PIROT, Serbia — During long winter months, a traditionally crafted spicy sausage in the town of Pirot in southeastern Serbia is said to lift both a person’s energy and spirits.
The “ironed sausage” — or “peglana kobasica” in Serbian — is a rich mixture of selected meats loaded with seasoning and dried naturally. The name of the sausage is derived from a unique bottle-flattening technique that makes it thin and gives it a horseshoe shape.
And though it has been part of Pirot’s tradition through generations, the delicacy praised for high-quality meat and its sustainable, organic manufacturing has gained fame beyond this sleepy town near Serbia’s border with Bulgaria.
In 2022, Pirot’s ironed sausage was awarded a certificate from the state food safety authorities for regional excellence and origin — a process that requires producers to follow a set of regulations in order to get the official stamp.
“It is a supreme product,” Marjan Savic, who heads an association of ironed sausage producers, told The Associated Press. “Our sausage is one of the best, if not the best.”
Pirot’s sausage-making tradition dates back at least a century, or perhaps even to the Ottoman era, which ended in the Balkans in 1913.
In old times, sausage makers used meat from older animals to stuff the s