Friday 11 September 2009

Droëwors

Of course, once you have a few kilos of boerewors made, you have to think about how to preserve it.

A bit of it we ate straight away (quality control, of course). A bit more we ate later that evening. Most of it, we portioned into coils, tucked the coils into freezer bags and stuck them in the freezer as soon as possible. But we just couldn't resist turning some into droëwors. We're both suckers for this intensely spicy, chewy dried sausage. It's the best thing in the world with a glass of cold beer and it ranks up with biltong as one of Paul's favourite snacks to take fishing.

It was really straightforward. We took a couple of lengths of fresh boerewors, sluiced it down with vinegar and hung it in the kitchen over a chopstick over night. We wanted to get the worst of the dripping done in the relative hygiene of the kitchen.

The kitchen is, however, too humid to do all of the drying - droëwors needs to be made with quite thin sausages and needs to dry rapidly so it preserves before it spoils. So once the surface was quite dry, we shifted the MacGyveresque wire-and-chopstick array to the spare bedroom wardrobe.

Our portable dehumidifier completed the job.

It took 5 days to achieve the properly dessicated finish - dark brown, slightly shiny, with knobbly bits where the casing contracts against residual peppercorns and bits of coriander.

And it was absolutely perfect! It had just the right texture - almost honeycomb - and the flavour of the vinegar and spices was really intensified in the drying.

I can't begin to tell you how long drying will preserve the sausage for - ours didn't see the end of the day.

16 comments:

NKP said...

Wow, I am so impressed you made your own sausage!

Rachel said...

My question is, how do you keep the resident cat from playing with it while it dries? My leaping cats would make quick work of these links.

Alicia Foodycat said...

Natashya - It's a lot easier than it looks!

Rachel - she wasn't interested at all. I think the vinegar smell put her off.

kat said...

I would love to try drying sausage, perhaps this winter when its drier.

halfpint harpy said...

Oh my, how that made my mouth water!

We shall toast the two of you and your droëwors-making with an frosty Carib or Piton later! ;)

maybelle's mom said...

wow, these are totally foods that i have never heard of,

Alicia Foodycat said...

Kat - apparently you can rig up a drying box with a ventilated box and an incandescent lightbulb!

Halfpint - Sounds lovely!

MM - If I chadn't married a South African, I'd never have heard of it either!

HH said...

Oh sounds great FC, I would love a beer and some of that right about now.

Teresa Cordero Cordell said...

So Foodycat, is droëwors the equivalent of beef jerky? Sounds really tasty.

Deb in Hawaii said...

Very impressive! I bet they tasted great.

Alicia Foodycat said...

HH - yes, so would I! But I'll finish my coffee first.

Teresa - biltong is the equivalent of jerky (droewors is a lot easier to chew!) but anyone who likes jerky is going to like droewors.

Deb - thank! Oh they did!

Heather S-G said...

This is some seriously amazing work!!! I want to reach through the screen and grab a link...YUM!

Esi said...

You are one of the most creative cooks I've seen. I wouldn't know where to begin on something like this.

Alicia Foodycat said...

Girli - it's irresistible stuff!

Esi - a foody husband is helpful.

Nick said...

I'm a South African living in Yorkshire. The only way I can get my droewors (and biltong) fix is to make it myself.

I also add chilli flakes to give it a kick.

Sadly my wife (a pommy) and our cat love it too - less for me :(

Alicia Foodycat said...

Nick - we wouldn't let the cat get anywhere near it! I like the idea of adding chilli. Maybe next time! This one was all about tradition.

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