Češnjovke

The story

Češnjovke are the garlic sausages of northwestern Croatia, named for češnjak, garlic. Around Samobor, a market town west of Zagreb, the local form is češnofka, and it has the longest paper trail. Milan Lang described it in 1915, in his book on Samobor folk life and customs, as a sausage of the highest quality. It began in farmhouses at pig-slaughter time, made mostly by women from local pork, white wine and garlic, and professional butchers later took it up; a poem written for the 1934 Samobor carnival already mentions it. Home cooks cut or grind fatty pork, season it with salt and pepper, and add the garlic as juice or steeped in water and wine rather than in pieces. Samobor butchers still tie the links in pairs by hand with small wooden sticks, a step called špajlanje, then hot-smoke them. In late 2022 the EU registered Samoborska češnofka as a protected geographical indication, and the town has held a festival for it at its spring fair for a decade. Češnjovke are always cooked before eating: boiled, braised or grilled. Allow a pair per person and serve them on a heap of braised sauerkraut with mustard and bread.