What is "metworst"

Metworst or droge worst (; dry sausage) is a type of traditional Dutch sausage. The sausages have a very strong flavour and are made from raw minced pork which is then air dried.

Droge worst simply means dry sausage, referring to drying process and texture of the product. The name metworst (Met from the Low German word mett, meaning minced pork without bacon) is similar to the German Mettwurst, though only in name; as the taste and preparation of both sausage types is very different.

Metworst is traditionally found throughout the Netherlands and Flanders. Most of the production is the northern provinces of the Netherlands, Groningen, Friesland and Drenthe, where wind conditions there are most suitable for quickly drying the sausages in open air.

Finnish meetvursti resembles the Dutch metworst or salami: it is dry, hard, strong-flavored, dense, made from horse meat and eaten as a cold cut on bread.

Originally metworst, thanks to its preservability, served as an emergency meat supply to poor farmers in times of need or lack of fresh meat. As meat production gradually rose, the sausage began to be used as lunch for field laborers.

The sausage is the direct ancestor of the better known South African droë wors which is near identical in its way of production; though the meat used is beef and mutton rather than pork.