This recipe is taken from Freddy Hirsch, the South African meat and spice company, from their Best Boerewors Recipe: Expert Meat, Spice & Flavour Tips guide. Boerewors is South Africa’s traditional farmer’s sausage, and no braai is considered complete without it.
What Makes Boerewors, Boerewors
Freddy Hirsch describes boerewors as “a symbol of South African heritage,” built on a few non-negotiables: at least 90% meat content, a coarse grind, no cereal fillers, and a spice profile of coriander, black pepper, cloves and nutmeg. It’s a different dish entirely from South Africa’s other braai staple, lamb curry sosaties — boerewors is a fresh sausage stuffed into natural casing and coiled into one long spiral, not marinated skewered meat.
Ingredients
- 1.5 kg beef (chuck or brisket)
- 750 g pork shoulder or belly
- 15-20 g salt
- 20-30 g coriander, roasted and coarsely ground
- 5 g black pepper
- 1-2 g cloves
- 1-2 g nutmeg or mace
- 125 ml brown vinegar
- Natural casings (preferably beef)
Method
- Cut the meat into cubes and chill it thoroughly — Freddy Hirsch stresses that the meat, equipment and fat all need to stay cold, since warm meat emulsifies during grinding and ruins the sausage’s texture.
- Dry-roast the coriander seeds lightly, then break them into coarse pieces rather than a fine powder.
- Grind the chilled meat through a coarse plate (roughly 4.5-6 mm) — too fine and the mixture turns mushy, too coarse and it won’t bind.
- Combine the ground meat with the spices and vinegar, and mix just until it turns tacky and cohesive; overmixing toughens the texture.
- Feed the mixture into natural casings using a sausage stuffer, filling them firmly but not tightly, and coil into the traditional single long spiral rather than twisting off individual links.
- Rest the sausage for at least 2-4 hours before cooking so the flavors meld.
Cooking It on the Braai
Freddy Hirsch’s guidance for the fire is to cook the coiled sausage over medium coals, turning it infrequently since too much handling causes it to split. The goal is a crisp exterior over a juicy center, and the recipe is explicit that you should never pierce the casing while it cooks — doing so lets the juices run out and dries the sausage. If you’re cooking indoors instead, the same source gives an oven-baked option: 180°C (356°F), 25-35 minutes, flipping halfway through.
Getting the Temperature Right
Freddy Hirsch’s own instructions describe doneness by appearance and feel rather than a thermometer reading, but boerewors is ground meat, so USDA guidance for ground beef and pork applies here: a minimum internal temperature of 160°F (71.1°C), checked with a food thermometer inserted into the thickest part of the coil. Because a whole coiled sausage cooks unevenly along its length, it’s worth checking more than one spot before taking it off the coals.
Other Ways to Cook It
The braai is the traditional method, but Freddy Hirsch also covers a pan version for anyone without a fire going: use a heavy pan or skillet, add a splash of oil only if the sausage is on the lean side, and brown it slowly rather than over high heat, which is the same logic as the braai — gentle, even heat keeps the casing from splitting and the inside from drying out before the outside browns.
Getting the Fat Ratio Right
The recipe’s meat ratio — roughly 70% beef to 30% pork — and a fat content of 20-30% of the total mix are what keep boerewors from drying out on the grill. Freddy Hirsch is blunt about the trade-off: too little fat and the sausage turns dry and crumbly, too much and it goes overly rich, so a little extra pork belly is the usual fix when a batch comes out lean.
Keep reading
- Lamb Curry Sosaties: A South African Braai Classic
- Moroccan Kefta Kebabs: Taste of Maroc’s Recipe
- Nigerian Suya: Grilled Beef Skewers with Yaji Spice
- Smoked Sausage: 225°F Method and USDA Temperatures