Babek-style Lard Sausage is a type of sausage whose main ingredient is lard, seasoned with various spices. Just like with other seasoned cured fats, you can adjust the spices to your own taste here as well. I’ve stuffed babek fat into both natural pork casings and fibrous casings (F60), and it turns out great regardless of the casing type or size.
The cover photo shows the finished product from my second batch this fall, while the preparation pictures are from the third. Both of these batches were made using pork casings, and the first batch was in fibrous casing F60. Here's how it looks when filled into fibrous casing:
Across all three batches, I slightly varied the spices, but here’s a sample recipe for 1 kg of product:
- About 500 g pork fat or becon, cut into cubes or small pieces
- About 500 g pork (shoulder or leg), finely ground
- 30 g salt
- 10 g hot red pepper
- 10 g smoked red paprika
- 3–4 g black pepper
- 3–4 g garlic powder (or 1–2 crushed cloves)
- 30 g finely chopped green part of leek
For my second batch, I used less paprika and didn’t have any leek. I consider that a mistake, even though the batch still turned out well and was appreciated by tasters.
Once the lard is cut into pieces, mix it thoroughly with the minced pork and all the spices. You can also add about 100 ml of ice-cold water during mixing—it helps with the binding, which is important to keep the lard pieces together. After thorough mixing, refrigerate the mixture and let it ferment for 1 to 3 days.
Then stuff into suitable casings—whatever you have available. Tie and hang them up to dry. Since half of the content is lard, which doesn’t shrink much, you can’t measure dryness like you would with sujuk or Elena fillet (where you aim for 40–50% weight loss). Instead, check occasionally by pressing the sausages by hand. When they feel firm, they’re ready to eat.
Bon appetit!
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