Boerewors (singular) is a sausage dish, popular in South African 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 /ˈbuː.rəvɔrs/ with a trilled /r/.
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History
Boerewors 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). Like many other forms of sausage, boerewors contains a high proportion of fat, and is preserved with salt and vinegar, and packed in sausage casings. Traditional boerewors is usually formed into a continuous spiral, as illustrated on the right. Boerewors is often served with pap (traditional South African porridge made from mielie-meal). Boerwors is also very common throughout Southern Africa, as well as with expatriate communities in countries like Australia, the United Kingdom and United States.
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: /ˈdruːəvɔrs/) 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.
See also
Notes
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