Heritage Day on 24 September is a day where South Africans are encouraged to celebrate their culture. Having a braai (barbeque) is very much part of the South African culture so this day is also known as National Braai Day. Boerewors is probably the most “South African” meat that you can braai so we decided to make our own for the occasion.
Boerewors
Derived from the Afrikaans words boer (“farmer”) and wors (“sausage) this sausage is integral to South African cuisine. “Braaied” over the coals, stuffed into a roll or served with “pap en sous” (cornmeal porridge and tomato sauce) – boerewors is a staple food over here.
Ingredients
7 kg beef
2 kg spek (ask your butcher for this)
135ml coriander seeds – roasted
45ml black peppercorns – roasted
75ml yellow mustard seeds – roasted
15ml whole cloves – roasted
30ml all spice – roasted
5ml grated nutmeg
100ml salt
30ml brown sugar
250ml cider vinegar
150ml medium cream sherry
30ml garlic powder
30ml smoked paprika (bitter sweet)
Sausage casings
Method
Grind the beef and spek. You can use already ground meat, but we find that it makes a big difference if you grind the meat yourself. We used our Kenwood food grinder attachment to do this.
Gently toast the coriander seeds, peppercorns, mustard seeds, cloves and all spice until aromatic. Add the nutmeg.
Crush the spices in a mortar and pestle and mix into the meat with the rest of the ingredients. At this stage we usually make a small patty and fry it to check that the taste is how we want it.
Leave the meat in the fridge overnight so that the flavours can develop.
Let your casings lie in a bowl of fresh water for at least half an hour. This makes the casings much easier to work with.
We usually use 28/30 hog casings. We tried 18/20 sheep casings this time but it kept tearing. Fortunately we still had some hog castings left over from when we made our pork and chorizo sausages.
And get stuffing.
Now all you have to do was light the fire, pour the wine and braai your homemade boerewors.
