Livestock used to be butchered in the coldest months to lay in supplies for the winter. Parts of the animal that could not be preserved by curing, drying, pickling, smoking or salting were processed immediately after slaughter. Although slaughter traditionally began in November in the countryside, the pots and spits of the Ghentians were lavishly filled with meat at the start of the new year.

Did you know?
In the Middle Ages, people did not let any part of a slaughtered animal go to waste. Children inflated pig bladders and used them as balloons or for water games. Adults used male pigs’ genitals as clubs or to grease kitchen utensils. This brings a whole new meaning to nose to tail eating.

Sausages as a social binder

Nowadays, sausages continue to be a popular food, for instance dried sausages you can order in Belgian cafés to go with a beer, hot dogs or grilled blood sausages to end a winter barbecue. Sausages were not the only food products made from leftover meat. Other examples include Ghent uufflakke made from pig’s trotters, tails and tongues.

Get started

Dried sausage with walnuts and fennel

Droge worst met walnoot en venkel

Ingredients for 10 to 15 pcs.

  • 500 g pork belly
  • 500 g pork shoulder
  • 75 g fresh walnuts (coarsely chopped)
  • 15 g salt
  • 2 g cane sugar
  • 1.5 g white pepper
  • 0.5 g mace
  • 2,2 g fennel seed (toasted)
  • 2 rolls of pig intestines
  • Utensils: mincer

 

1. Cut the pork in small pieces and mix the meat with the toasted fennel seed. Put the mixture in the mincer and add the other spices. 

2. Let the mixture rest for an hour in the fridge and then put it in the mincer once again.

3. Add the coarsely chopped walnuts.

4. Soak the pig intestines in salted water for one night and then rinse thoroughly.

5. Fill the intestines carefully with the mixture.

6. Let the sausage dry in a well ventilated and cool place.

7. Turn the sausage every 2 hours so it dries evenly.

Homemade white sausage

sausages recipe

Ingredients for 20 to 25 pcs.

    • 250 g veal
    • 200 g lean pork
    • 250 g jowl bacon
    • 100 g belly bacon
    • 200 ml raw milk
    • 15 g salt
    • 2 g pepper
    • 1 g mace
    • 2 g marjoram (dried)
    • 20 g shallot (chopped)
    • 1 egg
    • 75 g white bread (without crust)
    • 2 rolls of pig intestines
    • Utensils: mincer

     

    1. Cut the meat in small pieces and put it in the mincer.

    2. Crumble the bread and mix with the milk, egg, shallot and herbs. Make sure you do not heat the mixture while mixing.

    3. Soak the pig intestines in salted water for one night and then rinse thoroughly.

    4. Fill the intestines carefully with the mixture and divide into portions by turning.

    5. Poach the sausages for about 20 minutes in water at a temperature of 75°C. Take the sausages out of the water and shock them in ice water.

     

     

    Culinary
    Foodie
    The Ghent Altarpiece
    Made in Ghent
    Van Eyck