The 32nd Championship Boerewors Competition

WHAT? A BOEREWORS COMPETITION?

Yes, and it’s been run for the last 32 years to find the maker of South Africa’s favourite sausage and name that person championship boerewors-maker of the year. The contest started out as an internal competition for Shoprite and Checkers employees, but was opened up to the public in 2001, as the retailer believes the country’s best boerewors recipe can be found only if all South Africans are allowed to participate in the event. Hear, hear!

Over the years, the Championship Boerewors title has been held by South Africans from all walks of life. Housewives, butchery managers, students, and even a 13-year-old primary school pupil have taken top honours in the popular contest. This year, the finalists comprised 10 people from all around the country, eight of whom unsurprisingly worked in the meat industry. Just two women featured in the top 10 — Moshasheni Mabotja, 28, a municipal worker from Polokwane, and Debbie Nel, 43, a charity worker from eManzimtoti.

HOW DOES IT WORK?

The call for entrants goes out in May. This year, the competition attracted a record number of entries — 2,350 in total. Each entrant had to submit his or her traditional boerewors recipe in accordance with the following guidelines:

• The boerewors had to be made up of at least 90% meat — always beef, as well as lamb or pork, or a mixture of both — and the fat content of the meat mixture was not allowed to exceed 30%.
• The boerewors recipe had to feature a distinctive combination of spices such as coriander, cloves, nutmeg and black pepper, as well as liquids such as vinegar, water and Worcestershire sauce.
• Recipes could NOT contain bacon, chutney, cheese, peri-peri sauce, curry sauce, tomato sauce, peppadews, green peppers, Parmesan, Aromat, chilli, garlic, ginger, cinnamon, paprika, whole peppercorns, green and pink peppercorns, lemon, soy, mustard, kidney fat, alcohol or venison.

All submissions went through a rigorous vetting process to ensure they complied with the regulations. Then there was a careful examination of the entries by professionals — a team of chefs from the SA Chef Association (Saca), a longtime partner of the competition — who set about trying to find the 30 best traditional boerewors recipes. The top 30 entrants were asked to send the judges the spices they had chosen for their recipes, and then the judges tried out the recipes using each entrant’s spices. And then there was the ultimate test — tasting the boerewors. Just 10 finalists were chosen from the top 30.

The fun part (albeit the most nerve-racking for the competitors!) was the day the 10 finalists, their families and friends, the media, and other personalities were invited to watch them come together for the final braai-off. Championship Boerewors is not a cooking contest, so each finalist was paired with a chef. The finalist stood alongside the chef, who cooked the competition hopeful’s special wors. Hot off the coals, the boerewors was handed to the judges to be rated. The judges had no idea who made which boerewors, as the entries were merely numbered. 

MEET THE JUDGES

Heading the panel of judges was Saca president James Khoza, who is also executive chef at the Sandton Sun. His team included Carmen Niehaus, a food editor and cookbook author; Zanele van Zyl, a celebrity chef, cookbook author, and Shoprite brand ambassador; Matthew Howcroft, a chef and digital creator; and Martin Kobald, a chef, the past president of Saca, and the current vice-president of the World Association of Chefs’ Societies. The popular wild-card judge joining the panel this year — bringing his love for braaiing and formidable South African sausage-making prowess to the 2024 competition — was former Springbok lock Bakkies Botha, who had the crowd eating out of the palm of his hand. 

AND THE WINNER IS ...

The rain did nothing to dampen the spirits of Centurion financial manager Ruard Briel, 37, who took top honours in the hotly contested competition. Briel had a quietly confident demeanour throughout the proceedings. In taking home the Championship Boerewors 2024 prize, he won a spanking-new Toyota Fortuner (worth R600,000) and a R20,000 cash prize, and also earned the honour of having his recipe made into Championship Boerewors to be sold in Shoprite/Checkers stores from Friday September 6. Runners-up were Marthinus Verwey, 49, a meat market manager from Bloemfontein, who won R50,000, and Jasper Gordon, 57, another meat market manager from The Strand, who took home R30,000.

For Briel, this year was seventh-time lucky for him. He has entered the competition for the last six years but hasn’t made the top 30 before. “This was my first time in the top 30, and then I made it as a top-10 finalist,” he said in disbelief. “This is massive,” he said. “It’s taking time to sink in.”

His passion for making boerewors was born when he started hunting nine years ago. A passionate “meat man”, he also makes biltong and droëwors, which he sells to colleagues and gives away at charity events.

When quizzed about the secret of his sausage success, he would divulge only a few juicy titbits. The most important thing, he said, was to get the recipe’s balance right. “It’s all in the texture and flavour profile,” said the winner. “The ratios of the ingredients are unique, just like a fingerprint.” Ever the perfectionist, Briel talked about how, in getting the recipe right, it had been important for him to ask as many people as possible to taste his homemade boerewors and give him feedback on how flavoursome they found it. This, he said, helped him make his boerewors a winner.