
Meat · Cured & processed meats
Sucuk
Spicy, garlicky dry-fermented beef sausage from Turkey and the Balkans, sliced and fried with eggs.
Also called: sujuk, soujouk, spicy beef sausage, turkish sausage
Around the world: sucuk (tr) · sujuk (ar) · sujukh (hy)
A kind of beef
Photo: Rainer Zenz, via Wikimedia Commons (CC-BY-SA-3.0)
What it is
Sucuk is a dry, fermented sausage made from minced beef (sometimes with lamb) and beef fat, seasoned with garlic, cumin, red pepper and other spices. It is firm, dark red and horseshoe-shaped. Unlike Spanish chorizo it contains no pork, so it suits halal diets when certified.
How it’s used
- Sucuklu yumurta (fried with eggs)
- Grilled in sandwiches and toasties
- Topping pide
- Added to beans and stews
Characteristics
- Taste
- Spicy, garlicky, salty and tangy.
- Texture
- Firm and chewy; crisp at the edges when fried.
- When cooked
- Releases a lot of spiced fat when fried; slice thinly and fry without added oil.
- Sold as
- cured
- Cooking uses
- Commonly cooked, Suitable for frying, Suitable for grilling
Storage
Refrigerated. Keep wrapped in the fridge after opening; whole sticks keep for weeks.
Diet, allergens and safety
No major allergens in typical versions. May contain Mustard — check the label.
- Vegetarian
- Vegan
- Dairy-free
- Egg-free
- Gluten-free
- Nut-free
- Soy-free
- Caffeine-free
- Processed meat, high in salt; may contain mustard.
Nutrition per 100 g
- Energy
- 312 kcal
- Protein
- 14.11 g
- Carbohydrate
- 2.42 g
- Fat
- 26.91 g
- Fibre
- 0 g
- Sugars
- — g
USDA FoodData Central: Sausage, beef, cured, cooked, smoked (a close stand-in).
Substitutes
Optional — what works if you don’t have it, and how it changes the dish.
- Chorizo — Cured Spanish chorizo for non-halal cooking; smokier.
Related ingredients
Recipes with sucuk

Sucuklu yumurta
Turkish · 11 min · 368 kcal
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