South African Boerewors (Farmer’s Sausage)

In South Africa, when there’s a braai (bry), there’ll be boerewors (boo-ruh-vors).

This flavourful sausage is an inheritance from our pioneering Dutch forefathers. ‘Boere’ means farmers and ‘wors’ (said with a ‘V’ not a ‘W’) means sausage.  The pioneers used to combine minced/ground meat with pork fat, spices and vinegar to make this sausage. Today boerewors is sold in supermarkets across the country and as with chili cook-offs here in the USA, in SA there is a boerewors cook-off to find the best recipe.

I love the simple recipe that most people use to make boerewors. Why fix what is not broken, right?

The ingredients are minced beef, minced pork, minced lamb, bacon (not shown), salt, pepper, coriander, nutmeg, cloves, dried thyme, allspice, garlic, red wine vinegar, Worcestershire sauce and sausage casings.

PS: We say ‘Woo-stuh’ sauce and not ‘Wor-chess-ter-shire’ sauce. We’re special that way.

I bought the casings at Whole Foods for a measly $1.40. I told the butcher I needed to make 6 lbs of sausage and he gave me 2 1/4 ounces of casings – and I didn’t use it all.

Rinse the casing under a tap and keep them in water until they are ready to be used.

Start by dry-frying the coriander seeds in a hot pan. Keep the seeds moving around in the pan so they don’t burn.

They should be a dark brown colour when they are ready and of course the aroma is stunning.

Using a clean coffee grinder, grind the cooled coriander seeds until they are fine.

Mix all the ingredients in a large bowl.

Don’t forget the bacon (which I nearly did!) Gently mix the ingredients together with your hands until it’s all combined.

Next, pull the sausage casing onto the sausage nozzle of your machine.

To get it going and to prevent air bubbles in the casing, allow a small bit of the sausage mixture out of the nozzle to begin with.

Next, tie a knot at the end of the casing and pull it firmly back against the opening of the nozzle.

Turn on the machine and push the meat mixture through the food grinder. Hold onto the casing and allow the sausage to fill as much or as little of the casing as you’d like but if the casings are filled too tightly, there is the risk of them splitting during cooking. It’s easier if you have a helper to feed the mixture into the top of the food grinder.

For borewors, it should be as thick as a Bratwurst.

Boerewors comes in large coils so keep feeding the meat mixture into the machine and allow the casing to get filled, looping the filled casing into a coil on the counter/tabletop as you go. Once you have a large enough coil (whatever size you prefer), cut the casing and tie a knot at the end of the coil to prevent the sausage mixture from escaping. I made 3 coils, each weight 1 lbs.

Braai/BBQ the borewors coil on a hot grill until done. Chop into smaller pieces, either bite-size or Bratwurst size and enjoy with chips, potato salad, coleslaw and corn on the cob.

Or make a ‘boerie’ (boo-ree) roll with a fresh hot dog bun, fried onions and Mrs. Balls Chutney. A taste of home!

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South African Boerewors (Farmer’s Sausage)

 

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Prep time

70 mins

Cook time

30 mins

Total time

1 hour 40 mins

 

South African ‘farmers sausage’ using lamb, pork and beef with spices.

Author: Traci

Recipe type: Entree

Serves: 24

Ingredients

• 1 lbs minced/ground beef
• 1 lbs minced/ground pork
• 1 lbs minced/ground lamb
• 17 oz bacon, diced
• 4 Tbsp whole coriander seeds
• ¼ tsp freshly grated nutmeg
• ¼ tsp ground allspice
• ¼ tsp dried thyme
• ⅛ tsp ground cloves
• 1 clove garlic, crushed
• 2 Tbsp salt
• 1 tsp ground black pepper
• ½ cup red wine vinegar
• 4 Tbsp Worcestershire sauce
• 2.5 ounces or 65g sausage casings

Instructions

1. Start by rinsing the casings under the tap. Store in a bowl of water until ready to use so they don’t dry out.
2. Dry-fry the coriander seeds in a hot pan. Keep the seeds moving around in the pan so they don’t burn. They should be a dark brown colour when they are ready and of course the aroma is stunning.
3. Using a clean coffee bean grinder, grind the cooled coriander seeds until they are fine.
4. Mix all the ingredients except the casings in a large bowl. Gently mix the ingredients together with your hands until it’s all combined.
5. Next, pull the sausage casing onto the sausage nozzle of your machine.
6. To get it going and to prevent air bubbles in the casing, allow a small bit of the sausage mixture out of the nozzle to begin with.
7. Next, tie a knot at the end of the casing and pull it firmly back against the opening of the nozzle.
8. Turn on the machine and push the meat mixture through the food grinder. Hold onto the casing and allow the sausage to fill as much or as little of the casing as you’d like but if the casings are filled too tightly, there is the risk of them splitting during cooking. It’s easier if you have a helper to feed the mixture into the top of the food grinder.
9. For borewors, it should be as thick as a Bratwurst.
10. Boerewors comes in large coils so keep feeding the meat mixture into the machine and allow the casing to get filled, looping the filled casing into a coil on the counter/tabletop as you go. Once you have a large enough coil (whatever size you prefer), cut the casing and tie a knot at the end of the coil to prevent the sausage mixture from escaping.
11. Braai/BBQ the borewors coil on a hot grill until done. Chop into smaller pieces, either bite-size or Bratwurst size and enjoy with chips, potato salad, coleslaw and corn on the cob or make a ‘boerie’ (boo-ree) roll with a fresh hot dog bun, fried onions and Mrs. Balls Chutney.
12. Boerewors freezes well, both uncooked and cooked.

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