Overview
Kantwurst is a straight sausage with four flattened sides, dark smoked casing and a firm red-and-white slice scented with coriander and caraway. A straight sausage with four flattened sides, dark smoked casing and a firm red-and-white slice scented with coriander and caraway. The Codex treats it as a complete production system, not merely a familiar name. Raw material, cut or particle size, casing, smoke, fermentation, cooking and maturation all contribute to the identity. The current status is Traditional Austrian sausage : no generic EU GI. The protected or traditional reference and the Curesmith home method remain separate.
Where it's from
The cut
How to recognise it
A straight sausage with four flattened sides, dark smoked casing and a firm red-and-white slice scented with coriander and caraway. Grease smear, hollow pockets, case hardening, a wet centre, rancidity or uncontrolled dark mould is a production fault.
Origins and history
Kantwurst is an Austrian dry sausage shaped by pressing during the first stage of drying. The square or rectangular section gave the sausage its name, from Kante, an edge, and made it easy to stack, transport and cut into even slices. It belongs to the Central European salami tradition of pork, firm fat, pepper, coriander, caraway and garlic, with recipes varying between Vienna, Lower Austria and Alpine producers. The form became visually distinctive in delicatessen counters even when the seasoning remained restrained. Kantwurst is a traditional generic style, not a single protected Austrian geographical product.
Serving and cultural significance
Cut square slices for bread, cheese boards and Austrian cold plates. The angular form gives neat portions and crisp edges. Let the sausage warm slightly before service so the fat and caraway become aromatic. In Austrian delicatessen service the square slice is often arranged with pickled peppers, radish and bread, making its unusual shape part of the presentation.
Recipe and cure
This is not a finished recipe. It is a window into how this meat is traditionally cured. Before you follow any process, run it through one of our curing calculators so the salt, cure and timings are right and safe for your own batch.
Make this — the measured Curesmith version →The cure below is the traditional reference. “Make this” opens the measured Curesmith home recipe, scaled to your batch.
Traditional or protected production
Kantwurst is an unprotected Austrian dry-sausage style. Pork and firm fat are cured and seasoned with a Central European spice profile, fermented and stuffed before the sausage is pressed during early drying to create its square or rectangular section. Drying then continues until the slice is firm and cohesive. The angular form is a process and presentation feature, not evidence of geographical certification.
- Meat
- pork and beef
- Cut
- minced
- Salt (%)
- 2.2 to 2.5%
- Curing salt
- Cure #1
- Other agents
- dextrose; garlic, paprika, black pepper
- Fermented
- Yes
- Target pH
- ~4.9
- Starter or mould
- lactic acid bacteria starter
- Smoked
- sometimes lightly smoked
- Target aW or weight loss
- ~30% weight loss
- Temperature (°C)
- ferment then dry 12 to 14
- Humidity (%)
- 72 to 75
- Maturation
- weeks
- Basis
- percentage of meat weight
- Style
- minced, cured, fermented and dried
Ingredients
- pork and beef
- salt
- dextrose
- garlic
- paprika
- black pepper
- Cure #1
Notes
- Nitrite at 156 ppm ingoing.
- Target roughly pH 4.9 through a prompt, clean ferment.
- Convert any volume spice measures to weight as a percentage of the meat.
- Pressed during drying into its characteristic squared, edged (kant) form.
Safety. A fermented sausage: the acid drop and drying carry the safety. Ferment promptly to close the early Staphylococcus aureus window.
In the Codex
What this product teaches, and where to read more.
Temple. Roof, pH