Pork sausage filled with offal, pomegranate, and Caucasian spices, grilled or fried — Megrelia's blood-rich winter sausage.
Kupati combines pork meat and offal (heart, liver, lungs) with pomegranate seeds, blue fenugreek, coriander, and ajika, stuffed into pork casings. Originally a winter preservation food, it's now grilled or fried fresh year-round. The pomegranate seeds burst as you bite — the Megrelian signature touch.
Bite through the casing and the pork inside is shot with pomegranate seeds that burst sour-sweet against the smoke from the coals. Ajika gives it a creeping heat; cumin and coriander sit underneath.
Pomegranate seeds don't just flavor — their natural pectin and acid help the pork bind and stay tender through the grill. The fatty, collagen-rich offal melts into gelatin on the grill, lubricating the leaner pork; the red-pepper and ajika coating also masks any organ-meat funk.
Variations
Imeretian kupati skips pomegranate and tilts toward blue fenugreek instead; Adjaran versions add cilantro and even cinnamon — west to east, the spice profile bends toward warmer.
On the Palate
Where Kupati sits in the Georgian flavor cloud
Ingredients
Serves 4
How it's made
5 steps · 1 hour 24 min active + 36 min waiting
- 124 min
Mix 300g ground pork + 200g chopped pork heart + 200g chopped pork liver + 100g pomegranate seeds.
- 224 min
Add 1 grated onion, 4 minced garlic cloves, 2 tsp ground coriander, 2 tsp blue fenugreek, 1 tsp paprika, 1 tsp salt, 1 tbsp ajika.
- 324 min
Knead the mixture 5 min until sticky. Stuff into pork casings; twist into 15cm links. Prick with a needle.
Watch outKnead until the mix turns sticky and clings to the bowl — that tackiness means it will bind and hold together on the grill instead of crumbling.
- 424 min
Simmer (do not boil) in barely-trembling water 25 minutes until firm. Cool.
Watch outKeep the water barely trembling, never a rolling boil — a hard boil bursts the casings and the sausages split before they firm up.
- 524 min
Grill over charcoal or pan-fry in oil 4-5 min per side until skin is crisped. Serve with pomegranate seeds and lavash.
Watch outGrill just until the skin tightens and crisps and blisters — the inside is already cooked, so you're only after that crackle on the surface.
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