Скачать или смотреть The rising fame of the flat sausage ironed with a glass bottle

(25 Feb 2026)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:

ASSOCIATED PRESS
Pirot, Serbia - 13 February 2026
1. Various of Misa Rajic, a producer of ironed sausage, as he inspects a batch of sausages in storage
2. Various of sausages hanging to dry
4. SOUNDBITE (Serbian) Misa Rajic, producer of ironed sausage:
“I’ve known the ironed sausage since childhood. My grandfather used to make it, so I grew up by his side and in the winter months, with the ironed sausage too. And ever since I got married, I started making small amounts of it together with my father-in-law, but then considering the rising interest and the quality of the ironed sausage, it evolved into a serious business. Only the highest quality of meat goes into the ironed sausage. All fat and tendons are removed, then it’s hung to dry. It takes about a month to get a dry, dehydrated product that is ready for consumption.”
5. Various of Savic cutting slices of sausage
6. Various of sausages hanging to dry
STORYLINE:
During long winter months, a traditionally crafted spicy sausage in the town of Pirot in southeastern Serbia is said to lift both a person's energy and spirits.

The “ironed sausage” — or “peglana kobasica” in Serbian — is a rich mixture of selected meats loaded with seasoning and dried naturally. The name of the sausage is derived from a unique bottle-flattening technique that makes it thin and gives it a horseshoe shape.

At sausage producer Misa Rajic's home, there are rows of ironed sausages are being dried. Not quite ready to be eaten but their distinctive colour and shape are almost there.

Rajic learned this craft from his grandfather and remembers making ironed sausages every winter while growing up.

He now owns this small manufacturing unit in his home on the outskirts of Pirot, Serbia.

“It takes about a month to get a dry, dehydrated product that is ready for consumption,” Rajic says, showing visitors how sausages are pressed with a glass bottle from the middle outward.

The process, he adds, "helps further mix the meat inside the sausage and it helps with the drying because it extracts the moisture”.

A well-dried sausage has a dark colour with greyish surface of beef intestines, which is peeled before serving.

Locals in Pirot eat the sausage as a digestive, after a full meal, including the desert. They cut it into leaf-thin slices and chew slowly with red wine to enjoy the taste.

While it's been part of Pirot's tradition for generations, the delicacy praised for high-quality meat and organic making in recent years has gained fame beyond the sleepy town near the border with Bulgaria.

In 2022, Pirot's ironed sausage was awarded a certificate from the state food safety authorities for regional excellence and origin. This means producers must follow a set of regulations in order to get the official stamp.

The practice dates back at least a century or perhaps even to the Ottoman era.

AP video shot by: Marko Drobnjakovic

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