Chosco de Tineo
Asturias does love its sausages. That is certain. It is sometime jokingly said that Asturians will make a sausage out of anything. If you needed any proof of that, you could look at chosco de Tineo. It’s a little difficult to call something that is 80% whole pork loin a sausage, but here in Asturias, no one seems to mind. Once you taste it, you won’t mind either.
I would honestly consider any trip to Asturias incomplete if it didn’t involve eating some of this delicious embutido. It is such a particular product, and quite unique to Asturias. It’s essentially impossible to get outside of Asturias, and wildly popular inside.
Production
The regulations of the IGP require that a chosco de Tineo have the following characteristics:
- Its shape and external appearance is rounded and irregular, defined by the shape of the blind cap.
- It weighs between 500 gr and 2 kg.
- The consistency is firm and its characteristic reddish color is more or less intense, depending on the meat used and the concentration of paprika.
- When cutting, the different pieces of meat used are clearly visible.
- Its texture is juicy and its aroma and flavor reflect the marinade and the smoking.
In order to achieve that, producers all follow roughly the same steps:
- They prepare a slurry of ground tongue, paprika, salt, and garlic. Then they marinate the pork loin, jowls, and dewlap in the mixture for 24 hours.
- Then they stuff the mixture into a blind cap.
- They tie the sausage with twine and hang it in the smoke house.
- There they smoke the sausages with local wood for a minimum of 8 days. Usually they use chestnut, oak, or beech wood.
- Once the smoking is complete, they transfer the sausages to a dryer for another 8 days.
- Finally, they decide whether to cook the chosco or not. If they do, they slow cook them over low heat to maintain the texture.
How to Eat It
For the most part, people in Asturias treat chosco as if it were ham, and use it somewhat interchangeably with lacón in recipes. It is most commonly served warm, with boiled potatoes. It is very popular in fabada as well, in addition to, or in place of, the lacón.
I love it sliced very thin on a sandwich with some Dijon mustard. It needs to be refrigerator cold for this. It is very hard to make neat slices if the chosco has even the slightest warmth. And yes, chosco on a biscuit is exactly as good as you think it would be.
Where to Get Chosco de Tineo
To eat chosco in Asturias, head West. Tineo conceyo is in the heart of the DOP, and it won’t take long to find it on restaurant menus. If you visit Asturias in the Autumn, there is an entire festival dedicated to chosco on the last first of November.
Unfortunately, I do not know of any producers or importers of chosco in the States. You will have to come to Asturias to get your chosco fix.
