What is Ossenworst (Raw Sausage)?
Here you go; Europe eats raw meat. And not just like that, but raw minced beef. And they call it Ossenworst. It is a veal sausage, but its content is entirely raw meat! This is Amsterdam, Netherlands.
The people of Amsterdam have continued to sell sausage made from raw minced meat on every corner since the 17th century. Moreover, this dish is one of the most common dishes in the Netherlands. You see it everywhere in markets, bars, pubs, restaurants.
If you order “sausage” in a cafe, they may put it before you.
We ate this raw sausage (minced meat) called Ossenworst, prepared with various spices, at Cafe De Zwart in the center of Amsterdam. It didn’t look like it had spices in it at all. We just ate raw, mas, and squeezed raw meat like this.
Supposedly, it had black pepper, cloves, nutmeg, and nutmeg. But it doesn’t! We would have understood if there was…
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In the old days, at least in Amsterdam, people smoked this meat first or at least aged it. Now, they don’t have that either. They mix it with raw minced beef. Ah, where are those old Amsterdammers?
The one we had didn’t even have salt in it.
I recommend drinking beer with it to drown raw meat’s “mas” taste. Oh, there is also a pickled shallot special to Amsterdam. Yellow in color… It is also prepared with saffron and turmeric. Its name is Uitjes. This is a typical dish served with ossenworst. That’s how you get rid of raw meat taste.
Do we like it? We don’t look for it, but if it is put in front of us, we eat it.
It’s on us to pass it on; it’s up to you to try it…
Good luck!
