Spanish sighs for Tim’s chorizo

Tim Bennett’s venture is Britain’s first community supported charcuteria and the local investors who helped him set up will receive their interest in chorizo.

Chorizo, the garlicky, spicy Spanish sausage from Tim’s Colne Valley Charcuteria is the latest addition to a cluster of social local food ventures in Slaithwaite, which is known to everyone locally as Slawit.

This includes the Green Valley Grocer and the Handmade Bakery, both community supported co-ops which are to stock Tim’s produce.

Tucked away in the back of Upper Mills, next to the Huddersfield Narrow Canal and just behind the bakery, Tim has a tiny production unit comprising a large fridge, a small kitchen and just about enough space to turn around.

It started as a hobby and has become his passion, constantly introducing new products to his range, inspired by his Spanish wife Anna Trillo, her family, and his travels in Spain and France.

He says, “Anna’s mum does a cocido – a Spanish stew of about five different meats, with chorizo in. The chorizo makes it so much more delicious.

“Lentejas con chorizo, lentils with chorizo, is typical in Spain. There’s a bar we go to every summer and on a Wednesday they have lentil and chorizo served as a tapas.”

In Spain, most butchers are expert charcuterie makers, and many families cure their own chorizo at home. Recipes get handed down through generations and are often closely guarded secrets.

Anna’s parents are from Galicia, on the north coast of Spain which is where many of Tim’s recipes are from. Recently, he started using a new recipe, from a family friend in Valladolid in North Central Spain, where Anna was born and raised, Chorizo de candelas. He uses a combination of loin, belly and leg meat for this chorizo. He uses free range pork from Tamworth and Gloucester Old Spot pigs raised in beech woodland on Broad Close Farm, in his home village of Silkstone, just west of Barnsley. In many Spanish villages the tradition is to slaughter the pig on Saint Martín’s day, November 11. The Spanish have a saying: “A todo cerdo le llega su San Martín,” (every pig has its San Martín, meaning we all get our come-uppance).

Tim is also making a Slawitena, using Yorkshire Blue cheese made by Shepherd’s Purse near Thirsk, North Yorkshire which is more like a French-style saucisson sec.

“The name comes from a guy Anna used to meet when she worked at a music shop in Leeds. He’d say, “How’s my little Slawitena?” It means, “to come from Slawit”.’

On his stall on Leeds Farmers market once a month and Holmfirth market every Saturday he is beginning to sell out of everything.

Tim, a full-time theatre nurse, began making chorizo at home, but was encouraged by the Handmade Bakery founders, Dan and Johanna McTiernan, to produce commercially. He hopes eventually to reduce the hours he spends in the operating theatre. As he expands he hopes to introduce a wider subscription scheme and to sell via the internet.

‘I don’t think I could make a fortune,’ he says. ‘It’s quite demanding, and I don’t scrimp on ingredients because there’s no point. But it would be nice to have a bit of variety and to work in the valley, instead of travelling.”