South African Boerewors (Farmer’s Sausage)

Start by rinsing the casings in some water. Then store them in a bowl of water until ready to use so they don’t dry out.

Dry-fry the coriander seeds in a hot pan. Keep the seeds moving around in the pan so they don’t burn. They should be a dark brown colour when they are ready and of course the aroma is stunning. Remove them from the pan and allow them to cool. Using a clean coffee bean grinder, grind the cooled coriander seeds until they are fine.

Mix all the ingredients except the casings in a large bowl. Gently mix the ingredients together with your hands until it’s all combined.

Next, pull the sausage casing onto the sausage nozzle of your machine. To get it going and to prevent air bubbles in the casing, allow a small bit of the sausage mixture out of the nozzle to begin with. Next, tie a knot at the end of the casing and pull it firmly back against the opening of the nozzle. Turn on the machine and push the meat mixture through the food grinder. Hold onto the casing and allow the sausage to fill as much or as little of the casing as you’d like but if the casings are filled too tightly, there is the risk of them splitting during cooking. It’s easier if you have a helper to feed the mixture into the top of the food grinder.

For borewors, it should be as thick as a bratwurst. Boerewors come in large coils so keep feeding the meat mixture into the machine and allow the casing to get filled, looping the filled casing into a coil on the counter/tabletop as you go. Once you have a large enough coil (whatever size you prefer), cut the casing and tie a knot at the end of the coil to prevent the sausage mixture from escaping.

Grill the borewors coil on a hot grill until browned on all sides and no longer pink. When done, remove it from the grill and allow it to rest for a few minutes. Chop into smaller pieces, either bite-size or bratwurst size and enjoy with chips, potato salad, coleslaw and corn on the cob or make a ‘boerie’ (boo-ree) roll with a fresh hot dog bun, fried onions and Mrs. Balls Chutney.

Boerewors freeze well, both uncooked and cooked.