Boerewors

Boerewors is a sausage, popular in South African cuisine. The name comes from the Afrikaans words boer ("farmer") and wors ("sausage"), and is pronounced /ˈbuːrəvors/, with a trilled IPA /r/.

Raw Boerewors

History

Boerewors is based on an older traditional Dutch sausage called the verse worst, though it differs somewhat in its ingredients. Boerewors is made from coarsely minced beef (sometimes combined with minced pork, lamb, or both) and spices (usually toasted coriander seed, black pepper, nutmeg, cloves, and allspice). Like many other forms of sausage, boerewors contains a high proportion of fat, and is preserved with salt and vinegar, and packed in sausage casings. Traditional boerewors is usually formed into a continuous spiral, as illustrated on the right. Boerewors is often served with pap (traditional South African porridge made from mielie-meal). Boerewors is also very common throughout Southern Africa, as well as with expatriate communities in countries such as Australia, The Netherlands, the United Kingdom, the United States and Ireland.

Preparation

Boerewors is usually braaied (barbecued), but may be grilled in an electric griller, or fried. Alternatively it can also be grilled in an oven.

A local variant of the hotdog is the "boerie roll", or boerewors roll. This is a piece of boerewors in a hotdog bun, often served with a tomato and onion relish.

Variations

There are many different varieties of boerewors today, including specialties such as garlic wors, kameeldoring (camel thorn), Karoowors (sausage from the Karoo region in South Africa), and spekwors (made with extra cubed pork fat). These varieties are normal boerewors with different spices.

A similar sausage may also be made from different animal species like lamb, kudu, and springbok, but it may not be sold as boerewors. Instead, it is named after the predominant meat species, but only if it contains at least 75% meat from that specific species. When a sausage is made from different types of game it is called "Game sausage".

Boerewors itself does not keep well unrefrigerated. A similar dried or cured sausage called droëwors (/ˈdruːəvɔrs/) is prepared instead in a process similar to the preparation of biltong. Droëwors has become popular in its own right as a snack.

Guinness World Record

On 16 June 2011, the Guinness World Record for braaing the longest boerewors in the world was broken in South Africa. It measured 514.5 m (1688 ft) in length and weighed approximately 420 kg (926 lb). The boerewors was distributed freely to old age homes as part of Youth Day which was celebrated on the day that it was prepared.