Petrohan sausage is a traditional Bulgarian dry-cured sausage that was very popular during the socialist period in Bulgaria. Many people from my generation remember it well from childhood.
The classic Petrohan is lightly cold-smoked before drying, which gives it a distinctive aroma and flavor. It belongs to the family of Balkan dry sausages, similar to other traditional products that are cured and dried rather than cooked.
Last winter I decided to try making this sausage at home. I made two batches. One turned out excellent, while the other was barely edible. That’s actually quite normal when you start making dry-cured sausages – small differences in fat content, drying conditions, or spices can change the final result.
Below I will first show the original recipe according to the Bulgarian State Standard (BDS), and after that I will share my own modified version, which is easier to make at home.
Petrohan Sausage Recipe (Bulgarian State Standard – BDS)
Ingredients for 1 kg finished product:
- 700 g pork (about 20–25% fat)
- 300 g beef
- 25 g salt
- 0.5 g potassium nitrate
- 2 g sugar
- 3 g dried savory (Satureja)
- 4 g paprika (sweet or hot)
- 3 g black or white pepper
Preparation Method According to BDS
The selection of meat is important. Traditionally, meat from uncastrated animals is not used, because it can negatively affect the flavor of cured sausages.
First the meats are prepared separately.
The beef is cut into pieces weighing about 150–200 g, salted, and left to cure at temperatures down to -4°C.
The pork is cut into slightly smaller pieces (about 110–150 g), salted, and placed in perforated trays so the excess moisture can drain at temperatures between 0°C and 2°C.
After 24 hours, the next stage begins.
The beef is ground using a 4 mm grinding plate, while the pork is ground using a 10 mm plate. This difference in grinding size gives the sausage a better texture.
The meats are then mixed together with the remaining salt and all spices in a meat mixer until the mixture becomes uniform.
The seasoned meat mixture is packed tightly into trays and left to cure for another 24 hours at 3–4°C.
After that, the mixture is stuffed into natural pork casings with a diameter of 30–35 mm. The sausages are usually formed with a length of 30–35 cm.
Once stuffed, the sausages are hung to dry for about 24 hours.
The next step is cold smoking. Traditionally Petrohan sausages are smoked at 19–20°C for 24–48 hours.
The final stage is drying in a curing chamber at:
- 12–15°C temperature
- about 75% relative humidity
Under these conditions the sausages are ready to eat after 7–9 days.
My Homemade Version of Petrohan Sausage
When I made my version, I didn’t have beef available, so I used only pork. In my case I used pork shoulder, which has a good balance between lean meat and fat.
I also don’t have a smoker, so I skipped the smoking step and made a non-smoked version of the sausage.
Ingredients for 1 kg
- 800 g pork shoulder
- 200 g pork fatback
- 25 g sea salt
- 2 g sugar
- 4 g black pepper
- 3 g hot cayenne pepper
- 3 g smoked paprika
Preparation
First I cut the meat into pieces, salted it, and left it overnight in the refrigerator.
The next day I ground the meat, added the spices, and mixed everything thoroughly by hand until the mixture became sticky and well combined. After that I returned the meat mixture to the refrigerator for another day.
After another 24 hours, I stuffed the mixture into thin pork casings.
Then I hung the sausages outdoors to dry under a roof. Since the sausages were drying outside, I covered them with a mesh cloth to prevent flies from landing on them.
Because I was drying them in natural outdoor conditions – with changing autumn temperatures and humidity – the process took much longer than the 7–9 days described in the BDS standard, which assumes professional drying equipment.
When I took the photo, the sausages had already lost about 40% of their weight, but in my opinion they still needed a little more time to dry.
A Mistake I Made (Important Tip)
One important thing I learned while making Petrohan sausage is that fat content matters a lot.
Try to keep the fat at about 20–22% of the total mixture.
Once I made a batch with around 30% fat, and I really didn’t like the result. The texture and taste were not nearly as good as when the fat content was lower.
So if you are making this sausage at home, keep an eye on the lean-to-fat ratio – it can make a big difference in the final product.
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