It's been just over a month since the spanish chorizo went into the curing chamber (see last post).  Based on weight loss, firmness, and taste, I've concluded that they're done (except for the largest one, which I'm going to give another week or two). 

The pair of sausages in the hog casings (on the left in the first photo) lost 40% of the their weight, as did the smaller sausage in the beef-middle casing (in the center).  The largest one (on the right) lost 36% of its weight and still has a little "squish" to it when I squeeze, so I'm going to let it ride a little longer.  I'm also doing this because having cut open and tasted the small diameter sausages with 40% loss, I've found that they're still plenty moist to cut and in the mouth, so I'm not worried about letting the largest one lose more moisture weight.  Regarding curing chamber conditions, temperature hovered in the mid 50s and humidity started up around 80%+ and ramped down to 65%-70%.

As for flavor: fantastic!  Very rich, no off-flavors, good bind, and several layers of the various paprikas, garlic, etc.  These will be great on their own with a good beer (or perhaps some Asturian cider....) and also as an ingredient in cooking.  Of course, if Tim gets near, they may disappear quickly.

I cranked out two batches of spanish chorizo this weekend -- one cured and one fresh.  Here they both are after stuffing (the batch of small links are the fresh, and the group of two large and one pair are for curing):

Eager to jump at my wife's suggestion to make a batch of fabada, I took a few of the fresh links, some cured pork belly, and a big smoked hock, and made a very tasty pot of fabada (albeit lacking in the morcilla (blood sausage)).  In honor of Duncan & Elsa and Joaquin & Coro and Aitana:

And now, just out of the fermentation chamber and into the curing chamber, are the cured chorizo. I decided to inoculate them with the m-600 white mold before going into the fermentation chamber, to foster the growth of the good stuff and avoid the growth of the bad stuff.  Seems like it worked like a charm:

So far so good!  More later.....