Boerewors

Boerewors translated means “Farmers Sausage,” It originated in the Karoo (South Africa) and is often cooked in a spiral on the braai (Barbecue).

Boerewors, also known as “South African Sausage” or “Wors,” is what you will find at every braai in South Africa, Botswana, Namibia, Zimbabwe and Mozambique.

It has now expanded and is cooked by the expatriate community worldwide, including the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Republic of Ireland, France, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Australia and Taiwan.

At rugby matches in South Africa, you would always smell boerewors while it was cooking and then when you ate your boerewors roll, it made you so happy. After reading this post, you can use our boerewors recipe to make your boerewors at home.

What is Boerewors

It is a mixture of beef and pork. It does not contain more than 30% fat which is needed to add flavour and also keep the sausage moist while cooking.

Guidelines

The Environmental Health Research Network published guidelines on what could be included to make South African Boerewors and legally use the name boerewors.

The published guidelines give clear indications of the following:

  • Meat Content should be not less than 90%
  • Not more than 30% fat content.
  • No offal except for the sausage casing should be used.

The meat that can be used to make boerewors include Bovine (cow), Ovine (sheep), Porcine (Pig) and Caprine (Goat).
No other meat can be used. If any other ingredient is used, the sausage is labelled as wors only.

How to Make Boerewors

First, we need a boerewors recipe that we can use. I have included the traditional recipe that we use to make boerewors.

Traditional Boerewors Recipe

This boerewors sausage recipe tastes delicious and freezes very well.

  • 2 kg beef
  • 1 kg pork
  • 20 g coriander
  • 3 ml ground cloves
  • 2 ml grated nutmeg
  • 30 g fine salt
  • 5 ml freshly ground black pepper
  • 500 g Spek (fat)
  • 100 ml vinegar

First, prepare the coriander by roasting it slightly until the seeds turn a golden brown colour. Once they are golden brown, empty them into a pestle and mortar, grind, and then sift to remove the husks.

Cut the meat into 50 mm cubes and combine with the spice and seasoning. Mince the meat and dice the spek. Add spek and vinegar to the minced meat and mix lightly but thoroughly. Loosely stuff the minced meat into sausage casings.

Turn the finished sausage into a spiral and let it rest for 24 hours.

It takes us from start to finish about three hours to make 6 months’ supply of boerewors. We also make other sausages simultaneously to add variety to our meals.

boerewors sausage

When working with Sausage casings, first put them into a tub of water and let the water run through them. When you stuff the sausage casings onto the sausage machine, use water to lubricate the spout before you put the casings on, as this makes it a lot easier to load the sausage casings.

South African Sausage Casings

You can buy the spice and sausage casings in the United Kingdom from a company called Weschenfelder. Speak to Rob or Tim, and they will be able to help you. I only use them to buy my spices and sausage casings.

It is a wonderful experience to make your food at home. You only need to buy a sausage mincer and stuffing machine, the spices and the casings. You can speak to your butcher to get the meat.

Once you have made a few batches, it gets really easy, and you can make a lot of sausages quickly. I hope you enjoyed this article if you have any questions, please leave a comment.