Boerewors

Boerewors, a type of sausage which originated in South Africa, is an important part of South African and Namibian cuisine and is popular across Southern Africa. The name is derived from the Afrikaans/Dutch words boer ("farmer") and worst ("sausage").

According to South African government regulation boerewors must contain at least 90 percent meat. The other 10% is made up of spices and other ingredients. Not more than 30% of the meat content may be fat. Boerewors may not contain offal or any "mechanically recovered" meat pulp (as recovered through a process where meat and bone are mechanically separated).

Boerewors is made from coarsely minced beef (sometimes combined with minced pork, lamb, or or a mixture of lamb and pork ) and spices (usually toasted 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. It is often served with pap (traditional South African porridge / polenta made from mielie-meal). Boerewors is also very common throughout Namibia, Botswana, Mozambique and Zimbabwe as well as with expatriate South African communities worldwide.

Boerewors does not keep well unrefrigerated. A similar dried or cured sausage called droëwors is prepared instead in a process similar to the preparation of biltong. Droëwors has become popular in its own right as a snack.

Boerewors is most traditionally braaied (grilled over charcoal), but is often cooked under an electric grill, or roasted in an oven, or fried in a pan. When cooking Boerewors, pricking the casing should be avoided at all cost, as doing this will lead to the "wors" drying out during preparation. A local variant of the hotdog is the boerewors roll, or "boerie", which is a piece of boerewors in a hotdog bun, often served with a tomato, chili and onion relish.