Saturday, May 2, 2015

Braaitime Droëwors

braaitime droewors
Braaitime is a brand of gourmet cured meats based out of Keansburg, NJ. The company was started in 2005 by Warren Pala. Warren immigrated from South Africa in 2001 and sought to introduce Biltong and Droëwors to Americans.

Warren claims to be the only brand of biltong & Droëwors holding true to the old world methods. "All other makers of Biltong have followed the 'jerky' method in order to achive USDA approval. They cook the meat to a certain temperature for a certain amount of time". Warren was able to get USDA approval with the help of local Italians who had already convinced USDA inspectors that their prosciutto & capacolo are shelf stable.

Droëwors is a type of dry sausage popular in Africa. It's a beef sausage in natural lamb casing, spiced in clove, nutmeg, coriander, and black pepper. Braaitime uses whole muscle Angus Beef, and also offers Droëwors in other flavors like Peri Peri, Chorizo, and Hatch Green Chile.

Ingredients


Beef, salt, vinegar, black pepper, coriander, nutmeg, clove, lamb casing.


Review


The first thing I taste is a light saltiness and an earthy, meaty flavor. In the chewing, I pick up the nutmeg and clove. There's also a faint tanginess.

The flavors that seem to define this Droëwors is largely the nutmeg and clove, along with a light saltiness. When added to the natural meat flavor, it tends to remind me of clove tobacco or clove tea. There's also a fatty flavor that comes in due to small bits of fat mixed into the meat. The overall flavor is similar to American breakfast sausage, but with seasonings of clove, nutmeg, and coriander, and tasting more earthy.

The chewing has an initial, dry crunch through the lamb casing, but gives way to a chewy, meaty/fatty inside. It's completely different than a Slim Jim or meat stick, but yet still meaty. The lamb casing tends to clump together in the chewing and produces some unchewable tissues.

In terms of heat, this Original variety is totally mild.

Other Flavors of Droëwors


Braaitime sent me additional flavors...

Chorizo: The classic flavor of Mexican-style chorizo comes through with some intensity. Made with beef instead of pork, the paprika and smoked pepper flavor is unmistakable, but yet not hot.

Peri Peri: I can pick up the South African Peri Peri seasoning really well, similar to cayenne but more earthy, and what I think is a little bit more vinegar. It's clearly spicy, registering as "Medium" on my personal heat scale.

Verdict


This Droëwors from Braaitime is provides amazing seasoning blend of coriander, nutmeg, and clove mixed with an earthy, natural meat flavor. I love how the initial crunch of the lamb casing gives way to the moist, chewy meaty inside.

You can buy this biltong pre-sliced, but I recommend buying the unsliced, and slicing it yourself to get the full experience of slicing it thick and getting the full meat flavor. I found that it's great with a piece of sun dried tomato.

Rating: Best

droewors

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