Gyulai Sausage

Gyulai kolbasz is a dry sausage of coarsely chopped pork seasoned with ground paprika, garlic, caraway and pepper, stuffed into narrow casings, tied into linked pairs and smoked slowly over hardwood before it is dried. It carries protected geographical status, which ties the name to production in and around Gyula in Bekes county near the eastern border. It is eaten cold in thin slices with bread, raw onion and pickled peppers rather than cooked, though a coarser fresh version goes into bean soups and stews. The town leans on it: there is an autumn sausage festival, and the plant on the edge of town runs a small visitor operation and shop.

What you actually see

• The linked pairs - the sausages tied and hung in twos, the shape that identifies them.
• The smoke and dry - slow hardwood smoking followed by weeks of drying.
• The autumn festival - competitive stuffing and smoking in the town for several days.
• The local way to eat it - cold slices with white bread, onion and pickled peppers.

When to go

Autumn, when pig-killing season begins and the festival runs, is the obvious time, though the sausage keeps and is sold all year. Winter is the traditional making season and the shops are best stocked from November. Gyula is also a spa town, so summer brings a different crowd entirely and the sausage is not what they come for.

Honest expectations

The name is used loosely outside the protected area and much of what is sold as gyulai elsewhere is an imitation. The genuine article is fatty and heavily smoked, which not everyone enjoys, and it is salty enough that a few slices go a long way. Gyula is a long haul from Budapest and is worth the trip for its brick castle and baths rather than for sausage alone. The festival is crowded and beery.

Nearby

Gyula's brick castle and thermal baths are in the same town.