What makes sausage or double sausage from Gyula so unique?

Have you ever considered how difficult it must have been to gain a high reputation with anything before social media and television? At that time, the news of good things could spread slowlyby word of mouth. This is what happened with the Gyula fair and sausage or double sausage from Gyula.

Why Gyula?

This special kind of sausage was famous throughout Central Europe since the 1800s, when many caravans coming from the Balkans and heading to Vienna stopped here at the Gyula market. Not only the market and the demand for sausage increased during this period, but the manufacturing industry as well. The speed of the production process needed to undergo a tremendous development.

From a small city to world-wide fame

At the beginning of the 1900s, the ancestor of today’s Gyulai sausage was made in the manufacture of József Balogh, but its special spicy taste was already well-known throughout Europe.

From 1912 a man named András Stéberl worked in the famous sausage workshop of József Balogh for a year, where he learned the tricks of sausage-making. In 1935, he took the product to the World Fair in Brussels and won a gold diploma.

Later, he moved to Gyula, and based on his own experience, he started the large-scale production of dry Gyulai and other types of sausages in Gyula, to the greatest delight of the residents of the city and of whole Europe. His factory soon became one of the largest meat processors in the country, and several professionals from the region worked here. We can thank to András Stéberl that many Hungarian households still have a long, paprika scented package in their refrigerator, and that most of the tourists arriving to Hungary enjoy a sausage tasting session.

Hungarikum

The sausage or double sausage from Gyula is now officially a Hungarikum, that is still made using the old, traditional method, smoked on beech wood and dried in a maturation machine. The Gyulai sausage is made exclusively from Hungarian ingredients and it is a product with PDO (Protected Designation of Origin), meaning that only sausages made within the administrative boundaries of Gyula and Békéscsaba can be described as “Gyulai sausage” according to legal regulations.

Enjoy it with a glass of pálinka, and a slice of freshly baked bread!

Photos: https://gyulaihentesek.hu