The quest for good boerewors continued....

I did a previous post quite a long time back about the boerewors one buys in and around Cape Town. I am on a continual look out for decent wors to have with my braai, or indeed, have a boerewors only braai.

A few years ago we went on holiday to Mpumalanga. We stayed over for a few nights in Graskop at a self catering establishment and bought some of their local wors to braai. It was delicious and we had some more the next night and the night after that. Since then I have been looking for wors of the same standard. 

When I had a "normal" job I used to travel the whole of the Western and some of the Northern Cape for business. One time I took a cooler box along and bought a small piece of wors at the butchers shop in every dorpie that I visited. I labelled them all so I would know which was which. When I got home, I lit the braai and had a boerewors "taste off". Sad to say, most of them were disgusting and not one of them was really nice. 

Forget about any supermarket wors. I  have tried Checkers "Championship" wors. Nasty stuff. I thought Woolworths might have good stuff and tried a few different ones of theirs. Definitely not.

In May this year we spent a week in Prince Albert and I bought some wors at the local butcher there. It was delicious, the best I had eaten in many years. When I went back for more, I complimented the butcher on it and he advised that his wors is 100% meat with no additives such as cereal and water to bulk the weight up. I did bring a couple of kilo's home but sadly that did not last long. Unfortunately Prince Albert is 400km away from me, so it is not feasable to quickly shoot up there to buy more. Believe me, I have actually considered it!

I have spent hours on the Internet researching forums etc on the best places to get your boerewors.
I came up with a few and the fist one was Rudi's wors, sold at the Stellenbosch slow food market. It was "interesting" but maybe a bit too "Heavey" for me. (Heave is what you do just before you throw up). The next was Joey's wors from his outlet in Brakenfell. Not bad but I did not like the texture of it. The texture was a bit like sawdust. However it was well spiced and seasoned. The last was from Eatwell Butchery in Bellville. Quite a few people raved about it and I bought some on the way to a camping trip a few weeks ago. Now this one had a perfect texture and balance of fat to meat. However it lacked a bit in the seasoning and spice dept.

While on the same camping trip, my brother in law, Robert, who is an ex Gautenger, mentioned that he had heard that the butcher in the little town of Wolsley made good boerewors. He said that he was passing there on his way home to Riebeeck Wes and would stop and buy some. A few days later my sister in law, Cynthia texted me to say that at last she had found a wors as good as anything in Gauteng.

Now, I do not know if any of you know Wolsley well, but in my opinion it is a bit of a hell hole with no attractions or the charm of many small dorpies like Darling or the 2 towns in the Riebeeck Valley. However, I was champing at the bit to get hold of some of this boerewors and yesterday we went on a leisurely drive over Bains Kloof with the sole purpose of obtaining said wors in Wolsley. When we got to the butchery it was a bit of a traumatic experience as the local farm workers had obviously just got their Xmas bonus and pay and it was crowded with at least 150 people buying meat. Anyway I persevered and walked out with 4 kilograms of their thick wors. I took a camping fridge along to keep it in.

Video of our drive.

Anyway last night after we got home and I had cut it up into portions, vaccuum packed and put all but one into the freezer, I fired up the braai. I am happy to report that the results were great. Just as good as the Graskop wors and if slightly different to the Prince Albert wors, also as good. Lovely texture, well seasoned and spiced and very juicy. Had some more for breakfast today to just a "double check".

A Perfect Braai.

Yesterday was a lovely day in terms of weather after a spell of a few days of rain and cold, which is usual for our winter here.

Colleen suggested we take advantage of the nice day and have a lunch time braai.

A month or so ago we had spent a week camping in Prince Albert in the Karoo and had bought home a few kilograms of the local boerewors with us. I had tried it out while we were there and it was undoubtedly the finest wors I had tasted in 20 years. I froze it in vaccuum packs to use as and when we needed it. 

I decided some nice lamb loin chops would go down well with the wors, so after taking a pack of wors out the deep freeze went down to our local Pick n Pay supermarket to see what they had to offer. Sadly the few packs of chops that they had on display did not appeal to me. However I noticed that the butcher behind the meat counter was busy cutting up a lamb and got her attention. I asked her to cut me a couple of nicely trimmed and very thick cut loin chops. She really did a good job, so armed with the pack of chops, I went home and fired up the braai. Colleen picked some salad greens and some baby beetroot out of the garden and proceed to make the salad and some baby boiled potatoes.

Here is a photo of the chops going on the braai.

Now one advantage of having the chops cut thickly is that you can cook them on all sides. I like my lamb "medium rare" and the thickness of the chops also helps one achieve this.

I also like my wors just cooked through and not dried out, so I only add it to the fire when the chops are almost done.

Meal served up and ready to eat.

You can click on the images to see a larger version.