Droewors, Bit of a Safety Concern

[Snarlingiron]

Ok, my buddy from South Africa just returned from a visit with a South African cook book in tow. He copied the recipes from it for Droewors and Boerewors. He of course wants me to make some up and I am more than game. However I am a bit disturbed that the recipe for Droewors does not include any type of cure. In my research, I have seen it stated that traditionally this is the case because the sausage is first of all beef, is stuffed into small diameter casings, and dried quickly rather than in a slow moist environment like Italian cured sausages. As those of you who know me, are aware I'm not averse to giving something different, or contrary to the norm a go, but I really don't want to make anyone sick. Here is the recipe:

Dried sausage

Sausage for drying is made as follows:
3 kg beef
500 g mutton tail fat
20 ml (4 teaspoons) salt
5 ml (1 teaspoon) pepper
50 ml (4 tablespoons)ground roasted coriander
2 ml ( 1/2 teaspoon)ground allspice
2 ml (1/2 teaspoon) ground cloves
25 ml vinegar
85 g sausage casing

|. Season the meat with salt, pepper and spices.
2. Mince all the ingredients together coarsely and fill casings loosely
with the mixture.
3. Hang up to dry in a cold, dry place, ensuring that the sausages are
protected from flies and dust. Makes 3.5 kg.

So, what say you guys, should I give it a go without cure? Or should I play it safe and substitute for the salt with TQ?

[Richtee]

Curious Arrdvark will likely chime in here...

Me... nope.

[Fishawn]

My first thought is cure #1 at the proper amount instead of TQ

[Snarlingiron]

Me... nope.

Dang, Rich I was sure you were going to have an answer.

[Richtee]

Dang, Rich I was sure you were going to have an answer.

I do... they are counting on the salt and vinegar to make things inhospitable to bugs.

Nope..not me.

Alex has made this stuff. Curious Ardvarrk. Search that out.

Me...nope.

[Hoser]

Well, there is a very valid reason that they make cure #1

I don't think I'd serve this to anyone else unless I used the cure.

[DanMcG]

Personally I would even think about making it without cure included.

[Texas-Hunter]

Add the proper amount of cure #1 and call it good, or er Safe!!!

[curious aardvark]

yep made these - they take a longish time to dry - you have to dry them till they're crispy.

I Just had the biltong box then - these days I'd use the dehydrator. Actually (reads his original thread) it looks like I used the dehydrator after all :-)
Ah - the first batch - the ones I stuffed - I dreid in the biltong box for a couple of weeks. Thereafter I've used the dehydrator.
145f for 2 days.
If you want to keep them authentic then dry at around 110 till crispy - probably 2-3 days.
And no they won't go off.

Switch the cloves and allspice for coriander. And it won't just tastes like cloves :-)

(works out the amounts in recipe posted by snarlingiron) - that's not right.

nearly 8 lbs of meat and 20 grams of salt ?
at 2% 3.5kg should be 70grams of salt. Hell at 1.5 % which is as low as I ever go on salt and that's just for flavour. it would still be 52 grams.
And 25 ml vinegar ?
not enough.

So do not use that recipe - it could definitely kill you.

And there is absolutely no reason you couldn't use cure.

Here's the recipe I came up with - fortunately tas rescued it from smurf and posted it on the foods of the world forum.


here's my recipe - it works and it's safe. Spot any significant differences

1 lb lean beef
8oz fatty lamb - breast is best

cut beef and lamb into small pieces and mix. trim all fat from beef and leave all fat on lamb.

Spices
5 tsp salt
4tsp whole coriander seed (3 tsp ground coriander)
4 tsp brown sugar
1 tsp whole pepper corns (or 1tsp cbp)
1 tsp garlic powder

mix and or grind well and put to one side

Vinegars
50 ml balsamic vinegar
25 ml black rice vinegar
25 ml cider vinegar
1tsp lea and perrins

mix well

50:50 balsamic and cider vinegar will do if you don't have anything more exotic. In fact any strong vinegar can be mixed with the balsamic. Sherry vinegar is also good as are white or red wine vinegars.

Add vinegars to meat and stir thoroughly.
Add spice mix to meat and stir thoroughly.

Also these days I would probably grind and then mix.

I miss my mate


So you need more fat, more salt, more vinegar and add some cure if you want - can't hurt and won't make any difference to the outcome :-)

5 tsp for 1.5 lb of meat is probably a little high (lmao - yeah just a little) - particularly if you're using cure. I'd drop the total salt content (including cure) to 2% of the total meat weight.
Bear in mind this stuff gets dried to the crsipy stage so the final level of salt in the droewors is going to be double the starting percentage - at the least.
So 1.5lb = 0.68 kg. total salt at 2% would be 14gms (rounded up to nearest gram)
Work out how much cure #1 you need and then make it up to 14 gms with seasalt.

For 1.5lb of meat.
So cure#1 is generally 2.5gms per kg. so for .68 = 1.7gms cure and 12.3gms seasalt.

But under NO CIRCUMSTANCES use the recipe from that cookbook.

It would actually produce a fermented sausage, with whatever bacteria was around at the time and end up with the surface covered in moulds.
Whoever wrote that got their numbers VERY wrong.

[Snarlingiron]

Thank you so much CA. I searched on this board, but got no hits... now I see why. This is going to be a really interesting project. Beside my South African friend we have a software engineer working here also that is from Algeria. So, since both involve lamb, I'm thinking I'm going to make Droëwors, Boerewors and Merguez. So, sausages from North and South Africa. Should be fun, and I will do a post on it.

Apparently, Droëwors is pretty much specialty stuff, I have both Marianski books, Kutas and Ruhlman and none of them mentions Droëwors. Merguez references are easier to come by probably because it became popular in France.

Thanks again, and I will pay particular attention to the salt and vinegar ratios on the Droëwors.

[curious aardvark]

well they're not fermented and are an acquired taste.

The lamb fat in the mix puts a lot of americans off.

Basically it's a boerwors mix with a little extra vinegar dried till crispy.
If they don't snap cleanly in half - they're not droer wors (literally: 'dry sausage')

So what's this merguez stuff then ?

[Snarlingiron]

From our favorite source, Wikipedia:
"Merguez is a fresh sausage made with lamb, beef, or a mixture stuffed into a lamb-intestine casing. It is heavily spiced with cumin and chili pepper or Harissa, which gives it its characteristic piquancy and red color, as well as other spices such as sumac, fennel, and garlic."

It is popular in Northern Africa and came to be popular in France due to the French colonial involvment in Algeria and Morocco.

I am a huge fan of spicy stuff, so this should be a good one for me.

[IrishChef]

well they're not fermented and are an acquired taste.

The lamb fat in the mix puts a lot of americans off.

Basically it's a boerwors mix with a little extra vinegar dried till crispy.
If they don't snap cleanly in half - they're not droer wors (literally: 'dry sausage')

So what's this merguez stuff then ?

Think of it as the African, Halal version of chorizo. Its kinda tasty.......