AI-generated Kulen's little sister: the same kind of filling, pork with paprika and garlic, in a longer and narrower casing, so it dries sooner and costs less. At Kulen Novosel in Gat the seka sells for 21 euros a kilo, between kulen at 34 and kobasica at 13. Home makers use the pig's large intestine, the kular or gužnjak; factories often use beef casings. Belje's seka weighs about 600 g. It has no protected status, so the name says nothing about where or how it was made. It is eaten cold and sliced, next to kulen on Slavonian platters.
History
The seka belongs to the Slavonian pig slaughter. An ethnographic text on the old kolinje lists making kobasica, kulen, kulenove seke, krvavice and švargla as the only work men and women did together. Each pig gave just one caecum for a kulen, and the seka took the same kind of filling in more casing. Neither the kulen nor the kobasica PGI file mentions it, so it stayed a free name.
Ingredients
Preparation
A Slavonian home recipe on Coolinarika uses 3 kg leg, 5.5 kg shoulder and 1.5 kg hard back fat, at most 2% salt, garlic water and sweet and hot paprika, stuffed into large-intestine casings 5 to over 10 cm wide. It is smoked lightly two or three times, never over hot smoke. No source gives a fixed drying time; all say it is ready sooner than kulen.
Taste
Paprika and garlic over pork, close to kulen but less concentrated, since a narrower sausage dries for a shorter time.
Texture
Firm and sliceable, a little softer than a long-ripened kulen. Red mosaic of meat with small pieces of white fat.
Rituals & Traditions
Read the label
Kulenova seka is not protected. A farm seka with pork, paprika, garlic and salt and a factory one with additives share the name, so the ingredient list tells you which one you have.
