Boerewors (singular) is a sausage dish, popular in South African cuisine and Limburgish cuisine. The name comes from the Afrikaans words boer ("farmer") and wors ("sausage"). Most non-Afrikaans-speaking persons find it difficult to pronounce authentically, however a reasonable approximation for foreigners is /buːrəvɔrs/ with a trilled /r/.
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History
Boerewors was invented about 200 years ago in The Netherlands.[citation needed] It is made from coarsely minced beef (sometimes combined with minced pork, lamb, or both) and spices (usually coriander seed, black pepper, nutmeg, cloves and allspice). Good boerewors always[citation needed] contains a reasonable proportion of fat, therefore "light boerewors" is not referred as an authentic boerewors[citation needed] (see "Variations" section). The sausage is preserved with salt and vinegar (and often contains Worcestershire sauce), and packed in sausage casings. Traditional boerewors is usually formed into a continuous spiral, as illustrated on the right, and the spirals can sometimes be immobilised by wooded skewers. Boerewors is often served with pap (traditional porridge made from mielie-meal). Boerewors is also very common in South Africa & Zimbabwe and sometimes also eaten in Botswana, Namibia, Zambia, Swaziland and Australia. To be classified as a real Boerwors it must[citation needed] contain at least 90% real meat of which at least 75% must be beef and may not contain more of 30% fat, the rest of the meat will normally be pork. The rest consists of spices, cereal binder, vineger and other fluids. No soy, mechanically deboned meat or tripe, except the casing, may be used[citation needed].
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). All varieties are distinctly flavoured with coriander and vinegar. All these varieties are normally pure Boerewors with diffirent spices, a "Plaaswors" (Farmers sausage)has a dominant coriander flavour and is normally more coarsely minced.
Species Wors: "Boerewors" may also be made from different animal species like lamb, kudu, springbok, etc, but it may not go under the name of Boerewors and is called after the species type. To be called like this it must contain at least 75% meat from that specific species. A Kuduwors has at least 75% kudu meat. When a sausage is made from different types of game it is called "Wildswors" (Game sausage).
Braaiwors: This is normally an inferior type of "boerewors" and may contain more than 30% fat, soy, tripe (heart and/or lungs) and water.
Boerewors is usually braaied (barbecued), but may be grilled in an electric griller, or fried, or boiled. When grilled or braized, boerewors sheds a great deal of its fat and it is then discarded directly after cooking whilst still in a liquid state.
Boerewors itself does not keep well unrefrigerated. However, in days of yore for long trips or treks, a similar dried or cured sausage called droë wors (English: /druːəvɔrs/) was prepared instead in a process similar to the preparation of biltong. In modern times, droë wors has become popular in its own right as a snack.[1]
See also
Notes
- ^ Van Noort, Elvira (2005-11-07). "Can you trust Wikipedia?". The Mail and Guardian. http://www.mg.co.za/article/2005-11-07-can-you-trust-wikipedia. Retrieved on 2009-04-05.
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