Sucuk is a hard, dry Turkish sausage made from beef or lamb. Depending on the sausage maker, the sausage tastes mild, garlic or spicy. Sucuk sausage must dry and ferment for weeks. This fermentation process makes or breaks the quality of the sausage.

A real sucuk sausage must dry and ferment for weeks. This fermentation process makes or breaks the quality of the sausage. Many butchers tried to dry their sausages faster, without fermentation – with heat, for example – so the Turkish Ministry of Agriculture decided that the label “sucuk-like product” should be attached to the packaging of unfermented sausages. It is known for being unique to Kayseri.

• You don’t eat Sucuk like we might eat a slice of liver sausage but as part of a meal. The sausage has a place in numerous Turkish dishes, including:
• kahvalti (Turkish breakfast): fried slices of sucuk are a common part of a Turkish breakfast.
• sucuklu yumurta or sucuk with eggs: an egg is fried on top of crispy fried slices of sucuk. The yolk remains whole and runny so that you can dip your bread in it.
• bean stew: sucuk and (white) beans stewed in tomato sauce
• sucuklu mixing: scrambled eggs with sucuk
• You can also find sucuk on pizza, pide and in Turkish toasted sandwiches.