Kupati (კუპატი)
Fresh pork and offal sausage with Caucasian spices (coriander, fenugreek, sweet pepper), grilled over embers. The walnuts, worked into the forcemeat, are a signature of Georgian cooking.
| Lean pork shoulder | 500 g |
| Pork liver | 200 g |
| Pork heart | 150 g |
| Pork fat (back fat) | 150 g |
| Onion, finely sliced | 100 g |
| Fresh garlic, crushed | 20 g |
| Fine salt | 20 g |
| Ground coriander | 8 g |
| Ground blue fenugreek (utskho suneli) | 4 g |
| Mild red pepper | 5 g |
| Ground black pepper | 3 g |
| Ground cinnamon | 1 g |
| Walnuts, finely chopped | 30 g |
| Red wine vinegar | 20 ml |
| Hog casing (Ø 32–36 mm) | — |
- Preparing the offal: Trim the liver, removing the bile ducts and membranes. Cut the liver and the heart into cubes. Chill them at 0 °C for 1 hour. The offal must be very fresh, ideally from the same day.
- Preparing the meat: Cut the pork shoulder and the fat into 3 cm cubes. Refrigerate.
- Mincing: Mince the liver and the heart through the 4 mm plate. Mince the shoulder and the fat through the 6 mm plate. The blend of two distinct textures is characteristic of the kupati.
- Seasoning: Fry the onion in a little oil until translucent. Cool. Mix all the minced meats with the onion, garlic, chopped walnuts, vinegar, and spices. Knead vigorously for 5 minutes.
- Taste test: Form a small ball, then pan-fry it quickly to check the seasoning. The kupati should be well spiced and slightly sharp.
- Resting: Refrigerate for at least 4 to 6 hours, ideally overnight.
- Stuffing: Stuff into the hog casings, forming sausages of 12 to 15 cm. Do not overfill: the kupati tends to burst on the grill if the casing is too taut.
- Cooking: Grill over lively wood embers at moderate heat, turning regularly, for 15 to 20 minutes. The skin should be well-golden and lightly crisp. Never prick.
- Serving: Serve at once with tkemali (the sour plum sauce), Georgian bread (shoti or lavash) and fresh herbs.
What is properly Georgian in the kupati is the spicing: the khmeli suneli, a blend whose composition varies from region to region but always includes coriander, fenugreek, bay, marjoram and sweet pepper, and the utskho suneli, ground blue fenugreek. These blends are to Georgian cooking what garam masala is to Indian cooking or ras el-hanout to that of the Maghreb.
The walnuts, finely chopped and worked into the forcemeat, bring a slight bitterness and an added texture. Georgia is one of the countries where the walnut holds a central place in the kitchen: it appears in sauces (satsivi), fillings (badrijani nigvzit), and sweets (churchkhela). Its presence in a sausage is a trait that appears in no other entry of this book.
The red wine vinegar acidifies the forcemeat, improves keeping and balances the richness of the offal. Georgia is one of the world’s most anciently documented wine countries: jars (kvevri) dating from 8,000 years before our era have been found in the Kakheti valley. The use of vinegar in charcuterie is a direct inheritance of that culture.
The tkemali, a sauce of sour wild plums (Prunus divaricata) flavoured with fresh coriander and garlic, is the classic and inseparable accompaniment of the kupati. Its sharpness cuts the richness of the offal and the fat. Georgian families prepare their tkemali in quantity at the end of spring and keep it in jars for the year.
The differences between producers bear on the proportion of offal (reduced in the north for a milder flavour) and on the quantity of walnuts, sometimes omitted in the urban versions of Tbilisi.
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