Memories of spain led to chorizo business
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel - January 28th, 2016
spanish native, now living in port, makes his own line of sausage
Ozaukee Press Article- May, 2002
By Carol Pomeday
When Juan Carlos Helmstedt left his home in the Basque country of Spain to move with his wife Catherine DeMerit 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, Tía 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 close 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 the 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 Tía 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 chorizo 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.
Juan carlos helmstedt’s sausage is a link to the old country
Sheboygan Press Article - June, 2002
By Mary Ann Holley
Juan Carlos Helmstedt’s genealogy is as finely blended as the spices in his sausage.
The son of a German father and a Spanish mother who immigrated to the area 11 years ago, Helmsted lives happily in the state of brats and beer, but he never forgot the love of chorizo he developed as a boy growing up in the Basque region of Spain.
“In Sheboygan, it´s brats and beer,” said Helmstedt, a Spanish teacher in Sheboygan Area School District who lives in Port Washington. “In Spain, it’s always fine red wine and chorizo.”
An innovative sort, with the passion of his Spanish ancestry, Helmstedt found his own niche.
Running with the bulls - the Miesfelds and the Johnsonvilles and the master sausage makers of the area - Helmsted developed his own brand of national sausage of Spain, a product that now fills the shelves of gourmet and specialty stores from here to Milwaukee.
The recipe learned as a boy, on a farm in norther Spain, handmade by his Tía Paquita ( Aunt Frances), is making its mark in this land of sausage makers.
Developed and marketed by him and a partner, Edgar Perez, a Guatemalan who lives in Milwaukee, the chorizo is produced with a passion for perfection by a local sausage master at Kewaskum Frozen Foods.
“The combination of pork and Tía Paquita’s ingredients is the best I’ve ever tasted in all the regions of Spain,” Helmstedt said. “My sausage is made the way it was made in the 1600’s. Just the right blend of spices, fresh ingredients and no preservatives.”
The chorizo invented in the 1600’s by Jeronimos monks in the souther region of Spain was not to be found in these parts.
“When I came to this country, I knew no English, I left my friends and I had no control over the food I could buy,” Helmstedt said. “There was nothing like the chorizo made by Tía Paquita on her farm in northern Spain.”
Mexican chorizo just isn’t the same, he said. Mexican chorizo uses cumin and vinegar to impart its taste - much different from the chorizo Helmstedt knew as a boy.
“I found a local butcher in Port Washington and gave him a recipe that he would make for me,” Helmstedt said. “He’s been mixing it up for me for 10 years, but I never thought of selling it.”
Helmstedt would share his chorizo with friends, and when a Spanish restaurant, Don Quixote, opened in Milwaukee, he shared his custom blend with them.
“It took off like fire,” Juan Carlos said.