Namibian boerewors
Adaptation of South African boerewors to game meat from the Namibian desert (oryx, kudu, springbok). Namibia, a former German colony and then under a South African mandate, inherited both the Afrikaner braai and the charcuterie of Windhoek.
| Game meat (oryx, kudu or springbok), lean | 500 g |
| Lean beef (chuck) | 200 g |
| Pork fatback or beef fat | 300 g |
| Fine salt | 18 g |
| Coriander seeds, toasted and ground | 10 g |
| Ground black pepper | 3 g |
| Grated nutmeg | 2 g |
| Ground clove | 0.5 g |
| Ground allspice | 1 g |
| Wine vinegar | 25 ml |
| Wide beef or hog casing (Ø 32–38 mm) | — |
- Preparation: Cut the meat and the fat into 3 cm cubes. Refrigerate at 0 °C for 2 hours. Game meat is leaner than beef, which makes adding fat indispensable to avoid a dry sausage.
- Mincing: Mince through the coarse 8 to 10 mm plate. Coarse mincing is an essential feature of the boerewors: the texture must be open, with visible pieces. Never mince finely.
- Seasoning: Mix the salt, the toasted coriander, the pepper, the nutmeg, the clove, the allspice and the vinegar. Add to the minced meats. Knead for three to four minutes, without crushing the texture.
- Stuffing: Stuff into a wide casing, forming one continuous spiral. Do not twist into individual sausages: the boerewors is grilled as a single spiral.
- Resting: Refrigerate for at least 12 hours, ideally 24, to let the spices penetrate the meat.
- Braai cooking: Prepare a wood or charcoal fire and let the embers reach a medium-high heat. Lay the whole spiral on the grill. Grill for 4 to 5 minutes on each side, turning only once if possible. Do not prick the sausage: the skin must stay intact to hold the juices. The boerewors is done when it is firm to the touch and golden on both sides. Cut into portions to serve, with pap (maize polenta), chakalaka (a spiced vegetable relish) or in a roll (boerie roll).
The Namibian boerewors is one of the three declensions of the boerewors treated in this book, alongside South African boerewors and Karoo wors. All three rest on the same structure: coarse mincing, dominant toasted coriander, stuffing in a continuous spiral, then cooking at the braai. What separates them is the raw material.
Its closest kinship is with the Karoo wors, with which it shares the principle of substituting game for beef. But the two sausages belong to distinct ecosystems and legal frameworks. The Karoo wors is produced on the semi-desert plateau of the South African Karoo, from species (springbok, kudu, oryx) fed on the aromatic scrub of the region. In South Africa, the 1990 regulation requires boerewors to contain beef, pork, lamb, or goat; once game is used, the product must be labelled with the species name and can no longer be sold as boerewors. The Karoo wors draws its very identity from that regulatory distinction. In Namibia, the legal constraints are different, and game boerewors is commonly sold under this name in butchers and supermarkets. The raw material differs too: Namibian game comes from the Namib Desert and its fringes, of which the oryx (gemsbok) is the emblem. Kudu, springbok and eland follow. Some Windhoek butchers offer zebra, ostrich or warthog, but these variants remain marginal. The game farms, a pillar of the Namibian rural economy, each produce their own version according to the species present on their land.
Namibia’s history, as a former German colony (Deutsch-Südwestafrika, 1884–1915) and then under the South African mandate (1920–1990), superimposed two charcuterie heritages: the German tradition, visible in the wurst of Windhoek and Swakopmund, and the Afrikaner braai. The Namibian boerewors clearly belongs to the second, but the coexistence of the two traditions on the same territory is a particularity that neither the Karoo nor South Africa as a whole possesses.
Since the game is leaner than beef, adding pork or beef fat is necessary to reach the fat content that ensures the juiciness sought in cooking. The boerewors is eaten exclusively grilled at the braai, with pap (thick maize porridge), chakalaka and boerie rolls, the filled buns equivalent to the hot dog. Its spread remains regional: it is present in the supermarkets and butchers of Namibia and South Africa, and in the expatriate communities of southern Africa, without a notable breakthrough onto international circuits.
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