Rarely do you ever see smoked horsemeat sausages in the supermarket or retailer but the Shuzhuk is one true delicacy. It used to be the meat preserve of the rich if you were at a Kazakh feast but now it is more mainstream.
Meat lovers everywhere really need to get to travel to Kazakhstan. Horse meat is the meat of choice however and whilst we might not like the idea of Shergar or Sea Biscuit who were well known racehorses in our food, to the Kazakhs this seems to be part of the ritual. The shuzhuk is usually smoked and then dried. It is served as an appetizer. The sausage is made by combining the rib meat with fat within an internal casing. The meat to fat ratio varies but there are many different colours to be seen in this product. Usually a variation between browns of light and dark hues. For many Kazakhs the meat flavour is similar to a jerky which in some circles would be defined as a pot roast. The offering is especially prized at the dinner table.
The Xinjiang smoked horsemeat sausage is another prize of the dinner table and one which is produced by a spontaneous fermentation process. It is prone to histamine producing microorganisms and needs to be treated with caution.
I have had this sausage many times. Reminds me of Italian sausages. Never understood why horse wasn’t eaten more often except in beefburgers.