Top 3 Southern Great Plain Cured Meats

Pick Szeged is one of the oldest and most renowned meat industries in Hungary, with a tradition dating back to 1869. Located in the city of Szeged, Pick has become synonymous with premium quality cured meat products.

Over more than 150 years of existence, Pick has managed to preserve its original recipes and traditional production methods, which include the careful selection of the finest pork, natural fermentation, cold air drying, and beechwood smoking. This authentic process gives their salamis a distinctive aroma, a rich and rounded flavor, and a perfectly balanced texture. Today, Pick offers a wide range of products, including various types of salamis, hams, sausages, and other cured meat delicacies, blending a rich heritage with modern technologies.

Their signature product – the traditional Pick Téliszalámi (winter salami) – remains an undisputed symbol of Hungarian gastronomic heritage, recognizable by the noble white mold that naturally covers the salami during the aging process.Expand

Csabai kolbász or Csabai vastagkolbász is a cylindrical sausage made with pork from pigs that have been fattened to a minimum weight of 135 kg. What makes this sausage unique is the manual boning method during the production, where all of the sinews are removed, thus ensuring the best quality of the meat. The pork meat and fat are minced, then combined with paprika, garlic, caraway, and salt and filled into casings, after which the sausage is smoked, cured, and dried. It slices easily and has a hot, smoky and spicy flavor (due to the paprika and the smoke treatment). It can be sold whole or sliced and vacuum-packed. According to tradition, it is eaten with bread, green peppers, and tomatoes.Expand

Szegedi szalámi is a slowly smoked, cylindrical sausage made from pork. The salami is rounded at one end and slim at the end from which it was hung, and is covered by noble mold on the exterior. It slices easily and comes in different varieties depending on the length: normal (54cm), midi (36cm), tourist (19cm) and mini (16cm). Szegedi salami must be made with pork older than one year that was raised and slaughtered in the Bács-Kiskun, Csongrád, Békés, Hajdú-Bihar, and Baranya counties in Hungary. Additionally, salt and a mixture of seasonings is added to the salami, which matures for at least 90 days before it is ready to be consumed. The specific climate conditions near the Tisza river, the slow production process, and the existence of mold-flora in the region give this salami its unique visual appearance and a distinctive flavor. It is recommended to finely slice the salami and serve it on its own or with bread and cheese.Expand

Gyulai kolbász is a slowly smoked sausage made from pig's meat that has been minced with fat and combined with salt, hot and mild ground paprika, pepper, caraway, garlic, and salt. The combination is placed into intestines that act as a protective casing, and the sausage is then smoked over wood before being cured and hung to dry. When sold whole, the sausages must come in pairs (18-26 cm in length) and they must not have any mold on the exterior. The sausages slice easily and have a pleasant flavor of smoke and spices used in the production process. They can be eaten on their own, with bread, or used in rakott krumpli, a traditional Hungarian potato and egg casserole.Expand