boerewors, biltong, droewors, drywors, south africa, south african,
speciality sausages, sausages, south african food
Boerewors, Biltong, Droewors :: Bob's Sausages :: Speciality South African
Sausages
boerewors, biltong, droewors, drywors, south africa, south african,
speciality sausages, sausages, south african food
Boerewors is a type of sausage popular in South Africa. Boerewors is
an Afrikaans word boerewors meaning farmers sausage (boere means
"farmers" and wors means "sausage"). Boerewors was probably created biltong
by the South African Boers about two hundred years ago. It combined minced
meat and cubed droewors spek (pork or beef fat ) with spices and
preservatives (mainly vinegar ) which were freely available south africa
from what was the Cape Colony at the time. During their trek through the
hinterland, speciality sausages they made large quantities of sausage
during their outspan (stopover) and that which could not be eaten boerewors
would be hung to dry and taken along for sustenance as they continued their
explorations.
There are sausages many different varieties of boerewors today,
many of which are distinctly flavoured with biltong coriander .
Boerewors may be fried, but is usually braaied (see braai ).
South African cuisine varies widely, representing the food drywors
of indigenous people and of all those who have immigrated since. Strong
influences are therefore African, Malay, south african Dutch, Indian,
French, and Portuguese food. In the more cosmopolitan big cities, one is
south
african food likely to find Morrocan, Chinese, Japanese and many other
cuisines. Typical to South Africa is mielie-meal, boerewors one
of the staple foods, which is usually eaten with beans, gravy, or meat.
The speciality sausage Afrikaans boerewors is a substantial sausage
that is cooked on a "braai". Biltong, a salty dried south african
meat (like jerkey) is another meaty favourite. manchester Bobotie,
a dish of Malay descent, is like a mince pie boerewors with raisins
and with baked egg on top, and is often served with yellow rice, droewors
sambals, coconut, banana slices, and chutney. Ostrich is an increasingly
popular protein, with low cholesterol. biltong Dried fruit chutney
is very popular, especially a local brand called "Mrs Ball's Chutney".
Koeksisters sausages which come in two forms, are a sweet delicacy.
Afrikaans koeksisters are twisted pastries, deep fried drywors and
heavily sweetened. Koeksisters found on the Cape Flats are sweet and spicey,
shaped like south africa large eggs, and deep fried. Other popular
foods are samosas, "hoender-pastei" (chicken pie, traditional Afrikaans),
south
african food Sosaties (grilled marinated meat on a skewer), tomato
bredie (lamb and tomato stew), gesmoorde vis (salted cod with boerewors
potatoes and tomatoes and sometimes served with apricot jam), umngqosho
(semolina and black-eyed peas), and malva biltong pudding (a sweet
spongy pudding with an alcoholic sauce).
Biltong is South African dried meat (mainly beef or game) marinated
with rock salt, speciality sausage coarse black pepper, coarse ground
coriander, and vinegar and then dried. Biltong can be made in long boerewors
strips with the grain of the muscle, or flat pieces cut across the grain.
It is similar biltong to the Inca's charki (or jerky), but biltong
arose from wagon trekkers whose only way to preserve meat in a covered
wagon was to dry it.
At present, biltong can be bought in Southern Africa in grocery stores
in a form of tasty finger-wide stripes boerewors intended for slow
chewing. Its popularity is slowly spreading, and it's now available from
specialist meat suppliers in many other manchester countries, notably
the UK.
The word is derived from Dutch "bil" - rump, and "tong" - tongue.
Droë wors (literally dried sausage )is the dried form of Boerewors,
the South African "Farmers Sausage". It is eaten as a snack along with
Biltong and chips (crisps).
Droë wors is usually made from dun wors (thin sausage) rather then
dik wors (thick sausage). The size in this case refers to the diameter
of the casing used to make the sausage. boerewors Traditionally,
dik wors was made using pork casings and dun wors was made using mutton
casings. The thinner suasage dries south african quicker and thus
is less likely to go bad before it can be preserved. If dik wors is to
be dried, it is usually flattened to provide the maximum surface area to
valume ratio.
Droë wors is often made with a different recipe than wors boerewors
that is intended for cooking (typically on a braai). It often contains
more manchester beef then pork, an mutton wors is rarely, if ever,
dried.
The braai (abbreviation of braaivleis, Afrikaans "roasted meat") started
out as a major drywors social tradition amongst the Afrikaner people
of Southern Africa, though the tradition has since been taken up by South
Africans of all ethnic backgrounds. The word has been adopted by English-speaking
South Africans and can be regarded as another word for barbecue, in that
it serves as a boerewors verb when describing how food is cooked
and a noun when describing the cooking equipment. For example, fish can
be "braaied" and a charcoal grill is the braai.
A braai is a social occasion and often there are specific sausages social
norms, e.g. women rarely braai meat. This is normally the preserve of men
and they gather round the "braai", or "braaistand" (the fire or grill)
and cook the food while women prepare the salads, desserts and south
african food vegetables for the meal.
While wood was the most widely used "fuel" for a "braai", the use of
charcoal has increased. There has been a renewed interest in the use of
wood after the South African Government started with its alien plant removal
program.
Boer is the Afrikaans (and Dutch) word for farmer. It is sometimes used
to refer to Afrikaners in droewors general. When used in historical
settings, it can refer to an inhabitant of the Boer republics.
The word Boer is pronounced differently by English and Afrikaans speakers.
The pronunciation used by Afrikaans speakers refers to farmers (of any
ethnicity), or by some Afrikaners to describe south africa themselves;
while the pronunciation used by English speakers is sometimes used to refer
to all Afrikaners, and is viewed as derogatory by many, particularly when
referring to contemporary Afrikaner people.
Boers were also the natives of southern Africa with Dutch decendence.
In South African history, the Great Trek was an eastward and drywors
north-eastward
migration of the Afrikaners (also called Boers), descendants primarily
of immigrants from western mainland Europe. It began in 1835 as an attempt
to escape the recently imposed British rule, its Anglicisation policies
and the constant border wars, as well as to ease pressure on an overcrowding
biltong
frontier where land was becoming scarce.
The semi-nomadic/migrating farmers of the eastern frontier were known
as Trekboers. Those who lived in the western Cape and did not trek eastward
were south africa known as the Cape Dutch. The isolated pioneers
from the eastern Cape frontier who trekked / migrated into the interior
en masse in a series of migrations later known as the Great Trek were known
as Voortrekkers. A small manchester number of Voortrekkers came
from the western Cape as well. In the 1830s and 1840s an estimated 12,000
Voortrekkers penetrated the future Natal, Orange Free State and Transvaal
provinces to put themselves beyond the reach of British authority, in order
to escape relentless border wars, British colonialism and its Anglicization
polices, as well as to ease pressure on an overcrowding frontier where
land was becoming scarce. While some historians claim that this series
of migrations, later known as the Great Trek, was caused because the Boers
did not agree with the British restrictions on slavery, most Trekboers
did not own slaves, unlike the Cape Dutch, their more affluent cousins
in the western Cape who did not trek eastward and migrate or participate
in the Great Trek. The vast majority of Voortrekkers were Trekboers from
the eastern Cape who engaged in pastoralism. Nevertheless, the British
promulgation of Ordinance 50 in 1828, which guaranteed equal rights before
the law to all "free persons of color", was indeed a factor in Boer discontent,
as is well documented by numerous contemporary sources; the various republics
founded by the Voortrekkers while prohibiting slavery itself would all
enshrine inequality by race into their constitutions. The Great Trek was
mainly the result of the "bursting of the dam" of pent up population migration
and population pressures, as Trekboer migrations eastward had come to a
virtual stop for at least three decades (though some Trekboers did migrate
beyond the Orange River prior to the Great Trek). During the Great Trek
they fought with the Zulus (after Voortrekker leaders Piet Retief and Gerhard
Maritz, along with almost half of their followers, were killed by King
Dingane and his warriors after a cultural misunderstanding over a land
treaty), who occupied the best land in some of the areas the Boers were
attempting to trek into. Although in revenge the forces of Andries Pretorius
killed about 3,000 Zulus in the Battle of Blood River in a classic mismatch
between guns and spears, Zulu resistance changed the direction of the Trek.
The emphasis moved from occupying from the Zulu lands east of the Drakensberg
mountains to the west of them and onto the high Transvaal which was occupied
by peoples devastated by the Mfecane. The Boers established independent
states in what is now South Africa: the Natalia Republic, the Transvaal
Republic (the South African Republic) and the Orange Free State.