Homemade Sucuk – Intense Turkish garlic sausage

In this article I will show you how you can make a Sucuk yourself. 

Sucuk is a strongly spiced and air-dried cured sausage. The meat used is beef with veal or lamb. 

Depending on how long you dry it, it has a different consistency. This way the homemade sucuk differs from the classic supermarket sucuk which is often very soft.

You can use the Sucuk on Pizza, eat it with eggs or put it on a sandwich. Super versatile and yummy.

You can find the complete Sucuk recipe as a video or read it.

Have fun and good luck making it! 

Making Sucuk at home – What you need

Meat for 1 kg Sucuk:

• 75 % beef brisket (750 g)
• 25 % lamb shoulder (250 g)

Spices per 1 kg meat:

• 22 g salt
• 0.25 g Cure #1
• 80 g garlic cloves
• 35 g paprika powder
• 20 g cumin
• 15 g black pepper

You like your Sucuk spicy? 

Then you can add 20 g Pul Biber or other available chili flakes (optional if you don’t like it spicy).

Equipment you need to make Sucuk

Meat Grinder

You need a meat grinder to “grind” the meat. The meat is chopped into small chunks and can then be mixed.

Sausage stuffer

You need a sausage stuffer to get your meat mass into the casing. In the beginning you can also add a filler to your grinder or use a modified plastic bottle or funnel.

Sausage casings

Sucuks are traditionally filled into natural beef casings caliber43

Sewing needle or sausage picker

You will need the needle if air got into the sausage during filling.

Homemade Sucuk – Step-By-Step Instructions

1. Cut the meat into strips or cubes. You can vary the size depending on how big your meat grinder is.

2. Put it into the freezer for 1-2 hours. This will help your grinding process later and make sure that the mixture does not get too warm.

3. Grate the garlic into and process it into a paste.

4. Grind the spices into a fine powder.

5. Now you can grind the meat. I used the smallest perforated disc (2.5 mm). If you want it coarser you can also use the medium or large disc.

6. Add the spices, salt, cure and garlic to the meat and massage it in.

7. Mix the meat mass for 2-3 minutes. You can either knead the meat with a food processor with a kneading attachment or mix it vigorously by hand. This ensures that the sausage meat will bind well and the sausage will not be crumbly later on.

8. Now put the casing onto your sausage stuffer and fill the mass into the casings. As soon as the mass arrives in the casing, you can make a knot at the end.

9. Fill the mass into the casings and make sure that there is trapped as little air as possible.

10. Tie a knot with a butchers twine at the end of the casing.

11. Take a needle and prick the sausage to open any air holes.

12. Now it is time for the drying process. Hang the sausage in a dark place for one day. The place should have about 18-20 C° (65 – 68 °F) and 70 – 80 % humidity.

Tip: If you do not have a place with such humidity hang them in the bathroom and spray with water from time to time.

13. After 24 hours the sausage changed its color, and you can hang it up in any cool place. The air humidity should be about 70%. For me the cellar worked out. After about 1 week, your sucuk will be ready to eat. I let it mature for about 3 weeks. This makes it harder and intensifies the flavor.

14. Your Sucuk is ready. Enjoy.

How long does the Sucuk keep?

The Sucuk can be kept for several months. 

When cut, however, you should consume it quickly. 

The longer it is stored, the more it dries out.

A way to fix this would be to vacuum them and store them in the fridge.

Sucuk as “Bratwurst” without curing and drying

You can also make my Sucuk recipe as bratwurst.

For this you simply have to not use the Cure #2. 

After filling it, you can throw it directly onto the grill or into the pan.