Chorizo Class

by Mary Kay Feather

“We will begin with chorizo, red and green,” instructed Diana Kennedy, the British doyenne of Mexican cooking. Kristine and I peered at the pile of pink meat on the ceramic counter as Diana mixed chopped herbs, spices and chard into freshly ground pork for green chorizo. We worked in pairs, each grabbing a heap of the raw meat to stuff into sausage casings giggling as we tried to force the mixture, bright green with herbs, into the awkward condom-like pig gut. After a glance from Diana, we feigned serious work faces. “More meat, more meat, more meat,” sang Kristine as I stuffed the bright piles into the now-bulging, 24-inch cylinders stretched out on the tiles. After frying sample bits to taste test the sausages, both the herb version and the chili-studded red chorizo, we tied off the fat ropes and hung the unruly columns over the sink to weep their spicy juices.

6S

Mary Kay Feather learned to make chorizo in a class with Diana Kennedy at her home in Mexico. A retired librarian who makes her own tortillas, she is writing a memoir called The Trouble with Fun: A Bookworm Looks Back at Sex, Drugs and Rock ‘n Roll. Her work has been published in Ruminate, El Portal, 45th Parallel, and Dorothy Parker’s Ashes.