Sheftalies – Cypriot pork sausages

Sheftalies are a traditional Cypriot sausage made with simple ingredients and cooked over the charcoal. This recipe is very special to me as it was shown to me by my dear friend Vasiliki, passed to her by her mum Eleni who lives in Cyprus.

I met Vasiliki when she came to Australia with her partner for a few years while she was completing her Masters. We instantly clicked and our love for Cypriot cooking was one of the reasons. We would organize days where we would be basically cook traditional food like sheftalies, gemista (stuffed vegetables) or daktila (lady fingers). Our friends would then gather to enjoy the food cooked, followed by listening to live music played by Vasiliki’s partner. Such great memories!

Simple ingredients

For the sheftalies, the herbs used are dry mint and parsley and cinnamon as the main spice. Very typical combination of aromatics of the Cypriot cuisine. The ingredients used are so simple but the flavour that it is produced is very satisfying.

Caul fat and where to source it

Caul fat or panna as they call it in Cyprus, is the membrane lining of the stomach. You may be able to source lamb or pork caul fat, this recipe uses the latter. The panna looks like lace – made with numerous membranes connected together. Being a fatty membrane it adds to the juiciness of the sheftalies while it actually melts off as the sheftalies are cooking.

To make the sheftalies, caul fat can be sourced from your butcher. However, the majority of the times that I’ve gone to look for it I hadn’t be successful. Luckily now my local butcher knows about the caul fat from others in the community as well.

The problem though still is that it is extremely hard to find caul fat fresh, the butchers tend to freeze it in 1kg bags. To use up 1kg of caul fat about 5kg of mince meat is required. Numerous sheftalies are produced though, so unless they are cooked on the day, the caul fat can’t be refrozen. Therefore for this recipe unless you find caul fat in smaller packages, it will be unfortunately wasted.   

How to serve sheftalies

To enjoy the sheftalies, place them in a Cypriot pitta pocket with a fresh salad. The salad used is simply made with chopped tomatoes, cucumber, parsley, onion and a good squeeze of lemon juice. In addition a layer of tzatziki or tahini sauce may be added and my personal favourite… Pikla : )

Sheftalies video recipe

Below is a video produced by Kali Orexi Melbourne and it shows the run-down of this recipe. I felt very privileged to welcome Christine and her team to my house, to show her how sheftalies are made and to record this video. And just like all full-filling food experiences, it was so much more fun preparing sheftalies with someone else over some great conversations! Thank you Christine for all your work and your commitment to the Greek food culinary experience. As well as all the work behind the recordings of recipes, shared by others within the Greek community.  

5 from 1 vote

Print

Sheftalies Cypriot pork sausage

Prep Time

1 hr 15 mins

Cook Time

45 mins

 

Course: Main Course

Cuisine: Mediterranean

Author: Eleni Georges

Ingredients

• 1 kg pork caul fat see notes
• ¼ cup vinegar
• 4 small brown onions, finely diced
• 1 large bunch of parsley, 60 sprigs, finely chopped
• 3 kg pork mince
• 2 tsp cinnamon
• 2 tbs dried mint
• 30 mL white wine
• 2 tbs salt
• 1 tbs black pepper

Instructions

1. The first step is to prepare the caul fat so that it is cleaned properly and that there is foul smell. Wash it in a large bowl with plenty of water several times. Then add enough cold water to cover it, as well as the vinegar and let it soak for 15min or until there is no more nasty smell.

2. In the meantime prepare the mince mixture by finely chopping the parsley and onion. Both of these need to be chopped small enough so that they combine easily with the mince and there aren’t large chunks when you are biting into the sheftalies. You may choose to brown off the onion before adding it to the mixture, to help digest it better but it is not something i tend to do.

3. Once the parsley and onions are chopped, add them with the rest of the ingredients in a large bowl and mix well with your hands until everything is well combined.

4. Wash the caul fat, strain any excess water and place it in the strainer over a bowl. Keep it aside and have it ready to use to roll the sheftalies.

5. Scoop 70g (a packed ⅓ cup) of the mince mixture and form a 9-10cm long sausage shape (see notes). Place the sausage you have just formed on a tray and continue to do the same until all the mince mixture is finished. If i am making these with someone else, one person usually makes the sausages while the other wraps them into sheftalies.

6. Before you start using the caul fat you need to check it. If the caul fat has any holes in it do not use it to wrap the mince, otherwise the coating may tear apart. Also if the caul fat veins are too thick I tend to not use it, as they may not render (melt) well when cooked.

7. Grab a piece of the caul fat carefully and spread it out on a board or your clean working bench. Place the mince log on the edge of the caul fat and then roll it 1.5 times around, folding the sides in as you do. The caul fat will stick together and once it cooks it will render and will hold the sheftalia well. Use a sharp knife and cut off the caul fat surrounding the sheftalia.

8. Repeat the process until all the mince is wrapped. If any caul fat remains then you must throw it away.

9. Place the finished sheftalies on a lined tray and put them in the fridge until you are ready to cook them. If you are not cooking them that day then place them in the freezer well wrapped. I only freeze them if I find fresh caul fat to use. Otherwise, if the caul fat is frozen to begin with, I always cook them on the day and I do not freeze the caul fat again.

10. To cook the sheftalies we tend to fire up the charcoal. The sheftalies should be cooked slowly, not too close to the fire, so that the inside cooks before the outside burns. Instead an even brown colour should form. Otherwise you may choose to heat a grill pan on a high heat cooking each side for 10min or so.

Recipe Notes

You may require a bit less caul fat than that but just to be safe get one kilo in case the caul fat has holes through it or has thick membranes, which you’ll need to remove. Often 1kg of caul fat requires 5kg of mince meat but there are a lot of sheftalies produced with that amount. So unless you will be cooking that many sheftalies at once, then the caul fat will be wasted.

 

Unless you are cooking them another way, they need to be long enough to pass through the charcoal forks/double skewers but not too long that they are falling off as the charcoal forks spin.