Turkish Sausages – Sucuk
I was first introduced to sucuk, also referred to as Turkish sausages, at a small family-owned Turkish restaurant and instantly fell in love with it. It featured thinly sliced sausage meat with a unique, distinct flavor, placed on top of scrambled eggs. I really wanted to recreate that flavor at home and started experimenting with a variety of ingredients.
What is Sucuk?
Pronounced as ‘soojook’, sucuk is sausage that undergoes fermentation, drying and curing. It typically consists of ground beef, although some incorporate a bit of lamb meat to enhance the fat and flavor. The fat content makes it ideal for cooking and grilling it without adding oil.
The ground beef is flavored with the following basic spices: salt, black pepper, cayenne/paprika pepper and a lot of garlic and cumin. Some variations involve adding additional spices, and the heat level can range from mildly spicy to very spicy. Afterwards, the mixture is piped into sausage casings and undergoes a drying process that lasts several weeks, known as ‘curing’. The salt adds flavor and acts as a preservation agent too. During this curing period, the salt and other spices ferment with the ground meat that changes the consistency of the meat.
My recipe is not the traditional method, but a simpler homemade version.
Steps to prepare Sucuk
First, we prepare a paste by mashing up the garlic cloves, olive oil and Siracha. Note we do not add any water. Then it is mixed with the ground meat. Ideally, you would use meat with a high fat content (80% meat and 20% fat), but if you can’t find it or can’t use it for health reasons, lean meat will also work. Make sure the meat is completely dry.
Knead the spices into the meat very well. This step is crucial because it will help the meat mixture hold together when it is cut. You will end up with a meat mass as shown in the picture below. Cover it well and refrigerate for 3-4 days – do not leave it out. This allows time for the flavors to infuse into the meat.
After 3-4 days, divide the mixture into 3 equal parts.
Roll each part into a log and wrap it tightly in clingwrap. The clingwrap will act as a sausage casing. Make sure to tie the ends well.
Freeze these Turkish sausages. It will make it easy to cut them into slices as shown in the picture below. These slices can be placed in Ziploc bags in the freezer and are ready to cook whenever needed.
How to cook and serve Sucuk?
Pan-fry slices of sucuk WITHOUT adding any butter or oil, cooking them until they turn brown and slightly crispy at the edges
If you are serving it for breakfast, you can use the oil released from the sucuk to cook the eggs. The eggs take on the flavor of the sucuk.
You can serve it on toasted loaves to make sandwiches.
Make Turkish Pide using my recipe and add it as a topping or as a topping on your favorite pizza.
It pairs well with my hummus too (this is our favorite way).
It grills perfectly since it has a lot of fat.
Storing Sucuk
These Turkish sausages freeze quite well and has a fairly long shelf life of 3-4 months if kept frozen.
Turkish Sausage – Sucuk
Ingredients
- 5 cloves garlic
- 2 teaspoon black pepper powder
- 2 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon coriander seeds
- 1/2 teaspoon onion powder
- 1 tablespoon cumin powder
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon powder
- 1/2 teaspoon all spice powder (optional)
- 2 teaspoon Siracha sauce (or any hot sauce)
- 1/2 teaspoon paprika powder (or cayenne pepper)
- 1 teaspoon sumac powder
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 500 gm ground beef (80% meat & 20% fat) (drained well)
- clingwrap
Instructions
- In a mortar or a spice grinder, combine the first 4 ingredients- garlic cloves, black pepper powder, salt and the coriander seeds. Transfer to a larger bowl.
- To it add all the remaining ingredients except the ground beef -onion powder, cumin powder, cinnamon powder, all spice powder, Siracha sauce, paprika powder, sumac and olive oil. Mix well.
- Add the ground beef to the above spiced mixture and knead it very well. If you are kneading with hand, do it for 5 minutes. This step can also be done in the food processor. Keep running the food processor until the meat starts to move in one big mass (this shows it is done).
- Cover the mixture and refrigerate for 2-3 days.
- Then divide the mixture into 3 parts and roll it into a log of about 1 inch diameter.
- Wrap each meat log firmly in clingwrap, tying the ends with a knot and freeze them.
- Once well frozen, cut the knotted ends and remove the clingwrap.
- Using a sharp knife, slice them into discs of 1/2 inch thickness and store in Ziploc bags which must be kept in the freezer.
- When ready to eat, pull out the cut discs and place them on a frying pan on medium high heat. The meat will release oil.
- Cook until it browns and then flip to cook the other side.
Notes
- The spices can be adjust to heat level.
- The meat should not be wet.
- Kneading is an important step. It ensures that the sausage meat will bind well and it will not be crumbly later on.
- Never leave meat outside. Since the amount of salt we used is minimal and we are not using any preservatives, it can increase the risk of contamination.
- Sausage casing can be used in place of clingwrap.
- Cutting them in disc is a matter of convenience.
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