One of Hungary's best-known gastronomic festivals will be held in Békéscsaba between 20-23 October 2022. There will be tastings, sausage-making, cultural and children's programmes.
The first festival was held in 1997: the idea was that Békéscsaba has a long tradition of pig breeding and processing, the tangible product of which is Csabai sausage.
The founders of the festival wanted to preserve and promote this traditional local product, its production and the atmosphere and experience associated with the event, both among the younger generations and the general public. The aim was to organise an event that would involve the public in sausage making and the steps involved in pig slaughtering, as well as a food exhibition, a fair, a wide range of cultural activities, folk dancing and gypsy music.
This is the recipe for the real Csabai sausage:
Ingredients: pork meat of all kinds, without the addition of extra bacon, will be suitably fatty and unrivalled in flavour.
Chopping: traditionally done with knives. Meat cut into strips was sliced into small pieces. It is believed that the meat grinder crushes the meat too much, almost squeezing out the juices, which makes the sausage crumbly and sawdust-like when dry. The meat minced with a knife remains larger grained and juicier, and the sausage made in this way does not crumble, is easier to slice and is more flavoursome due to the meat juices left in it.
However, since the First World War, the use of a meat grinder to make sausage stuffing has become commonplace.
Seasoning: the stuffing mixture is spread about 10 cm thick on the table, sprinkled with chopped garlic, then chopped or whole cumin seeds, then ground strong and then dyeing paprika, and finally salt.
Stuffing: sausages are now stuffed exclusively by machine. A funnel is mounted on a meat grinder attached to the table, the casings are pulled onto the funnel and then the casings are stuffed by rotating the lever, while the machine is constantly fed with sausage filling, and the sausage is made. This operation is carried out by two people. One of them operates the machine (feeds and drives it), the other, standing opposite it, holds the sausage in his hands as it slowly slides down the funnel, adjusts it, and when the machine is loosely filled, uses his grip to thicken the filling in the casing, while pricking it with a current or a thicker needle to remove any air that may be trapped inside. This is important because such air sacks are dangerous, they can cause mould and the sausage can spoil.
The thin sausage is not usually sealed or tied with anything, it is simply “pinched” at both ends. In contrast, thick casings for summer sausages are cut into the right length in advance and the thicker end is closed before stuffing; this used to be done with a loop, but nowadays it is more likely to be tied with string. The thinner end of the finished thick sausage is always tied with twine, and the twine is also used to form an “ear”, by which it can be hung on a pole for smoking and later, during storage. The stalk of a thin sausage is 40-50 cm long, while the stalk of a thick sausage is usually 40 cm long.
Butchers and sausage makers let the already finished, minced sausage filling stand for longer or shorter periods (possibly even a few days), called “drying out”, to remove excess juices. In the case of home-made sausages, it is not usual for the sausage to be left to dry out, but after seasoning, the sausage-makers pour a glass or two of wine and immediately start stuffing the sausage.
Smoking sausages: when smoking sausages, care had to be taken to ensure that the fuel did not catch fire, but only glowed and smoked. The hot smoke, and even more so the flame, melted the fat out of the sausage, creating cavities in it, which could cause rancidity, mould and spoilage. In some cases the sausage was smoked only during the day and rested at night, in others it was smoked day and night, and the fire had to be fed even at night. In the former case, thin sausages were smoked for 6-8 days, in the latter case for 12-16 days, and half that time was sufficient for day and night smoking.
Storage of sausages: in the past - when houses in Békéscsaba had thatched roofs - smoked sausages could be stored in the attic, because the thatched roof protected the sausages from freezing in winter and from thawing in summer. In farmers' houses, the smoked sausages were hung on poles and taken to the pantry, which was frequently ventilated to dry the sausages. The chamber was often whitewashed to prevent worms and moths from settling in it. At the onset of the summer heat, the sausages were wrapped in paper and packed in wood oak, either in crates or in the fireplace of the tiled stove.
Well-prepared, professionally smoked and stored, Csabai vastagkolbász will keep for a year or even longer, retaining its juiciness, beautiful red colour and inimitably delicate flavour.
Source : https://www.csabaikolbaszfesztival.hu/
