The best salami in Hungary

The Hungarian Gastronomy Association had their annual salami and sausage taste contest in the Rézkakas Bistro. The jury tasted 44 unique salamis and sausages in three categories: white salami (without paprika), salami or sausage made with paprika and Csabai sausages. There were some huge historical brands as well as small, family-owned brands, reports divany.hu.

What is a salami

According to the Hungarian thesaurus (Magyar Nagylexikon), the salami is made of fermented meat. The salami is of Italian origin; the biggest Hungarian brands are Herz and Pick. There is no clear difference today between the salami and the Hungarian sausage. There are products on the market that are made with paprika, have grainier texture and still call themselves salami. In Békéscsaba similar products are still called sausages, even if they have the special noble-mould forming on the casing surface that is characteristic of the Hungarian Winter salami.

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The difference between winter salami and the so-called csemege salami is very small. Technically the winter salami could contain a bit of beef too. 

The seasoning in the case of the white salami is done with salt, black and white pepper, garlic and sometimes some other spices like pimento, cinnamon, clove, nutmeg and ginger. 

The stifolder is a Swabian sausage. Originally, it was made without paprika, but nowadays it is widespread to use paprika in this type of sausage. They also use spices like pepper, garlic, a bit of sugar, but there is one thing that could never be in a stifolder sausage, and that is caraway. 

The Csabai sausage is always made with paprika, garlic and caraway, but with no pepper. The noble-mould is not desired, so if it forms, they usually wipe it off. 

The evaluation

The jury was made up of chefs, sausage and salami makers, experts and consumers. The maximum point they could give to any product was 20. The absolute winner was the black Alte Wurst stifolder. This sausage is an exception among other stifolders since it goes back to the original recipes and is made without paprika. 

The winners of each category

White salami:

1. Palatin (16 points)
2. Alte Wurst stifolder with no paprika/Trabert Hof from Feked (15 points)
3. Pick Szeged, Pikok, Kométa Prémium (10-12 points)

Csabai

1. Sándor Pallér’s products (15 p)
2. Nádas sausage, István Péli’s products (14 p)
3. Zoltán Kovácz, Pál Lukoviczky, Csaba Sajben and Béla Szudár‘s product (11-13 p)

Sausage/stifolder made with paprika

1. Original stifolder (Trabert Hof Feked) (14 p)
2. Antal Baumgartner’s sausage with paprika (13 p)
3. Stifolder Club of Feked (12 p)

Source: Divany.hu