Gyulai kolbász

Appearance & taste

The sausage is 26 to 40 mm in diameter and 18 to 26 cm long. Its somewhat knobbly, bulging surface is reddish brown, and the grains of fat show through the casing. It is firm and flexible and easy to slice. On the cut surface, evenly distributed grains of meat and fat 4 to 6 mm in size lie in a meat paste. Smoking and spices give it a pleasant smell; its taste and aroma are balanced.

The sausage contains at least 15 % meat protein free of connective tissue protein and at most 5 % salt, and its water activity is at most 0.91. It is sold in pairs with a round label and vacuum-packed or packed in a protective atmosphere. For slicing, longer sausage sticks are made instead of pairs, sliced without the casing and packed in a protective atmosphere.

Production

The meat and fat come from pigs fattened to at least 135 kg: crosses of the Hungarian large white meat pig with Mangalica and “magyar lapály”, as well as Hampshire, Duroc and Piétrain pigs and their hybrids. The pig halves are boned exclusively by hand, which allows the sinews to be removed particularly thoroughly. Leg, shoulder, thick flank, belly, loin, neck and rib piece are used, as well as firm back fat without glands.

The meat and fat are minced by machine to 4 to 6 mm while frozen or pre-chilled and mixed with the spices and nitrite curing salt. The mixture is filled in pairs into pork small intestine, or for slicing into water-vapour-permeable artificial casing; the ends are closed with metal clips. The sausages are then smoked for 2 to 3 days below 20 °C and at 70 to 90 % humidity in the smoke of slowly smouldering hardwood logs, as a rule beech.

They then ripen and dry slowly at 16 to 18 °C. The humidity is gradually lowered from 90 to 92 % to 65 to 70 % so that no crust forms. After about 14 to 16 days a water activity of 0.91 is reached and drying is complete. This is followed by post-ripening, during which the moisture in the packed product evens out, the cut surface becomes more uniform and the consistency finer.

Origin & history

Gyula and Békéscsaba lie in the south-east of the Great Hungarian Plain at an altitude of 87 to 88 m, in one of the lowest-lying areas of Hungary. The climate is moderately continental, and rivers shape the landscape and climate; near Gyula lies the Mályvád forest with its many old trees. Cereal growing and livestock farming have a long tradition here.

In the 1880s the area became an important resting place for the trade-fair caravans travelling from the Balkans to Vienna, above all for livestock traders. Forests and rivers offered space to rest, feed, water and bathe the herds, and in the town injured livestock could be slaughtered and processed. Butchers and master butchers settled there for this purpose and to supply the many strangers; this gave rise to the town’s later meat industry. As early as the beginning of the 20th century, some master butchers took their goods to larger national and international fairs. Even after the Second World War, after the nationalisation and merging of the businesses, the sausage continued to be made.