Sujuk

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Sujuk (Turkish sucuk; Bulgarian суджук; Serbian/Croatian/Bosnian sudžuk/cyџyk; Armenian սուջուխ "soujoukh"; Arabic سجق "sujuq"; Greek σουτζούκι) is a dry, spicy sausage eaten from the Balkans to the Middle East.

It consists of ground meat (usually beef), with various spices including cumin, sumac, garlic,salt, and red pepper, fed into a sausage casing and allowed to dry for several weeks. It can be more or less spicy; it is fairly salty and has a high fat content.

Sujuk must be eaten cooked (when raw, it is very hard and stiff). It is often cut into slices and cooked without additional oil, its own fat being sufficient to fry it. At breakfasts, it is used in a way similar to bacon or spam. They are fried in a pan, often with eggs, accompanied by a hot cup of sweet black tea. In Bulgaria, raw, sliced sujuk is often served as an appetizer with raki or other high alcoholic drinks.

Sujuk is also commonly used as a topping on savoury pastries in Syria and Lebanon; sujuk shawarma is also occasionally found. In these countries, it is often regarded as an Armenian speciality.

There is also a sweet called sujuk (churchkhela), which is made from walnuts sewn onto a string, and dipped in thickened white grape juice and dried. Akin to sujuk shawarma, sujuk döner was also introduced in Turkey in late 1990s.