Metworst or droge worst is a type of traditional Dutch

Dutch cuisine

Dutch cuisine is shaped by the practice of fishing and farming, including the cultivation of the soil for raising crops and the raising of domesticated animals, and the history of the Netherlands.-History:...

 sausage

Sausage

A sausage is a food usually made from ground meat , mixed with salt, herbs, and other spices, although vegetarian sausages are available. The word sausage is derived from Old French saussiche, from the Latin word salsus, meaning salted.Typically, a sausage is formed in a casing traditionally made...

. The sausages have a very strong flavour and are made from raw minced pork which is then air dried

Drying (food)

Drying is a method of food preservation that works by removing water from the food, which inhibits the growth of microorganisms and hinders quality decay. Drying food using sun and wind to prevent spoilage has been practised since ancient times, and was the earliest form of food curing...

.

Droge worst simply means dry sausage, referring to drying process and texture of the product. The name metworst (meaning 'With sausage') is similar to the German Mettwurst

Mettwurst

Mettwurst is a strongly flavoured German sausage made from raw minced pork, which is preserved by curing and smoking. The southern German variety is soft and similar to Teewurst. Braunschweiger mettwurst is smoked somewhat but still soft and spreadable, while other northern German varieties such...

, though only in name; as the taste and preparation of both sausage types is very different.

Metworst is traditionally found throughout the Netherlands and Flanders

Flanders

Flanders is the community of the Flemings but also one of the institutions in Belgium, and a geographical region located in parts of present-day Belgium, France and the Netherlands. "Flanders" can also refer to the northern part of Belgium that contains Brussels, Bruges, Ghent and Antwerp...

, though it is most produced in the northern provinces of the Netherlands (Groningen

Groningen (province)

Groningen [] is the northeasternmost province of the Netherlands. In the east it borders the German state of Niedersachsen , in the south Drenthe, in the west Friesland and in the north the Wadden Sea...

, Friesland

Friesland

Friesland is a province in the north of the Netherlands and part of the ancient region of Frisia.Until the end of 1996, the province bore Friesland as its official name. In 1997 this Dutch name lost its official status to the Frisian Fryslân...

 and Drenthe

Drenthe

Drenthe is a province of the Netherlands, located in the north-east of the country. The capital city is Assen. It is bordered by Overijssel to the south, Friesland to the west, Groningen to the north, and Germany to the east.-History:Drenthe, unlike many other parts of the Netherlands, has been a...

) as the wind conditions there are more suitable for quickly drying the sausages in open air.

Originally metworst, thanks to its preservability, served as an emergency meat supply to poor farmers in times of need or lack of fresh meat. As meat production gradually rose, the sausage began to be used as lunch for field laborer

Laborer

A Laborer or labourer - see variation in english spelling - is one of the construction trades, traditionally considered unskilled manual labor, as opposed to skilled labor. In the division of labor, laborers have all blasting, hand tools, power tools, air tools, and small heavy equipment, and act...

s.

The sausage is the direct ancestor of the better known Afrikaner

Afrikaner

Afrikaners are an ethnic group in Southern Africa descended from almost equal numbers of Dutch, French and German settlers whose native tongue is Afrikaans: a Germanic language which derives primarily from 17th century Dutch, and a variety of other languages.-Related ethno-linguistic groups:The...

 droë wors

Droë wors

Droëwors is a popular South African snack food, based on the traditional, coriander-seed spiced boerewors sausage. It is usually made from dun wors rather than dik wors , as the thinner sausage dries more quickly and is thus less likely to spoil before it can be preserved...

which is near identical in its way of production; though not so much in terms of the meat used, as naturally the Low Countries

Low Countries

The Low Countries are the historical lands around the low-lying delta of the Rhine, Scheldt, and Meuse rivers, including the modern countries of Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg and parts of northern France and western Germany....

 have markedly different fauna

Fauna

Fauna or faunæ is all of the animal life of any particular region or time. The corresponding term for plants is flora.Zoologists and paleontologists use fauna to refer to a typical collection of animals found in a specific time or place, e.g. the "Sonoran Desert fauna" or the "Burgess shale fauna"...

 when compared to South Africa

South Africa

The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...

.