My father was only 5 years old when he came to America from Romainia in 1905. He made sausage, wine, beer, smoked bacon, and all the Hungarian dishes that were brought to America by my maternal relations. He had a gusto for life. Everything he did he did when whistling. You knew he was happy.

Our city house always had a small smoke house at the back of the yard. It was used to sugar cure bacon the hungarian way, and to smoke links of Hungarian Sausage. My father would make sausage when it got cold out, and we would eat some fresh cooked, and the rest would be smoked and dried like pepperoni to be used in Potato Soup or Sauerkraut dishes all winter long. (The fresh sausage freezes well. Years ago we did not have large freezer, so sausage was smoked to keep good).

This sausage is heavy on garlic and paprika. If you do not have a sausage stuffer you can still make this sausage by making patties and frying it in a pan. The recipe that follows is for fresh sausage.

Regards, June Meyer.

• 10 lbs. coarse ground pork butt or pork shoulder
• 1/3 cup imported mild Hungarian Paprika. (Do not substitute generic)
• 1/4 cup salt
• 2 heaping Tbls. ground Allspice
• 5 or 6 garlic cloves
• 2 cups water

Bring water to boil, add peeled cloves of garlic and simmer 20 minutes.
Fish out cloves of garlic and mash them with a little water. Add this to remaining water and mix all of the garlic water into the meat mix. Mix everything together well. Keep the meat mix cool.
If you stuff the mix into casings, let the sausages hang for a day in at least 20 degrees. Smoke sausage according to your smoker instructions.
If you are not going to stuff into casings, form into patties, wrap and freeze.

HOW TO COOK HUNGARIAN SAUSAGES

Take as many fresh links as needed and place in a heavy frying pan with a cover. Pour water over the sausages so the links are in 1/2 inch of water. Cover.Start the water to a slow boil, turn down the heat and simmer the sausage in the water until the sausage starts to take on color. Turn the sausage over and add a little more water to keep it from burning. When both sides are brownish, leave the cover off and continue cooking slowly to cook away any remaining water.The sausage should be a nice rich red brown. The aroma will be heavenly.

Dried and smoked sausage is used like pepperonni.

My brother Frank Wischler carries on the tradition of sausage making. He makes Italian sausage by leaving out the PAPRIKA and the ALLSPICE. Use 2 ounces of whole fennel seed instead.

This sausage is traditionally served with SOUR CREAM AND HORSERADISH SAUCE.
Potatos and a sauerkraut dish go well with this dish too.