Bende Csabai Salami with Paprika, Hungarian Style

Csabai — the paprika salami of Békéscsaba, in the south-east of Hungary, where the paprika comes from. Coarse-ground pork worked with sweet paprika until the whole sausage goes deep rust-red, then cured and dried. Richer and fattier than the winter salami, and it tastes of paprika rather than merely being coloured by it.

• Whole stick, sold by the piece
• Pork, salt and paprika — the paprika is the point
• Dry-cured, ready to eat
• Hungarian-style, made in the USA by Bende & Son

Csabai or gyulai?

Both are Hungarian paprika sausages from neighbouring towns, and Hungarians do not treat them as the same thing. Csabai is the coarser, fattier, more strongly paprika'd of the two. If you want the finer, smokier one, that is the gyulai kolbász on the shelf beside it.

Eating it

Thick slices with bread, white onion and a pickled pepper — this one stands up to being cut generously, unlike the téli. Also excellent chopped into lecsó, into beans, or on a slice of buttered rye.

Ingredients

Pork, salt, paprika, spices, sugar, dextrose, ascorbic acid (vitamin C), lactic acid starter culture, sodium nitrite. Surface treated with potassium sorbate solution.

Keeping it

Cool and dry. Once cut, wrap the face and refrigerate.

Made in the USA by Bende & Son Salami Co. under USDA inspection.