its entry.
  • Chorizo de Cantimpalos IGPSegovia highlands above 900 m; sarta, achorizado and cular formats with a white mould on the larger ones; see its entry.
  • Chorizo de PamplonaThick and finely minced.
  • Portuguese chouriçoUsually smoked slowly as it dries.
  • Mexican chorizo (boundary)Fresh, with chilli and vinegar, not fermented; must be cooked.
  • Goan chouriçoPork in vinegar, chilli and spices; raw, smoked or salt-cured and air-dried.

Safety

Chorizo is eaten raw. EU rules treat a ready-to-eat food as unable to support Listeria when its water activity is 0.92 or less, or its pH is 5.0 or less with water activity 0.94 or less; in the Riojano study water activity fell below 0.92 by day 13 and to 0.86 by day 21, and inoculated Listeria fell by 1.24 log by day 21 but survived into the finished sausage. The authors say the process cannot fully remove it at the 4 log CFU/g they added, which is above the under 2 log CFU/g they give as normal for raw meat, and that Salmonella and Clostridium botulinum have also been found in dry-cured sausages, though sulfite-reducing clostridia were not detected in their own samples. The amounts here record that pilot-plant trial, with 2 % salt, no nitrite, chilled rooms and measured water activity, and no study we found covers a home batch. Curing, drying and smoking alone do not consistently kill Trichinella worms in pork (CDC). CDC tells people who are pregnant, 65 or older or have a weakened immune system to avoid unheated fermented or dry sausages, or to heat them until steaming hot. Chorizo Riojano caps nitrate at 100 ppm and nitrite at 20 ppm; EU law caps added nitrite in other cured sausages at 80 mg/kg since October 2025.

Hazards the sources name: Listeria monocytogenes (no growth at 4 °C in the first 6 days, then a 1.24 log fall by day 21; it survived into the finished sausage).

History and sources

Every number is labelled with how it is known. How this atlas is made

Chorizo Riojano was registered as an EU protected geographical indication in 2010 and Chorizo de Cantimpalos in 2011.

  1. [cdc-trichinella] US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, How to Prevent Trichinellosis (12 March 2024)gov
  2. [cdc-listeria] US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Preventing Listeria Infectiongov
  3. [cantimpalos] Single document 'Chorizo de Cantimpalos', EC No ES-PGI-0005-0632-17.07.2007, Official Journal of the European Union C 265, 30.9.2010, p. 23 (registered by Implementing Regulation (EU) No 533/2011)spec
  4. [riojano] Single document 'Chorizo Riojano', EC No ES-PGI-0005-0654-16.10.2007, Official Journal of the European Union C 186, 8.8.2009, p. 14 (registered by Regulation (EU) No 249/2010)spec
  5. [gonzalez2021] Gonzalez-Fandos E., Vazquez de Castro M., Martinez-Laorden A. 2021, Behaviour of Listeria monocytogenes and natural microflora during the manufacture of Riojano chorizo (Spanish dry cured sausage), Microorganisms 9(9):1963paper
  6. [lopezdiaz2001] López-Díaz T.M., Santos J.A., García-López M.L., Otero A. 2001, Surface mycoflora of a Spanish fermented meat sausage and toxigenicity of Penicillium isolates, International Journal of Food Microbiology 68(1-2):69-74 (abstract)paper
  7. [eu2023-2108] Commission Regulation (EU) 2023/2108 of 6 October 2023 amending Annex II to Regulation (EC) No 1333/2008 as regards nitrites and nitratesspec
  8. [eu2073] Commission Regulation (EC) No 2073/2005 on microbiological criteria for foodstuffs (as amended)spec
  9. [wp] Wikipedia, Chorizo (variant outline only)wiki