Braai Life

Recipes / Meat

Homemade boerewors

Coarse beef and pork sausage with toasted coriander, cloves and vinegar, stuffed into hog casings in one long coil and braaied over medium coals.

Coals
Medium coals
Prep
1 hr
On the fire
20 min
Plan ahead
1 hour to overnight resting the mixture
Serves
makes about 3.5 kg (7.7 lb)

Ingredients

  • 1.5 kg (3.3 lb) beef chuck or brisket, cut into 3 cm (1 inch) cubes
  • 1.5 kg (3.3 lb) pork shoulder, cut into 3 cm (1 inch) cubes
  • 500 g (1.1 lb) firm pork back fat, cut into 3 to 5 mm (1/8 to 1/4 inch) dice
  • 150 ml (2/3 cup) brown malt vinegar (or cider vinegar)
  • 90 g (3 oz) natural hog casings, 32 to 35 mm, soaked in cold water for 30 minutes

Spice mix

  • 3 tablespoons (about 20 g) whole coriander seed
  • 28 g (5 teaspoons) fine salt
  • 1 teaspoon ground black pepper
  • 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
  • 1/2 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
  • 1 teaspoon ground allspice, optional
  • 1 tablespoon fresh thyme leaves, optional

Method

  1. Toast the coriander seed in a dry pan over medium heat for 2 to 3 minutes, shaking it, until it smells nutty. Grind it and push it through a sieve to take out the husks.
  2. Mix the ground coriander with the salt, pepper, cloves, nutmeg and the allspice and thyme if using. Toss the cubed beef and pork with the spices.
  3. Spread the spiced meat and the diced fat on trays and put them in the freezer for 30 minutes, until very cold and firm at the edges but not frozen. Chill the mincer parts too.
  4. Mince the meat once through a coarse 8 to 10 mm (3/8 inch) plate into a cold bowl. Do not mince the fat.
  5. Add the diced fat and the vinegar. Mix gently with a fork or your fingers just until the fat is spread through. Stop as soon as it comes together.
  6. Fry a teaspoon of the mixture, taste it, and adjust the salt. Cover and rest the mixture in the fridge for 1 hour, or overnight.
  7. Rinse the casings inside and out and thread one onto the stuffer nozzle. Fill it evenly in one long coil, firm but not tight. Do not twist it into links.
  8. Take the wors out of the fridge 30 minutes before cooking. Lay the coil in a hinged grid, or straight on the grid, over medium coals.
  9. Cook for 7 to 10 minutes a side, turning once or twice. Do not prick it. Move it to the cooler side if the fat flares.

Done when: the coil is firm when you lift it, holds its shape, the juices run clear and a probe pushed in through the end reads 71°C (160°F).

Tips

  • Keep everything cold: meat, fat, bowl and mincer. Warm fat smears into the meat and the texture turns pasty.
  • Coarse mince and visible dice of fat are the signature. Fine mince gives a hot-dog texture.
  • If the casing is stuffed too tight it bursts over the coals. Too loose and you get air pockets. Aim for firm and springy.
  • Never pierce it on the fire. The juice inside is the point. If a casing starts to split, it is overdone and should come off.
  • Pork-free version: replace the pork and pork fat with lamb or mutton and lamb tail fat or beef fat. This is the older summer recipe and is fully traditional.
  • Raw boerewors freezes well for up to 2 months. Thaw it in the fridge.
  • In South Africa, anything sold as boerewors must be at least 90 percent meat with no more than 30 percent fat, in a natural casing, with no offal or colourants. Only spices, salt, vinegar, a little grain or starch and water may be added. This recipe meets that standard.

Boerewors goes back to the Cape of the 1600s, when the farm sausage changed with the season: mutton and tail fat in summer, pork when the pigs were slaughtered in winter. The heavy hand with coriander and cloves became standard in Afrikaans cookbooks during the 20th century. A coil on a roll with tomato smoor is the national street food, and there is a recipe for boerewors rolls on this site.

Making it yourself is mostly about temperature and restraint. Keep everything cold and do not overwork the mix. See reading your coals, safe braai temperatures and salting and resting meat for the cooking side.