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Sujuk, also soudjouk (Turkish: sucuk; Bulgarian: суджук; Russian: суджук; Albanian: suxhuk; Romanian: sugiuc; Serbian/Croatian/Bosnian sudžuka (or sujuka)/cyџyka; Macedonian: суџук, sudžuk; Western Armenian երշիկ, eršik, Eastern Armenian սուջուխ, suǰux; Arabic سجق, sujuq; Greek: σουτζούκι, soutzouki; Kyrgyz: чучук, chuchuk; Kazakh: шұжық, shujiq), is a dry, spicy sausage eaten from the Balkans to the Middle East and Central Asia. The Turkish word sucuk is derived from Persian زیجک zījak[1], meaning "the intestines of a lamb stuffed with mincemeat, rice, etc., and dressed"[2].
It consists of ground meat (usually beef, but in Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan,it is made from horse meat[3]), with various spices including cumin, sumac, garlic, salt, and red pepper, fed into a sausage casing and allowed to dry for several weeks. It can be more or less spicy; it is fairly salty and has a high fat content.
Sujuk must be eaten cooked (when raw, it is very hard and stiff). It is often cut into slices and cooked without additional oil, its own fat being sufficient to fry it. At breakfast, it is used in a way similar to bacon or spam. It is fried in a pan, often with eggs, accompanied by a hot cup of sweet black tea. Sujuk also uses a meal material with haricot bean or in pastries at some regions in Turkey. In Bulgaria, raw, sliced sujuk is often served as an appetizer with rakia or other high alcoholic drinks. In Lebanon, cooked sliced sujuk is made into sandwiches with garlic sauce and tomato.
Turkish variant, called 'parmak' Sucuk
Sujuk is also commonly used as a topping on savoury pastries in Iraq, Syria, Israel and Lebanon; sujuk shawarma is also occasionally found. In these countries, it is often regarded as an Armenian speciality known as Armenian sausage.[citation needed] Akin to sujuk shawarma, sujuk döner was also introduced in Turkey in late 1990s.
[edit] Confection
There is also a sausage-shaped confection called sujuk, pestil cevizli sucuk (Turkey), soutzoukos (Greece), or churchkhela (Georgia); it is made from walnuts sewn onto a string, and dipped in thickened grape must and dried.
[edit] See also
