Since you asked: Read ingredients when choosing your chorizo

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I'm writing in regards to the Quick Fix recipe for Fabada in the Oct. 7 food section. With ingredients like saffron and paprika, I wasn't surprised to see the stew also called for Spanish chorizo, but I wondered if I could use the kind sold in Mexican grocery stores. If it's labeled neither "Spanish" nor "Mexican," is all chorizo the same?

— Liz K., Medford

Thanks for requesting a clarification, Liz. Home cooks here know that chorizo is pretty widely available but have never needed to differentiate between the Spanish or Mexican kind.

Turns out, according to our sources at Taylor's Sausage in Cave Junction, labeling isn't always a reliable means of distinguishing Mexican from Spanish styles of sausage. Taylor's, itself, lists chorizo under its "European smoked" sausages online, but the package sports a Mexican flag logo.

A better bet is to read ingredients, says Mike Hughes, a longtime Taylor's sausage maker. Traditional Mexican chorizo is made primarily from pork glands and fat rather than meat. Seasoned with fresh onions and cilantro, the chorizo is sold in its ground form for use in tacos and egg dishes, Hughes says. It's also about half the price of Taylor's premium chorizo.

"The Mexican chorizo has a much better flavor, but it's hard for me to get past the texture," Hughes says. "It's more of a cultural thing."

Taylor's also sells premium chorizo as bulk ground sausage, but its first ingredients are beef and pork (read "meat"). More commonly, the sausage is packed into natural casings (hog or sheep intestines) and smoked. Some types of chorizo, particularly imported ones, may be cured by drying rather than smoking.

Because the Fabada recipe called for removing the casings, it most certainly is suited to the latter style of chorizo, regardless of your package's label. Traditional, ground, Mexican-style chorizo is not an appropriate substitution.

See the chorizo recipes accompanying this story.

Send questions to "Since You Asked, A la carte" Mail Tribune Newsroom, P.O. Box 1108, Medford OR 97501; by fax to 541-776-4376; e-mail to youasked@mailtribune.com.

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