Chef Joost
Amsterdamse Ossenworst
The name means ox sausage, but the real story is Amsterdam itself: cattle trade, Jewish butchers, VOC spices, and raw beef sliced thin with onion.
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Saucijzenbroodje
Created by
The bakery's borrel staple, crisp puff pastry around mace-scented meat, proves the Dutch birthday table knows exactly when to be practical and a little luxurious.
Appetizers & Snacks
Dutch
Birthday
Make Ahead
Potluck
25 min
Active Time
25 min cook•50 min total
Yield12 small rolls or 24 borrel pieces
Every Dutch birthday has its choreography: coffee first, cake passed in obedient slices, then the borrel, the convivial drink, when the table suddenly grows cheese cubes, bitterballen, and saucijzenbroodjes cut into neat warm rounds. Nobody announces them. They simply appear, and the room understands that the serious sitting-down part of the evening has relaxed its collar.
The name already tells you more than it pretends to. Saucijs comes through French saucisse from Latin salsicia, the salted thing, the sausage, while broodje means little bread. But let me tell you a secret: this is not really bread at all. It is a baker's trick, meat wrapped in puff pastry, rich enough to feel festive and simple enough to buy on the way home from work. Very Dutch. We make ceremony, then pretend we haven't.
What matters is the seasoning. A bland filling inside fine pastry is a forgery with good handwriting. Nutmeg and a little mace belong here, not as exotic decoration, but as the ordinary inheritance of a country whose spice cupboards remember the VOC better than its history lessons sometimes do. Keep the meat cold, seal the pastry firmly, cut a few small vents so the roll doesn't burst, and bake until the pastry flakes under the knife. Hou het altijd simpel, always keep it simple, but don't skip the spice.
Saucijzenbroodjes belong to the Dutch bakery tradition that grew around puff pastry and seasoned minced meat in the nineteenth century, when urban bakers sold savoury pastries alongside sweet goods for markets, stations, and household entertaining. The Dutch word saucijs is related to French saucisse and ultimately Latin salsus, salted, while the filling's nutmeg and mace reflect the everyday spice habits of the Dutch kitchen after the seventeenth-century VOC trade. It is often confused with the Brabant worstenbroodje, but that regional cousin uses soft bread dough; the saucijzenbroodje is the flaky bakery version, especially at borrels and birthdays.
The technique, the tradition, and the story behind every dish.
Discover Culinary ExplorerIngredients
ready-rolled puff pastry
Quantity
500g
kept cold
minced pork, or half pork and half beef
Quantity
350g
egg
Quantity
1 small
beaten and divided
fresh white breadcrumbs
Quantity
35g
shallot
Quantity
1 small
very finely minced
Dutch mustard
Quantity
1 tablespoon
fine salt
Quantity
1 teaspoon
freshly grated nutmeg
Quantity
1/2 teaspoon
ground mace
Quantity
1/4 teaspoon
ground white pepper
Quantity
1/4 teaspoon
parsley (optional)
Quantity
1 tablespoon
finely chopped
milk
Quantity
1 tablespoon
for egg wash
| Ingredient | Quantity |
|---|---|
| ready-rolled puff pastrykept cold | 500g |
| minced pork, or half pork and half beef | 350g |
| eggbeaten and divided | 1 small |
| fresh white breadcrumbs | 35g |
| shallotvery finely minced | 1 small |
| Dutch mustard | 1 tablespoon |
| fine salt | 1 teaspoon |
| freshly grated nutmeg | 1/2 teaspoon |
| ground mace | 1/4 teaspoon |
| ground white pepper | 1/4 teaspoon |
| parsley (optional)finely chopped | 1 tablespoon |
| milkfor egg wash | 1 tablespoon |
Equipment Needed
- •Baking tray
- •Parchment paper
- •Pastry brush
- •Instant-read thermometer
Instructions
- 1
Season the meat
Put the minced meat in a bowl with half the beaten egg, the breadcrumbs, shallot, mustard, salt, nutmeg, mace, white pepper, and parsley if using. Mix with your hands just until it holds together. Don't knead it into paste; a saucijzenbroodje should bite like seasoned meat, not like a rubber stamp.
If you have time, chill the filling for fifteen minutes. Cold meat and cold pastry behave better, which is half the battle with anything wrapped in butter. - 2
Shape the filling
Divide the meat into 12 equal portions and roll each one into a short sausage about 8 centimetres long. Keep them even, because uneven rolls bake unevenly, and the birthday aunt who gets the dry one will remember.
- 3
Wrap in pastry
Cut the cold puff pastry into 12 rectangles, each large enough to wrap around one meat roll with a small overlap. Lay a meat roll near one edge, brush the far edge with a little beaten egg, roll the pastry over the filling, and press the seam closed underneath. Pinch the ends lightly so the juices stay where they belong.
- 4
Glaze and vent
Set the rolls seam-side down on a parchment-lined baking tray. Mix the remaining beaten egg with the milk and brush it over the pastry. Cut two small slashes in the top of each roll. These are not decoration; they let the trapped air escape so the pastry rises cleanly instead of splitting where it chooses.
- 5
Bake golden
Bake at 200C for 22 to 25 minutes, until the pastry is deeply golden, crisp at the edges, and the meat is cooked through to 71C in the centre. Rest for five minutes before cutting. The pastry needs that brief pause to settle, and so do the cooks.
- 6
Serve for borrel
Serve whole as a bakery snack, or cut each roll into two neat rounds for a borrel table. They are best warm, when the pastry flakes under the knife and the mace comes up before the meat does.
Chef Tips
- •Use all-butter puff pastry if you can find it. Margarine pastry will puff, yes, but butter gives the clean flake and proper bakery smell.
- •Freshly grate the nutmeg. The pre-ground dust has already spent its best argument in the jar.
- •For a softer filling, use half pork and half beef. For the old bakery richness, all pork is perfectly proper.
- •Do not overfill the pastry. Dutch thrift teaches many virtues, but a bursting saucijzenbroodje is not one of them.
- •Serve with mustard on the side if you like, though a well-seasoned filling should not need rescue.
Advance Preparation
- •Shape the unbaked rolls up to 24 hours ahead and keep them covered in the refrigerator; glaze and slash just before baking.
- •Freeze unbaked rolls on a tray, then store airtight for up to 2 months. Bake from frozen at 200C, adding 8 to 10 minutes.
- •Baked saucijzenbroodjes reheat well at 180C for 8 to 10 minutes. Avoid the microwave; it makes the pastry tired.
Frequently Asked Questions
Nutrition Information
1 serving (about 75g)
Calories
265 calories
Total Fat
17 g
Saturated Fat
7 g
Trans Fat
0 g
Unsaturated Fat
10 g
Cholesterol
35 mg
Sodium
380 mg
Total Carbohydrates
18 g
Dietary Fiber
1 g
Sugars
1 g
Protein
9 g
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