Meet the Meat That Embodies 400 Years of Culinary Exchange
Spices from the New World transformed this Spanish delicacy into the staple of Tex-Mex cuisine
This story continues our partnership with New Worlder, the site that responsibly covers food and drink, chefs and restaurants, farmers, fishermen, and conservationists of the Americas in a way that appeals to both an American and a Latin American audience.
In South Texas, chorizo is a staple of ubiquitous breakfast tacos, but when the Tex-Mex style was first conceived, in some places, it was sold under the name “fancy chili sausage” to appeal to Polish clientele.
Michael Kiolbassa, of Kiolbassa Smoked Meats, which produces about a million pounds of Tex-Mex-style pork chorizo annually, knows the product well. His family business started off as a mom-and-pop market near the stockyards in San Antonio’s meatpacking district. As descendants of Czech and Polish immigrants, the Kiolbassa family served all markets in the diverse San Antonio area, selling Polish sausage alongside Mexican-style chorizo.
But Tex-Mex chorizo is different from Portuguese linguiça, or Louisiana-style boudin — or even other varieties of chorizo — because of its use of New World chiles.
