Making Turkish Air dried Sausage - Sucuk


For years I have had the pleasure of making my own salami and Chorizo and very tasty they are too. I just love that process of making stuff - Can't really explain it other than to say I get a buzz from it. It's exciting to be able to recreate these wonderful air dried charcuterie and a delight to sample them when they are eventually ready to try.



On a recent trip to Turkey I was enjoying a breakfast of warmed black olives, fried eggs, bread and an air dried sausage called Sucuk (pronounced Soojook). Which is a bit of a staple over there. It got me thinking. Could I recreate this back home. Having done a little research I came up with an ingredient list. Now having a list of ingredients is one thing, getting the ratios right is another. The ingredients I researched are - minced Beef, minced lamb, Ground Cumin, Paprika, Cayenne pepper, Black pepper, Garlic, Salt and Sumak. There is some curing salt in this too which contains Nitrite. As this was an air dried sausage I used Prague 2 which also contains saltpetre. 



The predominant flavours are garlic, cumin and paprika with salt pepper and a little sumac all wrapped up in a beef middle casing. Some of the less expensive options are stuffed into synthetic casings but for the purist amongst you the naturally cased sucuk are the ones I'd go for all the time. At the time of making this sausage I didn't have any Sumak so as an alternative I used a little lemon juice.


If you like chorizo then you'll probably like sucuk. It has all the characteristics of chorizo albeit with a different flavour. Frying sucuk released a pungent aroma along with the deliciously coloured and flavoured fat which it releases when heated. This mixture is simply lovely to fry an egg in. 

For my attempt at this Turkish classic I used only Beef which was quite lean. Stuffed into beef middles and separated into four inch sausages. Hung and dried at 12C and RH75 for three weeks.

How did it taste? Well if I'm honest, in terms of appearance, it fitted the look and feel of those I'd bought in the past. When it came to taste, it could have done with a little more Garlic, Cumin and heat in the form of Chili flakes or powder. All in all a pretty good first attempt. Recipe to follow when I finally get the ratios right. 

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