Vėdarai

Ingredients

The casing

• about 2 metres pig intestine
• large intestine, cleaned
• bought commercially cleaned
• see the safety notes carefully
• or thick natural sausage casings

The filling

• 2 kgfloury potatoes
• peeled and grated finely
• 300 gsmoked bacon or pork fat
• diced small
• 2large onions, finely chopped
• 2eggs, beaten
• optional, to bind
• 2 tablespoonspotato starch
• optional
• 2 teaspoonssalt
• 1 teaspoonblack pepper
• a little marjoram, optional

For baking

• 150 gsmoked bacon, diced
• or 100 g pork fat
• a little water in the tin

To serve

• soured cream
• spirgai, fried bacon and onion
• a green salad
• or sauerkraut

Directions

1. Turn the intestine inside out first. Rinse repeatedly under running water. Continue until the water runs completely clear. Rub the casing hard with coarse salt. Rinse and repeat the salting three times. Soak it in water with vinegar afterwards. The cleaned casing should smell neutral.
2. Work in a sink you can disinfect afterwards. Use a separate board and separate knives. Keep it away from all other food. Wash your hands thoroughly with soap. Use floury potatoes rather than waxy ones. Floury potatoes break down and go soft.
3. Peel them and grate them finely. That happens within minutes of grating. Grate the potato directly into cold water. Work quickly and do not leave it standing. Add a little grated raw onion immediately. Too much water gives a loose runny filling.
4. Press it firmly to remove the liquid. Pour the water off and keep the starch. Stir that starch back into the potato. Fry the diced bacon until the fat renders. Add the chopped onion to the same pan. Cook it until soft and golden. That takes about eight minutes.
5. Let it cool before adding it to the potato. Hot fat would start cooking the potato. Mix the bacon and onion into the grated potato. Add the reserved potato starch to it. Add the beaten eggs if you are using them. Add salt and plenty of black pepper. Add marjoram if you like, which is common.
6. Mix it all thoroughly with your hands. The mixture should be loose but not runny. Rinse the cleaned casings inside and out. Tie one end of the casing firmly. Do not overfill the casing at all. Fill it about two thirds full only. Work the filling along as you go. Squeeze out any trapped air pockets. Tie off the other end of it firmly.
7. Tie the sausage into shorter lengths. Use a needle or a very fine skewer. Prick them every few centimetres. Heat the oven to one hundred and eighty degrees. Scatter diced bacon in a roasting tin. Lay the sausages on top of it.
8. Add a splash of water to the tin. That water stops the fat burning at first. Cover the roasting tin with foil. Bake it covered for about an hour. Turn the sausages once halfway through. Bake uncovered for twenty to thirty minutes. Baste them with the fat in the tin. The casings should turn brown and crisp.
9. Serve them hot straight from the tin. Spoon the fat from the tin over them. Serve soured cream on the side. A sharp green salad helps considerably.

Technique

• Pig intestine holds digestive contents and carries bacteria including E. coli, some strains of which cause severe illness. Cleaning and thorough cooking are both required and neither is enough alone. Buying commercially cleaned casings from a butcher or sausage supplier is by far the safer route and the atlas recommends it.
• If you clean intestine yourself, do it completely: turn it inside out, scrape the inner surface, rinse until the water runs clear, salt and rinse three times, then soak in water with vinegar. It should smell of nothing. Use a separate board and knives, keep it away from all other food, and disinfect everything afterwards — cross-contamination is the real hazard.
• Do not overfill the casings. Potato swells considerably as it cooks and an overfilled sausage bursts. Two thirds full is right, and squeeze out trapped air, which expands and does the same.
• Prick the casings all over with a needle before baking. This is not optional — unpricked sausages burst in the oven.
• Grated raw potato browns within minutes and turns grey. It does not affect the taste at all. Grate into cold water, work quickly, and add grated onion immediately, which slows it — but traditional vėdarai is often grey and that is entirely normal.
• Squeeze the water out of the grated potato, then let that liquid settle: a white layer of potato starch sinks to the bottom. Pour the water off and stir the starch back into the filling. It binds without any added flour and wastes nothing.
• Use floury potatoes, not waxy. Waxy potatoes stay firm and slightly rubbery where floury ones break down and go soft.
• Test with a skewer before serving. The potato must be fully cooked — chalky undercooked potato is unpleasant and hard to digest — and the bacon inside must be cooked through.
• Soured cream on the side is essential rather than decorative. The dish is very rich and something sharp is what makes it eatable in quantity.

Substitutions

• Thick natural sausage casings replace pig intestine and are much easier to obtain and handle.
• The filling can be baked in a greased dish with no casing at all, giving a potato bake rather than a sausage. It is a different dish and a good one.
• Smoked bacon, pork fat or lardons all work for the fat.
• Eggs are optional; without them the filling is looser and needs the potato starch to bind.
• Marjoram is the usual herb; some households use none at all.
• Sauerkraut replaces the green salad and does the same job of cutting the richness.

Variations

• Cepelinai, potato dumplings stuffed with meat, are Lithuania’s best-known potato dish and belong to the same family.
• Kugelis is the baked grated potato pudding made from a very similar mixture without a casing.
• A version with buckwheat or barley mixed into the potato is made in some regions.
• Blood-based vėdarai, using blood alongside the potato, is made in some households at slaughter time.
• Related potato sausages are made in Latvia, Poland and Belarus under their own names.
• Some cooks fry rather than bake the sausages, which crisps the casing faster.

History

Potato sausage stuffed into cleaned pig intestine and baked with bacon, a farm dish from the winter slaughter.

Frequently asked questions

What is Vėdarai?

Vėdarai is a main from Lithuania: potato sausage: intestines stuffed with grated potato, baked. Potato sausage stuffed into cleaned pig intestine and baked with bacon, a farm dish from the winter slaughter.

How long does Vėdarai take to make?

Vėdarai takes 1 hour 30 minutes of preparation and 1 hour 30 minutes of cooking. The recipe makes serves 6. It is rated hard to make.

What can I substitute in Vėdarai?

Yes, within limits. Thick natural sausage casings replace pig intestine and are much easier to obtain and handle. The filling can be baked in a greased dish with no casing at all, giving a potato bake rather than a sausage. It is a different dish and a good one. Smoked bacon, pork fat or lardons all work for the fat. Eggs are optional; without them the filling is looser and needs the potato starch to bind. Marjoram is the usual herb; some households use none at all. Sauerkraut replaces the green salad and does the same job of cutting the richness.

What is the most important thing to get right in Vėdarai?

Work in a sink you can disinfect afterwards. Use a separate board and separate knives. Keep it away from all other food. Wash your hands thoroughly with soap. Use floury potatoes rather than waxy ones. Floury potatoes break down and go soft.