Many people make the mistake of confusing sucuk with pizza sausage. Unlike pizza sausage, sucuk is commonly eaten in Muslim countries. The most famous variety of sucuk comes from Turkey. Sucuk and pizza sausage also have a completely different look and taste, especially when ready to eat. While pizza sausage can be a spicy addition to a main course, sucuk is prized as a savory meat that can be the centerpiece of a meal. Knowing the difference between sucuk and pizza sausage can help when choosing which sausage to add to a dish.
Sucuk has variants from the Balkans in Eastern Europe to Central Asia. It’s filled with beef and appears mostly in Muslim countries, though there are non-Muslim variants that contain pork. The Turkish version conforms to Muslim dietary restrictions and is made with beef. Like almost all sausages, sucuk came about with the need to preserve meat before the invention of refrigeration. For this reason, sucuk is bought raw and is usually heavily spiced. Traditionally, it’s eaten for breakfast or lunch. In Turkey, it’s often added to savory pastries or sliced, fried and eaten with eggs or beans.
Ground beef is mixed with spices and red pepper. Some of the traditional spices used are sumac, garlic and cumin. Different varieties of sucuk, however, will have different spices. Butchers will then stuff the mixture into a sausage casing made of an intestinal lining, tying off the stuffed casings at regular intervals. The resulting sausage links are then hung to dry for more than a month. In contrast, the casing of the common pizza sausage is artificial, and it can be more spicy. Pizza sausage also has a red coloring and regularly appears in the relatively smaller size used for topping.
Turkish sucuk has a salty and muted spice flavor. It’s often accompanied on a plate with blander vegetables or, when in a pastry, more savory doughs. Pizza sausage, however, is much spicier, and some variants actually retain bits of peppercorn. The sodium nitrite that gives pizza sausage its reddish color reduces the savory flavor, giving the sausage and even spicier kick. In contrast, the spices in sucuk only complement what is primarily a savory delicacy. Also, sucuk is usually made with beef while pizza sausage is made with beef or pork.
Those who understand the differences between sucuk and pizza sausage are better prepared to make the right choices between the two in the kitchen. Specifically, sucuk usually comes filled with beef while pizza sausage can just as easily be made from pork. Sucuk is made from natural ingredients and pizza sausage can be made with artificial ones. Sucuk is also more savory while pizza sausage is more spicy. While sucuk stands on its own in savory pastries and as part of a dish, pizza sausage is usually an accent to a larger course. Both sausages cook quickly and easily.
