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Meat from Croatia

Slavonski kulen PGISlavonski kulen

Slavonski kulen is a large Croatian sausage of choice pork cuts with salt, hot and sweet paprika and garlic, stuffed into a pig's caecum. It is fermented, cold-smoked, dried and matured for at least 150 days, and is made only between November and March.

Fully documentedMeat6 months

Recipe

Amounts from a sourceShares of the stuffing in the traditional recipe used by a pilot-plant study (Mastanjević et al. 2017). The PGI specification names the ingredients but not their amounts.
Pork meat (first and second class)91.8 %Cleaned of connective tissue, blood vessels and fatback; ground through an 8 mm plate[mastanjevic2017]
Pork back fat5 %Ground through a 6 mm plate; the specification allows no more than 10 % fat[mastanjevic2017][eu-slavonski-2015]
Salt2 %[mastanjevic2017]
Sweet red paprika powder0.6 %[mastanjevic2017]
Hot red paprika powder0.4 %[mastanjevic2017]
Garlic0.2 %[mastanjevic2017]
Pig caecumCleaned and drained; tied with hemp string[eu-slavonski-2015]
Starternone added in traditional household production; industrial makers add starter cultures, nitrate and nitrite

Total time across the recorded steps: 6 months

Start
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What changes: Pork and back fat are ground and mixed with salt, paprika and garlic

Step 1 of 5
Prepare the stuffing
Time
Not documented
Temperature
Not documented
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented
Which microbes the steps name, step by step
Lactic acid bacteria

Choice cuts and a little back fat are ground through 6–12 mm plates and mixed with salt, paprika and garlic.

Flavour
Not documented
Texture
Not documented
Colour
Not documented

Microbes at work in this step

Not documented for this step.

Method

Measured measured in a studySet fixed by a specification or tested recipeReported one source reports itTypical a general value, not sourced for this fermentUnconfirmed not yet checked against a source

At a glance

Slavonski kulen is a large Croatian sausage of choice pork cuts with salt, hot and sweet paprika and garlic, stuffed into a pig's caecum. It is fermented, cold-smoked, dried and matured for at least 150 days, and is made only between November and March. Made in 5 steps over 6 months. The longest step, dry and mature, takes at least 4.9 months (European Commission 2015) and runs at 14–17 °C (Mastanjević K 2017). Lactic acid bacteria and coagulase-negative staphylococci does most of the fermenting.

Key numbers
Main stepat least 4.9 monthsSet[eu-slavonski-2015]Dry and mature
Temperature14–17 °CReported[mastanjevic2017]Dry and mature
AciditypH 5.6 → 4.42Measured[mastanjevic2017]Ferment

What makes this one different

Slavonski kulen has a high meat content, with fat capped at 10 % of the filling, which the specification says makes it one of the hardest sausages to dry. Its caecum casing, winter-only production and long maturing of at least 150 days set it apart.

Related ferments

Variants

  • Baranjski kulen PGIThe neighbouring PGI kulen from Baranja is also filled into a pig caecum. A study of it and of kulenova seka (a kulen of a different calibre, filled into a pig rectum) gives a 90:10 meat to fat ratio for Baranjski kulen (80:20 for kulenova seka) and a mince of 6 or 8 mm; see its own entry.

Safety

The specification requires water activity under 0.90 when sold. Traditional kulen carries more mould species on the casing than industrial kulen. A Croatian study of 16 traditional and 10 industrial sausages found cyclopiazonic acid or ochratoxin A in 69 % of the traditional ones, at up to 13.35 and 6.95 µg/kg, and ochratoxin A in one industrial sample. It detected no aflatoxin B1. The figures here describe controlled production, not a home method. Washington State University Extension does not recommend making dry sausage at home, because S. aureus toxin can form if fermentation is not rigidly controlled. The US CDC says curing, drying or smoking alone does not reliably kill Trichinella worms.

Hazards the sources name: Mycotoxins from surface moulds (cyclopiazonic acid or ochratoxin A in 69 % of 16 traditional samples, at up to 13.35 and 6.95 µg/kg).

History and sources

Every number is labelled with how it is known. How this atlas is made

Production of kulen in Slavonia is said to go back more than 200 years. The name "Slavonski kulen" first appeared in print in 1968, in the Vinkovački list newspaper.

  1. [wsu-sausage] Washington State University Extension, Homemade Meat, Poultry, and Game Sausages (EB1661)gov
  2. [cdc-trichinellosis] US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Preventing Trichinellosisgov
  3. [eu-slavonski-2015] European Commission 2015, Publication of an application, Slavonski kulen / Slavonski kulin PGI (HR-PGI-0005-01216), single document, Official Journal C 375, 12.11.2015, p. 9 (CELEX 52015XC1112(02)), read via the EU Publications Office cellarspec
  4. [mastanjevic2017] Mastanjević K., Kovačević D., Frece J., Markov K., Pleadin J. 2017, The effect of autochthonous starter culture, sugars and temperature on the fermentation of Slavonian kulen, Food Technology and Biotechnology 55(1):67-76paper
  5. [lesic2021] Lešić T. et al. 2021, Mycobiota and mycotoxin contamination of traditional and industrial dry-fermented sausage Kulen, Toxins 13(11):798 (abstract)paper
  6. [simunec2022] Šimunec V., Bertoša R., Šporec A., Lukić I., Nejašmić D., Lovrić M., Dodig I., Vahčić N., Butorac A. 2022, Comparison of traditional and industrial sausages baranjski kulen and kulenova seka using comprehensive proteome, peptidome and metabolome techniques, Food Technology and Biotechnology 60(2):178-191 (a study of the related Baranjski kulen, used here for the variant)paper