Ossenworst

You may ask yourself “What is ossenworst?” Translated it means “ox sausage.” It is a raw beef sausage that came from Amsterdam. It originally was made with oxen meat and contained spices from the Dutch East India Company, henceforth the name. There are supermarket versions but doesn’t come close to tasting like the original. It is similar to steak tartare with more spices added to it or a soft salami.

 Traditionally, premium beef would be aged for about ten days before it is coarsely ground up and spices, such as nutmeg and cloves, are added to the meat and mixed by hand. The mixture is then stuffed into natural beef casings and allowed to ripen for another twenty-four hours. The sausage is then smoked after it has been pre-dried for an hour at a low temperature, where the meat can remain raw, usually for a day or even overnight. Once it’s been made it must be eaten within a few days. As times change, so do recipes, so ossenworst is now sometimes made from lean beef, and it is not always smoked or aged.

 Most people tend to buy it at a neighborhood butcher shop in sausage form or cut as slices. It is a popular broodje, or sandwich, filling and can be found in most bakeries or deli shops. This is one delicacy you shouldn’t miss!