Dry Wors / Droewors - 250g - Original Flavour

Product Information

All of the above, actually. All three names can be used to identify Droewors which in Afrikaans literally means “dry sausage”. The most important thing to remember when making charcuterie is your raw products has to be of great quality, clean and fresh. Although droewors and biltong share common roots and ingredients, being made by the same group of people at the same time and made with the same meats and spices, there is one obvious difference between them.

Italian cured salumi, which are dried slowly in relatively cold and humid conditions. A further difference is that droëwors does not contain a curing agent as found in a traditional cured sausage. A direct result of this is that droëwors should not be kept in moist conditions as mold can begin to form more easily than would happen with a cured sausage. Custom-built curing chamber - Basically a fridge with a fan, heating source, humidifier and dehumidifier plugged into a thermostat and humidistat. This is what I use. This way you get to control the environment it cures at fully. Always use very lean beef. However, even lean beef might have a certain amount of fat in it. Make sure that there is no more than 5% fat in the mix otherwise you will end up with a very greasy dry wors! A fridge - Make sure it's spotless and not overcrowded with other foods. Fridges are pretty efficient at drying out food that's left uncovered, and likewise with curing meat. Don't let the meat touch any other meat or the sides of the fridge. Every part of the meat should be able to breathe and dry.

Using pestle and mortar, grind the dry spices. Sift to remove husks and then mix with the remaining spices and brown sugar. Mix together the meat and the fat. The less fat you use, the leaner wors will be. Note: if you use too little fat, the droëwors could become dry.

Hang to dry in your dryer at 18 - 20 °C or 65 - 68 °F for about two weeks. You can also hang it in a fridge if you do not have a dryer but do not use a dehydrator as the temperature is too high and pork fat will start to melt. While the meat chills and your casings are soaking, you toast the spices in a dry pan. Toast them separately because they roast at different speeds. When it's fragrant and nicely roasted, you let it cool down before blitzing into a powder. I usually blitz the coriander separately so that it's not completely fine, but this is not a set rule. It's more for those who grew up in South Africa and used to the coarse ground coriander. Meat - Venison, deer or other game can all be used. It will be leaner and you definitely want to add some beef fat.

How to dry wet droewors

It originated much the same way as biltong did. Out of a necessity to preserve meat when the Voortrekkers went on their long expeditions. We ran out of droewors within days and I decided to think of ways to make the droewors without having to buy an industrial meat grinder and sausage stuffer. I do own a Kitchenaid sausage stuffer, and I realized it was totally doable with small quantities.