One of Bulgaria's culinary emblems will be honored with a special feast and museum collection. At the end of this week the town of Gorna Oryahovitsa will become center of a parti-colored and delicious fiesta and Gorna Oryahovitsa flat sausage (sudzuk) will be in focus. The local meat delicacy has been produced in this region for centuries. It is a must on each friend's party and goes well with homemade wine or strong rakia brandy.

This year's festival of the flat sausage will surprise nicely thousands of fans with a series of events. People will compete to slice the thinnest piece of flat sausage or peel the flat sausage first. In another event competitors will try to arrange the most beautiful meat platter. The culmination of the event envisages the presentation of a national record, which can compete for the Guinness Book of Records. The organizers made a 60 meter-long flat sausage. Later the guests and citizens of Gorna Oryahovitsa will have the chance to enjoy the taste of this delicacy. A long-awaited museum exhibition dedicated to the unique sausage will be officially opened on Saturday. Visitors will sink into the atmosphere of the one-time methods and equipment used for the production of this mouth-watering appetizer. A rich collection of photos and ancient instruments are also on display at the museum. A large three-dimensional wall-painting reproducing an ancient sausage factory is among the biggest attractions. The collection is situated in the yard of Gorna Oryahovitsa Museum of History. During the day of the official opening guests will taste meat delicacies produced by the three companies which possess the license for the manufacture of Gorna Oryahovitsa flat sausage. In fact, this was the first Bulgarian product which received a Specific Geographical Region Certificate in the EU. “Our Gorno-oryahovski Sudzhuk is a brand name and can be produced in Gorna Oryahovitsa by three companies only”, Curator of the Museum of History in Gorna Oryahovitsa Plamen Mademov told Radio Bulgaria. In his words, the flat sausage has been for many centuries part of the local culture and lifestyle. 

“The people from Gorna Oryahovitsa have the reputation of good traders and stock-breeders. The local population used to breed huge herds. Some of the biggest livestock markets were held in this region”. Plamen Mademov said. “However, stock-breeders were struggling to provide enough food for their animals for the winter period. That is why at the end of each summer they had to slaughter some of their cattle. This was how the unique recipe of the flat sausage emerged.”

However, the recipe of the Gorna Oryahovitsa flat sausage is kept in full secrecy. The only thing we know about this irresistible sausage is that it is made entirely of beef and a mixture of aromatic herbs picked in the nearby fields. Besides, its taste is due to the local dry climate, cold winter air and light winds. However, the local people decided to improve the processing technology.

“During the first stage of the production process people dice and fill the meet in dried and salted intestines”, Plamen Mademov explains. “Its quality depends on the local climate and atmospheric peculiarities. It turns out that the white mould which covers the flat sausage forms well in the region of Gorna Oryahovitsa. It preserves the sausage and makes it last longer. Once, cattle slaughter started around August 15, the Assumption of Mary, and lasted until October 14, the Saint Petka-Paraskeva Day, when butchers used to say that it was time for them to clean their knives. The production of the flat sausage was once seasonal. Later, people adopted new production technologies and started to use new drying facilities and now the Sudzhuk is made all year round.”

Licensed producers claim they do not use any preservatives and that their product does not differ from the one made by their ancestors some 3 centuries ago. Those who join the forthcoming festival of flat sausage in Gorna Oryahovitsa will have the chance to check the qualities of this product.

English version: Kostadin Atanasov