Urutan
Smoked Balinese pork sausage, spiced with galangal, turmeric and lemongrass. Specific to the Hindu community of Bali, it is associated with ceremonies and with babi guling (roast suckling pig).
| Lean pork (shoulder) | 600 g |
| Pork fat (back fat) | 300 g |
| Pork skin, diced (optional) | 100 g |
| Fine salt | 20 g |
| Fresh galangal, grated | 15 g |
| Fresh turmeric, grated | 10 g |
| Lemongrass (tender part), finely chopped | 10 g |
| Shallots, chopped | 20 g |
| Fresh garlic, crushed | 10 g |
| Fresh red chilli, chopped | 5 g |
| Ground black pepper | 2 g |
| Kencur (lesser galangal, if available) | 5 g |
| Hog casing (Ø 28–32 mm) | — |
- Preparing the spice base: Pound together the galangal, the turmeric, the lemongrass, the shallots, the garlic, the chilli and the kencur in a mortar to a fine paste. This is the spice base (bumbu) that gives the urutan its identity.
- Preparing the meat: Cut the pork and the fat into 2 cm cubes. Refrigerate.
- Mincing: Mince through the 6 to 8 mm plate.
- Seasoning: Add the salt, the spice paste and the diced skin. Knead vigorously for 5 minutes.
- Stuffing: Stuff into the hog casings. Form sausages 15 to 20 cm long.
- Drying: Hang in the open air for 12 to 24 hours.
- Smoking: Smoke over a fire of coconut wood or rice husk for 2 to 4 days. The slow, gentle smoking is characteristic.
- Serving: Slice and grill over embers or fry in coconut oil. Accompanies the Balinese nasi campur (white rice with small, varied portions of meats, fish, vegetables, egg, and sambal) or the babi guling (suckling pig spit-roasted and stuffed with a blend of aromatic spices—turmeric, garlic, ginger, lemongrass, and chillies).
The urutan is the pork sausage of Bali, a product of a cultural exception in the Indonesian archipelago. Bali is the only Hindu-majority island of a country of which more than 87 per cent of the population is Muslim, and whose cooking is therefore for the most part without pork. Pork, not being proscribed by Hinduism, unlike Islam, holds a central place in the religious history of the island. It is bound to a pre-existing Austronesian substrate that merged with Hinduism, which arrived from India in the seventh century (the first century for the influence, the fourteenth to sixteenth centuries for the consolidation). This religious singularity permits the consumption of pork and allows the development of a pork charcuterie tradition, isolated in the South-East Asian archipelago, where the other islands, mostly Muslim, do not eat it. The name comes from the Balinese and means ‘roll’ or ‘cylinder’.
Its making is bound to the Balinese ritual cycle. The ceremonies of Galungan and Kuningan, which celebrate the victory of dharma (the cosmic order) over adharma (chaos) twice a year, require offerings of pork prepared in codified forms. The preparation is collective, carried out by the men of the banjar (the neighbourhood community, the basic social unit of Balinese society).
The bumbu, a paste of fresh spices pounded in a stone mortar (cobek), galangal, fresh turmeric, lemongrass, shallots, garlic, red chilli and kencur (a lesser galangal with a camphorous note), pounded together to a homogeneous paste, then worked directly into the forcemeat. Fresh turmeric gives a yellow-orange colour and an earthy note that are absent from dried turmeric. Slow smoking over coconut wood or rice husk for two to four days over the domestic hearth gives a firm texture and a smoky note.
It is eaten grilled or fried, as an accompaniment to Balinese nasi campur or babi guling during the great ceremonies. Its everyday consumption is far more modest than its ritual dimension: it is a dish most often reserved for the festivals.
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