Spanish native, now living in Port, makes his own line of sausage

By Carol Pomeday, Good Living editor

When Juan Carlos Helmstedt left his home in the Basque ountry of Spain to move with his wife Catherine DeMerit Helmstedt and their baby daughter Paula to Port Washington 11 years ago, one thing he missed was his favorite sausage – chorizo.

For many years, John Salchert, owner of Bernie's Fine Meats in Port, made the sausage for him following Helmstedt's recipe.

"John is a great person and was very patient with me until we were able to create a good version of the real thing. John made chorizo for me and my American family for years," Helmstedt said.

Now, Helmstedt is selling his own brand of the sausage, Tia Paquita chorizo. It's based on a recipe from his Aunt Paquita, who he said makes the best chorizo. The sausage, which comes fresh or smoked, is made of pork, Spanish paprika, garlic and salt.

"It's the nuances," Helmstedt said of his sausage. "It's not hot, but has a robust flavor. It really fills your mouth."

It comes colse to his aunt's sausage, which he tasted for the first time when he was a boy.

"When I was 8 years old, my mother sent me to spend my summer vacation on my Aunt Paquita's farm in the outskirts of City of Vitoria to get me off the streets of Madrid and become a "man" as my mother used to say," Helmstedt said.

Everyone worked on the farm. Helmstedt's job was taking care of his aunt's nine cows and several pigs.

"Those pigs were treated like kings, eating the best food, even leftovers and scraps from our plates, in order to obtain the best possible tasting meat from them on St. Martin's Day (the traditional day for slaughtering pigs in Spain)," he said.

"The combination of that pork and Tia Paquita's ingredients, passed on to her from previous generations, made the best tasting chorizo I ever had in my short life."

Helmstedt and his partner Edgar Perez, a Guatemalan who now lives in Random Lake, worked with Kewaskum Meats to make the sausage in sufficient quantities to sell to area restaurants and grocery stores, including Sendik's and V-Richards in the Milwaukee area, Sentry in Port Washington and Woodlake Market in Kohler. Don Quijote Restaurant in Milwaukee has chorixo on its menu.

Helmstedt said his aunt shed tears of joy when she saw the company logo with her name.

Helmstedt teaches Spanish in the Sheboygan School District. In addition to his daughter Paula, he has a son, Carlos, 7.

This article originally appeared May 2, 2002 in the Ozaukee Press.