John Myers
Her name sounds kind of delicious: Sucuk. That’s probably what the namesake had in mind because Turkish sausage is very popular in many countries around the Balkans and in the Middle East because of its spicy taste. Here we explain what the sausage is all about and where it originally comes from.
What is sucuk?
Sucuk is Turkish and means sausage. The favorite specialty of the Turks tastes a bit like Italian salami and gets its special flavor from an intense spice mixture of salt, black and red pepper, garlic, cumin, and sumac. In Turkey, ground beef is mostly used for production. In other countries, it is also often prepared with lamb or veal.
From the outside, the Sucuk resembles the German beef sausage. It can be tied as a kangal sucuk (squiggle), parmak sucuk (finger-shaped, short), or büfe sucuk (finger-shaped, long). When sliced open, the dark red sausage is reminiscent of chorizo.
Who Invented Sucuk?
Even if it is considered one of the most popular sausages in Turkey, the actual country of origin of the sucuk is Albania. From there it spread across the entire Balkans to the Middle East and has always been prepared and enjoyed in a wide variety of ways.
Manufacturing
Traditionally, the raw meat is first ground several times, then slowly kneaded with the spices and finally filled into the natural casing. In order to keep the sausage for a long time, curing salt was used for production many hundreds of years ago and then dried in the fresh air. Even today, homemade sucuk is either air-dried or smoked for several weeks.
Eat sucuk
You can eat sucuk raw, fried or grilled. Supposedly, however, the true taste of the sucuk only really unfolds when it is grilled. The aromatic sausage is used in many ways in Middle Eastern cuisine. A typical Turkish breakfast dish with sucuk is called menemen. You can fry the sausage specialty in slices with onions, herbs, and vegetables and prepare it as scrambled eggs, fried eggs, or omelets. If you prefer to enjoy the sausage in the evening, you can also easily prepare it in flatbread like a kebab or put it on pizza.
Attention: Sucuk is often filled in artificial intestines. Of course, you have to remove this before consumption.
Grill sucuk
Before you fire up the grill next time, it’s worth going to the Arabian delicatessen. Maybe you even have a Turkish butcher nearby who can offer you the specialty homemade and without any additives. Sliced, you can put the sausage and some flatbread on the grill and then serve with garlic sauce. By the way, you can quickly mix them with yogurt, garlic, some salt, and a little honey.
Danger! Since the sausage is very salty and intense, it is better to season dishes with it a little more carefully.
Do you have any sausage left? Then just freeze them. In our instructions, we show you how to freeze sausage and ham properly.
