It has to be said that sausages are seldom a beautiful thing. But sometimes the most beautifully-tasting sausages end up looking so unsightly that even genuine sausage lovers need to be coaxed into taking a bite. A case in point is the excellent but undeniably ugly szürkemarha paprikás kolbász (gray beef pepper sausage) from Páty-based Koppány recently spotted in local markets.

Aside from being the rare kolbász variety made from beef rather than pork - and from Hungary's much vaunted "gray" cattle to boot - this dry sausage is notable for tasting only lightly of smoke, at least compared to most of its many rivals. It is also nicely spicy, but certainly not túl csípős. Finally, it is an official "Hungaricum" product, which, in addition to all the above, may partly explain the higher than normal price. (We paid Ft 861 for the 0.266 kg pár of the things at the Rothschild's supermarket on Arány János utca in District V, which works out to just over Ft 3,000 per kilo.) But if you're not going to be put off by the looks of the thing, you can no doubt stomach the price.