Boerewors

the coiled farmer's sausage of the braai, coarse-ground beef held together by toasted coriander and grilled in one unbroken spiral

Origin: The Cape & South Africa

From the journey of Coriander/Cilantro.

Boerewors is farmer's sausage, and it is the one South African dish with a legal definition. National standard SANS 885 requires at least ninety per cent meat, caps the fat at thirty per cent, permits no more than ten per cent cereal or starch binder, and specifies the spice: coriander above all, with black pepper, nutmeg, cloves, and allspice behind it. A sausage that misses those numbers may be sold in South Africa but it may not be called boerewors. Coriander is not one spice among several here. It is toasted, coarsely cracked, and used in a quantity that would be extravagant in any European sausage, and it is what a South African is identifying when they say a wors tastes right. The seed reached the Cape with the Dutch East India Company traffic that also brought the enslaved people of Java, Bengal, and the Coromandel coast whose cooking became the Cape Malay tradition, and the settler sausage absorbed it completely. It is grilled in a single unbroken coil rather than cut into links, which is the visual signature and also a practical matter: a continuous spiral turns in one movement with a pair of tongs and loses less fat than separate sausages would. It is never pricked. Piercing the skin to stop it bursting is the most common outside instinct and the surest way to produce a dry wors. The braai it belongs to is a fire and an occasion rather than a dish, which is why this recipe exists and the braai itself does not: boerewors and braaibroodjie are what a braai actually puts on the grid. National Braai Day, on 24 September, was attached to the Heritage Day public holiday in 2005, and the two are now more or less inseparable in practice.

Ingredients

Ingredients

  • 1.4 kg beef chuck or brisket, well marbled, in 3cm cubes
  • 600 g pork shoulder or beef fat, in 3cm cubes
  • 25 g fine salt
  • 60 ml brown vinegar
  • 60 ml iced water
  • 2 m natural hog casings, soaked and rinsed

Spice

  • 3 tbsp coriander seeds
  • 2 tsp black peppercorns
  • 1 tsp whole cloves
  • 1 tsp allspice berries
  • 1 tsp grated nutmeg

Method

  1. Toast the coriander seeds in a dry pan over a medium heat for two minutes, until they smell warm and nutty and a few begin to pop. Toast the peppercorns, cloves, and allspice briefly alongside.
  2. Crack the coriander coarsely in a mortar. Do not grind it to powder: visible broken seed through the sausage is the point, and boerewors made with fine coriander powder tastes muddy. Grind the other spices finer and mix everything with the nutmeg and salt.
  3. Chill the meat and fat until very cold, near freezing but not frozen solid. Warm meat smears in the mincer and gives a greasy sausage.
  4. Mince the beef through the coarse plate, about 8mm. Mince the pork or fat separately through the same plate. Boerewors is a coarse sausage and should never be minced twice.
  5. Combine the meats with the spice, vinegar, and iced water. Mix with your hands for no more than two minutes, just until it comes together. Overworking develops the protein and turns the texture rubbery.
  6. Fry a small patty and taste it. Adjust the salt and coriander now, since nothing can be changed once it is in the casing.
  7. Rest the mixture, covered, in the refrigerator for at least an hour and up to overnight.
  8. Fill the casings loosely, without twisting into links. Slack filling matters: a tightly packed wors bursts on the fire. Coil the whole length into one flat spiral and secure it with two skewers pushed through at right angles.
  9. Grill over moderate coals for eight to ten minutes a side, turning once with the skewers. Do not prick it. It is done when it is firm and springy and the juices run clear.
  10. Rest for five minutes, then cut into lengths at the table. Serve with pap, chakalaka, and a tomato and onion relish.

Notes

Three things decide a boerewors: coarse mince, cold meat, and coriander that is cracked rather than ground. The fat is not optional at around thirty per cent, and a leaner sausage will be dry however carefully it is cooked. Fill the casings loosely and grill over moderate rather than fierce coals, since high heat bursts the skin and renders out the fat that is holding it together. It freezes well raw and should be thawed slowly.

The Gastrographer

The Gastrographer

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Ingredient originTrade or transit route
Became a culinary stapleColonial / trade control
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