Corti Brothers Newsletter for Summer 2002    Page 2  

Please note!   Many of our past newsletter items came from a very limited stock and are no longer available.  Please check our products page or contact us for availability.

FINALLY, REAL CURED CHORIZO FROM SPAIN

Recently, I came across a product I would never have expected to find in the U.S.: cured chorizo sausage from Spain. This is the original tapas sausage. A very common tapa in a Spanish bar is a slice of reddish colored chorizo skewered to a similar size piece of bread to accompany your drink. It is also one of the informing sausage ingredients of Spanish cooking. Slow cooked bean or garbanzo dishes would be unthinkable without chorizo.

This new importation is from the Rioja-based firm of Embutidos Palacios and is made entirely traditionally using only fresh pork (Danish not Spanish due to U.S. objections), (Spanish paprika), salt, and garlic. The Rioja is famous throughout Spain as the center of chorizo production where tradition distinguishes between two forms of chorizo: one, of the highest quality made only from pork loins, is called chorizo de domingo (Sunday chorizo); while the other, called sabade¤o (Saturday chorizo), is made with other cuts of meat. Palacios Chorizo is chorizo de domingo!

This cured, air dried sausage is particularly sturdy. It does not need to be stored cold, but holds up well at room temperature, although it may sweat a bit of fat. (When shipped during warm weather this will happen and is of no concern.) Very useful for camping or hiking trips, the unexpected guest, or as a delicious snack, it was traditionally cut from the piece as needed. It has a very thin casing which should be removed before eating. At home just store it in a plastic bag in the refrigerator and allow it to come to room temperature, so its flavor blossoms, before eating.

The word "chorizo" is peculiar to Castillian Spanish and to Portuguese. Of unknown origin, datable only to 1576-- its first literary use dates from 1604--it does not have the traceable genealogy of most other Spanish sausages and cured meats. Chorizo's present form is very datable since it uses piment¢n (capsicum pepper), a New World import, which only began to be grown in Spain at the end of the 1600's. Before this time, chorizo was uncolored and unflavored (chorizo blanco) by the vibrant red of piment¢n. Generally sliced on an angle, the cut face of this sausage looks very much like some exotic red and white marble. Spanish chorizo, as distinguished from soft Mexican chorizo, is a dry sausage with a spicy, smoky, but not hot flavor, and a hard texture. They are not interchangeable. There is a gently hot variant, the picante, but the normal style is not hot.

Here is your opportunity to try one of the glories of the Spanish sausagemaker's art: Scramble eggs with it; steam shellfish or fish with it; braise summer vegetables with a few slices; flavor a simple garlic soup. With a glass of sharp, dry fino sherry or a cool fruity Spanish red wine, Palacios Chorizo is seductively addicting.

MANSAN TAMARI SHOYU--THE END OF PRODUCTION

With the current crisis in Japan, a toll is being taken on even small, artisanal food productions. We have just learned of the closing of the Mansan Company outside of Nagoya, Japan, from whom we have been buying an exceptional all soybean soy sauce, called tamari. It has been given high accolades by none other than Barbara Tropp, who declared it the best soy sauce she had tasted. Mansan started production in 1874.

This is a natural shoyu (soy sauce) using only whole soybeans, salt and well water in its production. It is probably the style of soy sauce which was originally made some 500 years ago in Japan and even earlier in China. Its processing takes up to 18 months. Cooked soybeans are inoculated with a mold to convert their starch to sugar (like sake production with rice) so it will ferment. Water, a special mold, and then yeast and salt are added to this mash which is run into enormous cedar casks.

A bamboo bucket is inserted into the mash and large flat river stones are piled on to keep the mash submerged. Liquid from the fermentation is ladled out of the bucket which acts much like a percolator and is daily poured over the stones to trickle down on the rest of the mash, assisting fermentation and concentrating the liquid. This liquid is tamari. The word "tamari" comes from the verb tamaru meaning "to accumulate or puddle." Originally, it was a by-product of miso production.

Because of the daily aeration and the long production cycle, the tamari becomes thick and dense. It turns a rich, dark brown color and has an enticing aroma. In this sense it is like traditional balsamic vinegar but without the latter's acetic character. At the end of production, the mash is pressed and filtered, and sake added to stabilize it. Produced without the use of wheat, making it slightly different from regular shoyu, tamari has a distinctive fuller flavor and aroma.

Tamari is often kept for use with sashimi. A little in western recipes adds a flavor component which is difficult to describe and deliciously enticing. It gives body to dark sauces and a deeper taste to braised dishes. Unfortunately, we will never see Mansan again. Corti Brothers has taken the last 50 cases of this production, now in a slightly different bottle from its previous offering, and once gone, it is gone forever. There are some 3,400 producers of shoyu in Japan. There are about eight tamari producers. Now, there is one less.

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