Read before you buy

I was just at the grocery store and saw a brand of Chorizo that I had to tell you about. I know that some of us really enjoy the exotic ingredients.

Cacique brand Chorizo sausage (pork or beef). First three ingredients: Salivary Glands, Lymph Nodes, Fat (cheeks),...

I kid you not!

I just want everyone to know that this is NOT a hot dog. It's bulk sausage.

Don't forget "lights" = lungs

That's why I eat Soy-rizo.

I didnt know that soy had lips,lights and glands!

Yuck!!!

This brought back memories.....had just moved to Arizona and loved chorizo. Made a big pot of chili using chorizo I had bought at grocery, and while it was cooking, I read the ingredients listed on the packaging. Promptly threw the entire pot of chili away and swore never to eat chorizo again unless I made it myself.

Guess I don't like it well enough to go to that trouble.

Donna

The lesson, and also a good rule to live by, is there is no such thing as bargain sausage.

quote:

Originally posted by Donna Douglass

Yuck!!!

This brought back memories.....had just moved to Arizona and loved chorizo. Made a big pot of chili using chorizo I had bought at grocery, and while it was cooking, I read the ingredients listed on the packaging. Promptly threw the entire pot of chili away and swore never to eat chorizo again unless I made it myself.

Guess I don't like it well enough to go to that trouble.

Donna

Donna, I am the same as you. I used to love chorizo and ordered it on breakfast tacos every chance I got. Then one of my Hispanic co-workers told me what was in it, and I have never been able to eat it since. I really don't know why since I liked it so much, I suppose it was the visual I had.

I'm the same way-used to love it, but once I read the contents, that was it.

Ive always been a lips and cheek girl...no wonder i love it

The chorizo folks are just the most honest ones. Legally, when they say "pork" on the ingredients list it could mean any part, including the squeal. I had a long talk with a butcher the other day and the only way to avoid organs is to make your own sausage. He said if you want to avoid brains (in case mad cow spreads), you just have to stop buying all sausages, period. Turkey sausage is no better, a turkey lung can legally be listed just as "turkey".

Rest easier. From the federal regs:

"Meat byproducts used in the sausage shall be designated individually in the ingredient statement on the label for such sausage"

"meat byproducts (or variety meats), mean pork stomachs or snouts; beef, veal, lamb, or goat tripe; beef, veal, lamb, goat, or pork hearts, tongues, fat, lips, weasands,
and spleens; and partially defatted pork fatty tissue, or partially
defatted beef fatty tissue." (weasands are esophagus)

Any of that stuff in there, it has to be on the label.

I never could resist those weasands.

I had a taste for a bowl of Rice Krispies for lunch anyway.

Don

What are weasands?

quote:

Originally posted by EliseT

What are weasands?

sounds like a anagram to me????

Paul E.
Ssmith
Knoxville, TN

I thought an "anagram" was a term used by a Chemical Enginner turned Chef. "You add a liter of water anagram of Salt ...."

"weasands" are particles of a special sand used to make those round white things you find in the bottom of unrinals.

Don

quote:

Originally posted by oldfrt

I thought an "anagram" was a term used by a Chemical Enginner turned Chef. "You add a liter of water anagram of Salt ...."

"weasands" are particles of a special sand used to make those round white things you find in the bottom of unrinals.

Don

Amazing---two major groaners in one post!!!

Weasands (oesophagus of cattle). ...


Go Kosher and quit worrying.

I wonder what is in a Slim Jim .....

quote:

Originally posted by EliseT

What are weasands?

Elise,
I dunno, but we could ask Connie Stevens... after all, it was she who made the record "Sixteen Weasands" for Warner Brothers in 1960. (It went clear to # 3 on Billboard's Hot 100 chart.)
Entraltainingly, Ort. Carlton in 30601-land.

Dearfolk,
It's not surprising to find out what REALLY goes into chorizo. But just remember: which Southern barbecue restaurateur was it who said "We use ever'thing in the pig but its squeal."??? (My thought is Bub Sweatman at Holly Hill, S. C., but I may be wrong.)
It never ceases to amaze me just how good barbecue hash can be, regardless of what goes in it. Top it off or mix it with a good brown mustard sauce and you've got paradise, at least in my book. Whatever's in there hasn't hurt me yet.
I can say the same for chorizo, and I've eaten hundreds of versions of it in almost as many places.
'Cuefanically, Ort. Carlton in Pit(i)less Athens, Georgia.

quote:

Originally posted by Ort. Carlton.

quote:

Originally posted by EliseT

What are weasands?

Elise,
I dunno, but we could ask Connie Stevens... after all, it was she who made the record "Sixteen Weasands" for Warner Brothers in 1960. (It went clear to # 3 on Billboard's Hot 100 chart.)
Entraltainingly, Ort. Carlton in 30601-land.

I fink your weasanding is fwawed.

I'm with Ort. I love chorizo. Especially with scrambled eggs. Parts is parts. It sure does taste good. I would like to know though if these ingredients are authentic. Meaning, if I went to Mexico or Spain (not sure which locale is its cultural homeland), is this what I would find in chorizo there? Or was this some Americanized version of the sausage that just used the "extras" with lots of spices and called it chorizo. If these ingredients are authentic, then all the better!!

Does anybody have any familiarity with the background of chorizo?

I can tell you that my friends who were born and raised south of the border all recognize the brand name Cacique. There's a few other brand names that have made the migration north as well. My friends are especiallly fond of the cheeses made in their homeland tradition. At this particular supermarket where I discovered these ingredients they have a cold case section specifically for "Mexican" cheeses and meats.

Chorizo and eggs!!!!!!yes" love that bright yellow egg swirled with deep red oily richness of the chorizo with tortillas and beans----as rich and warm a breakfast as one could want---winter or summer!Ort and Meowzart--im with you on this one!!

PS---famos unnamed resident of Lake Wobegone to NOLA french chef---
"You wont feed me anything with brains,will you? We know you southerners eat stuff like brains and such and we northerners arn't real big on brains."

To which the NOLA French chef replies---"Yes.we have noticed that about you."

quote:

Originally posted by tiki

Chorizo and eggs!!!!!!yes" love that bright yellow egg swirled with deep red oily richness of the chorizo with tortillas and beans----as rich and warm a breakfast as one could want---winter or summer!Ort and Meowzart--im with you on this one!!

Ditto.

And the best in America I've ever had was, and is still, at Joe's Bakery in east Austin on 7th Street. Until y'all can try it there, you'll just have to trust me.

As a seasoned (pun intended) chorizo eater back in my pre-veggie days, I can tell you that a good chorizo may be full of disgusting things, but it's the best disgusting things! Nowadays, I read the ingredients on everything and some of the more disturbing are next to the register at 7/11. Slim Jims and Penrose Firecrackers are extraordinarily grotesque. Hell, all they need is a little gelatin and taurine to make them perfect! Slim Jims are delicate in that they only cite "beef" and "mechanically separated chicken", although their website mentions a secret recipe and a special "spice block", whatever that is. The Firecracker, on the other hand, (another fine product from the good people at Con Agra) is a "pickled sausage" that actually lists "beef lips" as the first ingredient on the package. Delightful! I'm not sure, but "hooves and hair" might be toward the end of the list.

Yep, it's Soyrizo for me from now on. I love the stuff. They've managed to make it really greasy, just like the real stuff; but without the snouts.

I don't know why, but for some reason, this topic reminded me of an old horror movie (some of you may have seen it) called "Motel Hell". The guy made sausage out of...(well, think "cannibalism"), and the advertising slogan was:

"It takes all kinds of critters,
To make Farmer Vincent's fritters."

Didn't mean to offend anyone.

I can tell you this from what I have read that it ain't healthy to know what you have consumed. I have been around many years and I guess that If I knew what was in what I ate, it would have definately limited my consumption.

I guess protein is protein but somehow if it is defined, it really turns you off.

I am turned off by a lot by the ingredients and it will affect my future purchases

Paul E. Smith
Knoxville, TN

I was thinking of "Eating Raoul", but that's [far more tasteful...