Dry Wors or Droë Wors (in Afrikaans) is a favorite South African snack that dates back to the early voortrekkers. Although it is based on the traditional, coriander seed spiced boerewors (wors) sausage, it has it’s own recipe and should not be made from regular wors that is used for cooking.
The spices are very similar to traditional wors but the meat ingredients are slightly different as the meat is dried slowly as opposed to cooked over a hot fire and therefore does not include pork or veal as this meat tends to go rancid if dried slowly. In addition, you should use lean beef with no more than 5% fat in the mix to avoid ending up with fatty, greasy dry wors. The sausage used is also thinner than regular cooking wors, enabling it to dry quicker and therefore less likely to spoil. Although not recommended, slightly thicker sausage can be used but should be flattened to dry quickly.
As opposed to traditional European dried sausages (e.g. Italian salami or German dry worst), dry wors is usually dried quicker and in warm, dry conditions whereas European dry sausage is dried more slowly and in relatively cold and/or humid conditions. Dry wors also does not contain a curing agent as found in a traditional cured sausage. This means that dry wors should be kept as dry as possible to prevent mold which can more easily begin to form than with a cured sausage or biltong. We recommend eating as soon as possible!
Ingredients:
- 3 lbs beef (or venison if available) – the leaner the better. Do not use pork as it does not dry well (goes rancid). The final mix should have no more than 5% fat in it – so about 1/4 lb (or one cup) of cut-up beef fat (again, no pork). Too much fat will make for greasy dry wors…
- 1.5 tablespoons of salt.
- 1/2 tablespoon ground black pepper.
- 2 tablespoons coriander (seeds can be slightly cooked in a pan and ground – or use coriander powder).
- A few ground cloves.
- Pinch of nutmeg powder.
- About 1 cup vinegar (malt vinegar or white vinegar both work fine).
- Narrow (thin) sausage casings. Recommend no larger than 20mm (approx. 3/4 inch). Tip: collagen casings are less messy and easier to use.
How:
- Cut all the meat into small cubes, mix together and grind to a coarse texture. Tip: to improve texture, put the meat in the freezer for 20 minutes prior to grinding and mixing. This will keep the fat from spreading over the beef.
- Add dry spices and vinegar and mix together manually (lightly)
- Let the mix sit for 2-4 hours in a fridge and prepare (soak) the thin casings in water
- Fit casings to sausage maker and fill with mixture, do not overfill
Dry the wors in your biltong box for 3-4 days (longer if necessary). The wors should be dry and break easily.
Note – all-in-one sausage grinder and stuffer machines are relatively reasonable. Alternatively, you can opt for a separate sausage / meat grinder and stuffer.
16 responses to “Making Dry Wors (Droë Wors)”
Hi there, I really hope you can please help me! I have literally just bought a Smartlife by Kambrook food dehydrator from Clicks. I am presuming the blog writter is South African & knows Clicks!?
I bought it for fruit & veg mainly, but really want to make Droe Wors & Biltong too, but the instructions say that ALL meats must be cooked first as there is not enough heat to kill the bacteria & pathogens present in raw meat! Now I don’t know what to do! I simply can’t imagine how they will turn out if they have been pre-cooked to 160, degrees as the information states! In our previous Biltong maker, we never pre-cooked anything first, so I don’t understand why this machine is different!
Please reply, as I need to know if I should keep this or not! I wanted to make Biltong & Droe Wors to sell in my guest house, but don’t want to risk killing some poor guest!
Kind regards,
Lez
Hi Lez, thanks for the question. I am indeed South African (living in the USA) and do know Clicks..! As far as dehydrating machines, I have an Excalibur that has an adjustable thermostat that can heat to 165 F. I could not find on the website what temperature the Smartlife heats to – but it could be in the book that came with the machine. I have used a dehydrator for making biltong stokkies (thin sticks) and also thin flat pieces of biltong and jerky (I first cure/brine in vinegar and apply salt – both help draw out moisture). For larger pieces of biltong I use a wooden biltong box since the large pieces need to hang vertically as opposed to lying flat. For dry wors I would recommend to follow the Smartlife directions of pre-heating meat to 160 degrees F since it contains more fatty meat that can go rancid easier – and then finish the dry wors in the dehydrator. To avoid “cooking” the dry wors you can try leaving the oven door open an inch to get airflow. Hope that helps, let me know how it goes!
Max
Hi Max,
Could you please tell me how you make droewors in the excalibur I found out how for biltong lol but the droewors eludes me. I am really not sure how this works but I do hope for a reply. Thanks for your time.
Sha
Hi Sha, I have not made dry wors in a flat dehydrator like the excalibur. I would think it would be best to hang the dry wors instead of laying flat. One option might be to make the dry wors as thin as possible. Good luck and let me know how it goes!
Following
Thin casing! Thin circumference or thin walls? Would you recommend sheep casing? They have a thinner circumference than hog casings.
Yes, a thinner casing for dry wors is best!
Can I hang dry wors in the garage?
I do it with biltong but that is “cured” with viniger, will the dry wors be safe or go off
Hi Grant, yes you should be able to hang in the garage. Make sure that you have air movement (e.g. fan). You should try to make sure it is also safe from flies or other insects. If you use less fat in the dry wors you will also have less risk of it going rancid / off.
You can “hang” in the excaliber, use only the top shelf, and hang your sausage or meat off the shelf rungs.
I use an excaliber myself. I don’t use any heat making biltong or droewors, just an extended drying time on the lowest setting, mildly warm.
I dry jerky on the trays with heat, on the meat setting
Hi there
is it ok to use hog cassings as to sheep?
thanks
janine
Hi Janine, yes, you can use hog casing but it is usually larger (in diameter) and therefore sheep casing is better for dry wors. Collagen or synthetic casings are also a popular option. If you make a wider dry wors just make sure to dry it out for long enough.
Hi. Hope you can help me with an Ostrich droewors recipe. Cannot find any recipes online. I was told to use 50% sheep/lamb tail fat and 50% ostrich. This seems to be a lot of fat. Also have no idea how much spice to use. Will it be the same amount used for venision or beef droewors? Many thanks.
Hi Sharon, good question! Ostrich meat is a very healthy option and could be great in dry wors. I would use the same ratios and ingredients as for the beef recipe. Note that Ostrich meat is naturally low in fat at approx. 2 grams per 3 Oz serving whereas lean beef (used in biltong and dry wors) is approx. 15 grams per 3 Oz serving, so if you wanted to use a bit more fat that should be ok and you can adjust from there. Let us know how it turns out!
Morning,what is the best fat to use in drywors,beef brisket fat or sheep tail fat(persie sheep)
Thanks for the question. I recommend using beef fat, definitely not pork fat. I have not used sheep fat but have read that it is not ideal. Some beef already has a high enough fat content that you don’t actually need to add more (e.g. 80/20% lean/fat). Let us know how it turns out!