Slavonski kulen

Appearance & taste

The sausage is cylindrical; its exact shape depends on the size of the caecum. On the outside it is evenly light to dark brown, without spots, grooves or cracks. It is tied with hemp twine, which settles into the natural folds of the casing. When cut, meat and fat are well mixed, with no remains of connective tissue; the meat is light to dark red, the fat white to orange. It has no dark ring at the outer edge, or only a faint one.

On the outside the kulen smells of hardwood smoke, inside of fermented pork, paprika and garlic with a slightly smoky note. It is firm, not crumbly and slices well. The taste is strong, of fermented, ripened pork, salty and hot, but neither sour nor bitter. When sold it weighs at least 900 g and contains at most 40 % water and at most 35 % fat.

Production

The pigs are born and fattened in the area. They are descended from the native Black Slavonian pig or are Large Yorkshire, Swedish Landrace, their crosses or three-breed crosses with Duroc. Castrated boars and sows aged 12 to 20 months with a final weight of at least 140 kg are used.

Only the ham, the loin and the rear parts of the long back muscle, the shoulder, the neck and at most 10 % firm back fat go into the sausage. The meat is pressed through a perforated plate of 6 to 12 mm and seasoned with salt, hot and sweet red paprika and garlic. The mixture is filled into the cleaned caecum and tied by hand. The sausage is then fermented, cold-smoked in the smoke of hornbeam, ash or beech, dried and ripened, for at least 150 days in total. Production takes place every year between 1 November and 31 March, with all steps in the area. According to the specification, the high proportion of meat makes kulen one of the most difficult sausages to dry.

Origin & history

The area comprises the counties of Vukovar-Srijem, Slavonski Brod-Posavina and Požega-Slavonia as well as parts of the counties of Osijek-Baranja, Sisak-Moslavina, Bjelovar-Bilogora and Virovitica-Podravina. Slavonia has a moderate continental climate with cold winters and hot summers. Slaughtering and processing traditionally take place in winter, when the low temperatures protect the meat from spoiling.

According to historical sources, kulen has been made in Slavonia for more than 200 years. Pig farming boomed after the withdrawal of the Turks and the establishment of the Military Frontier in the 17th century; at first the focus was on bacon and lard, and only with the butcher’s trade did sausages and kulen gain in importance. At the beginning of winter, families slaughtered heavy pigs they had reared themselves to lay in supplies for the whole year; the slaughter was a celebration with relatives, neighbours, singing and dancing. Because each pig yielded only one kulen, it was meant for special guests or given as a gift, a custom that has survived to this day. The name “Slavonski kulen” first appeared in a newspaper in 1968; “kulen” is the form in the Ijekavian dialect, “kulin” that in the Ikavian dialect.