Rookworst facts for kids
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| Place of origin | Netherlands |
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| Region or state | Northwestern Europe |
| Serving temperature | warm |
| Main ingredients | Pork and spices |
Rookworst (which means "smoked sausage" in Dutch) is a special kind of Dutch sausage. It's made by mixing ground meat (usually pork) with spices and salt. This mixture is then put into a casing. Long ago, these casings were made from animal intestines. Today, they are often made from bovine collagen, which is a protein from cows.
Rookworst is a bit like a Bologna sausage. It's very popular in the Netherlands and is also sold in other countries, like Great Britain. It's a traditional food often eaten with a Dutch dish called stamppot.
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Making Rookworst
Most Dutch rookworst is made from pork. But now, you can also find rookworst made from turkey in many supermarkets.
Smoking the Sausage
In the past, rookworst was always smoked over burning wood chips. This gave it a special smoky taste. Today, many rookworst sausages you buy are not actually smoked this way. Instead, they have special "smoke flavors" added to them. These flavors make the sausage taste like it was smoked.
A special ingredient called Glucono delta-lactone is also added. This helps to make the sausage last longer and gives it a slightly tangy taste.
Types of Rookworst
There are two main kinds of rookworst you can find:
Cooked Rookworst
This is the most common type of rookworst. It comes already cooked and is usually sold in a sealed package. Because it's already cooked at the factory, you can keep it for many weeks. You just need to heat it up before you eat it. This type is also called Gelderse rookworst. This means it's from, or made in the style of, the Gelderland area in the Netherlands.
Raw Rookworst
This type of rookworst is also known as "butcher's rookworst" or "old-fashioned rookworst." It contains raw meat. This means you must cook it properly before you can eat it safely. Often, this kind of rookworst still uses natural animal intestines for its casing. A common way to cook raw rookworst is to simmer it. This means cooking it gently in hot water, just below boiling point.
Traditional Recipe
A Dutch cookbook from 1940 describes how rookworst was made long ago. It said to use four parts pork, three parts veal (meat from a young cow), and three parts bacon. This mix was salted, and then saltpeter, sugar, and nutmeg were added. The meat was then pushed into pig intestines. The sausages were then air-dried in a cool place. After that, they were smoked at a slightly warmer temperature.
