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Sausage

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Plate with German Wurst (liver-, blood- and hamsausage)


A sausage consists of ground meat, animal fat, herbs and spices, and sometimes other ingredients, usually packed in a casing (historically the intestines of the animal, though now generally synthetic), and sometimes preserved in some way, often by curing or smoking. Sausage making is a very old food preservation technique. There is no consensus whether similar products that are not packed in casings, such as pâté, meatloaf, scrapple and head cheese should be considered sausages. Pieces of sausage — often not including casing — are a popular topping for pizza in many countries.

History

Australian "snags" cooking on a campfire

Sausage is a natural outcome of efficient butchery. Sausage-makers put to good use meat and animal parts that are edible and nutritious, but not particularly appealing, such as scraps, organ meats, blood, and fat, and allow the preservation of meat that can not be consumed immediately. Hence, sausages are among the oldest of prepared foods.

It is often assumed that sausages were invented by Sumerians in what is Iraq today, around 3000 BC. Chinese sausage làcháng (臘腸/腊肠), which consisted of goat and lamb meat, was first mentioned in 589 BC. Homer, the poet of The Ancient Greece, mentioned a kind of blood sausage in the Odyssey (book 20, verse 25) , and Epicharmus (ca. 550 BC - ca. 460 BC) wrote a comedy titled The Sausage . Evidence suggests that sausages were already popular both among the ancient Greeks and Romans.[citation needed]

During the reign of the Roman emperor Nero, sausages were associated with the Lupercalia festival. The early Catholic Church outlawed the Lupercalia Festival and made eating sausage a sin. For this reason, the Roman emperor Constantine banned the eating of sausages. Early in the 10th century in the Byzantine Empire, Leo VI the Wise outlawed the production of blood sausages following cases of food poisoning.

Traditionally, sausage casings were made of the intestines of animals. Today, however, natural casings are often replaced by collagen, cellulose or even plastic casings, especially in the case of industrially manufactured sausages. Additionally, luncheon meat (such as SPAM) and sausage meat are now available without casings in tins and jars.

The most basic sausage consists of meat cut into pieces or ground and filled into a casing such as an animal intestine. The meat may be from any animal, but traditionally is pork, beef or veal. The meat/fat ratio is dependent upon the style and producer, but in the United States, fat content is legally limited to a maximum of 30%, 35% or 50%, by weight, depending on the style. The USDA defines the content for various sausages and generally prohibits fillers and extenders.[1] Most traditional styles of sausage from Europe and Asia use no bread-based filler and are 100% meat and fat (excluding salt and other flavorings, such as herbs).[2] In the UK and other countries with English cooking traditions, bread and starch-based fillers account for up to 25% of ingredients.

The word sausage is derived from Old French saussiche, from the Latin word salsus, meaning salted.

Classification of sausages

Sausages may be classified in any number of ways, for instance by the type of meat and other ingredients they contain, or by their consistency. The most popular classification is probably by type of preparation, but even this suffers from regional differences in opinion. In the English-speaking world, the following distinction between fresh sausages, cooked sausages and dry sausages seems to be more or less accepted:

  • Cooked sausages are made with fresh meats and then fully cooked. They are either eaten immediately after cooking or must be refrigerated. Examples include Braunschweiger and liver sausages.
  • Cooked smoked sausages are cooked and then smoked or smoke-cooked. They are eaten hot or cold, but need to be refrigerated. Examples include Hot dogs, kielbasa and Mortadella.
  • Fresh sausages are made from meats that have not been previously cured. They must be refrigerated and thoroughly cooked before eating. Examples include Boerewors, Italian pork sausage and fresh beef sausage.
  • Fresh smoked sausages are fresh sausages that are smoked. They should be refrigerated and cooked thoroughly before eating. Examples include Mettwurst and Romanian sausage.
  • Dry sausages are fresh sausages that are dried. They are generally eaten cold and will keep for a long time. Examples include salami, Droë wors and summer sausage.

Other countries, however, use different systems of classification. Germany, for instance, which boasts more than 1200 types of sausage, distinguishes raw, cooked and pre-cooked sausages.

  • Raw sausages are made with raw meat and aren't cooked. They are preserved by lactic fermentation, and may be dried, brined or smoked. Most raw sausages will keep for a long time. Examples include cervelat, mettwurst and salami.
  • Cooked sausages may include water and emulsifiers and are always cooked. They will not keep long. Examples include Jagdwurst and Weißwurst.
  • Pre-cooked sausages are made with cooked meat, and may include raw organ meat. They may be heated after casing, and will keep only for a few days. Examples include Saumagen and Blutwurst.

Germany is known for being one of the major sausage producers of the world from which the frankfurter originated as well as various lesser known ones such as bierwurst.

The US has a particular type called pickled sausages, commonly found in gas stations and small roadside delicatessens. These are usually smoked and/or boiled sausages of a highly processed frankfurter (hot dog) or kielbasa style plunged into a boiling brine of vinegar, salt, spices (red pepper, paprika...) and often a pink coloring, then jarred. They are available in single blister packs i.e. Slim Jim meat snacks, or in jars atop the deli cooler. They are shelf stable, and are a frequently offered alternative to beef jerky, beef stick, and kippered beef snacks.

Certain countries classify sausage types according to the region in which the sausage was traditionally produced:

Types of sausage

Sausage making, Russia

Many nations and regions have their own characteristic sausages, using meats and other ingredients native to the region and employed in traditional dishes.

Italian sausages are often a mix of pork and veal. In the USA, these are defined as having a minimum of 85% meat, and must contain salt, pepper, and either fennel or anise.

German sausages, or wurst, cover a wide range of cooked, uncooked and unfilled styles (no casing), such as frankfurters, bratwurst, rindswurst, blargenwurst, knackwurst, and bockwurst.

English, Scottish and Welsh sausages, or bangers (so named for their tendency to explode during cooking if poorly made), for example, normally have a significant amount of rusk, or bread crumbs, and are less meaty than sausages in other styles. Bangers are also used to make toad in the hole. They are an essential part of a full English breakfast, and are usually offered with an Irish breakfast. According to Sausagefans.com, in Britain alone there are over 470 different types of sausages. The British sausage was once the butt of a joke on Yes Minister, where it was to be renamed by European Union directive on all labels as the "Low Density, High Fat, Emulsified Offal Tube". A similar thing to this nearly happened last year[citation needed]. In some areas "sausage meat" for frying is sold as slices cut from an oblong block of pressed meat without any casing: in Scotland this is known as Lorne Sausage or often slice or square while the usual form is sometimes called link sausage.

Scandinavian sausages (Finnish: makkara, Danish and Norwegian: pølse, Icelandic: pylsa, Swedish: korv) are usually made of 60-75 % very finely ground pork, very sparsely spiced with pepper, nutmeg, allspice or similar sweet spices (ground mustard seed, onion and sugar may also be added). Water, lard, rind, potato flour and soy or milk protein are often added for binding and filling. Virtually all sausages will be industrially precooked and either fried or warmed in hot water by the consumer or at the hot dog stand. Since hot dog stands are ubiquitous in Denmark some people regard pølser one of the national dishes. The most noticeable aspect of Danish cooked sausages (never the fried ones) is that the cover often contains a traditional bright-red dye. They are also called wienerpølser and legend has it they originate from Vienna where it was once ordered that day-old sausages be dyed as a means of warning. The Swedish falukorv is a similarly red-dyed sausage, but about 5 cm thick, usually cut in slices and fried. Unlike ordinary sausages it is a typical home dish, not sold at hot dog stands. In Sweden sausages are often accompanied by potato mash rather than bread. On Iceland, lamb may be added to sausages, giving them a distinct taste. One local Finnish variety is mustamakkara, a "black sausage" prepared with blood, which is a speciality of Tampere.

North American breakfast sausage consists of uncooked ground pork, mixed with sage, pepper, or other ingredients. It is not stuffed into casings, and is generally sold in plastic wrapping. It is pan-fried in small patties, or cooked and crumbled into scrambled eggs or gravy.

Sausages can also be modified to use indigenous ingredients. Mexican styles add oregano and the "guajillo" red pepper to the Spanish chorizo to give it an even hotter spicy touch.

Sausages may be served as hors d'oeuvre, in a sandwich, in a bread roll as a hot dog, wrapped in a tortilla, or as an ingredient in dishes such as stews and casseroles. Sausage without casing is called sausage meat and can be fried or used as stuffing for poultry, or for wrapping foods like Scotch eggs. Similarly, sausage meat encased in puff pastry is called a sausage roll.

In Turkey sausage is known as sosis which is made of beef.

There are currently organisations in a number of UK counties such as Lincolnshire who are seeking European protected status on their sausages so that, rather like Champagne, they can only be made in the appropriate county. So in the future it may be illegal to call a Lincolnshire sausage a Lincolnshire sausage if it is not made in Lincolnshire.[3]

In England, Saveloy is the snack referring to the sausage while in Hong Kong the Cervelat Sausage is a snack on its own, too (evenly machine-roasted). Both are bigger than general hot-dog sausages.

Sucuk (pronounced tsudjuck with accent on the last syllable) is a type of sausage made in Turkey and neighboring Balkan countries suggesting that sucuk may actually be a close relative of the original sausages of the ancient Rome and Greece. Modern Turkey is "on" Asia Minor, the heartland of ancient Greek and Byzantine cultures. There are numerous types of food which are known to have been made in the Roman Empire that survive in modern Turkish cuisine only. Considering what the original word for sausage means, rather salty Turkish sausage, sucuk, could very well be one the sausages of the ancient times. There are many types of sucuk but possibly the best kind is made from beef, water buffalo meat and sheep fat. It is fermented, spiced (with garlic and pepper) and filled in sheep intestines. Slightly smoked sucuk is considered superior. The taste is spicy, salty and a little raw, similar to pepperoni. Some varieties are extremely hot and/or greasy. Some are "adulterated" with turkey or chicken. There are many dishes made with sucuk but grilled sucuk remains the most popular. Smoke dried varieties are consumed "raw" in sandwiches. An intestinal loop is one sucuk. Smoked sucuk is usually straight.

Vegetarian sausage

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Vegetarian and vegan sausages are also available in some countries, or can be made from scratch. These may be made from tofu, seitan, nuts, pulses, soya protein, vegetables or any combination of similar ingredients that will hold together during cooking. These sausages, like most meat-replacement products, generally fall into two camps: some are shaped, colored, flavored, etc to replicate the taste and texture of meat as accurately as possible; others rely on spices and vegetables to lend their natural flavour to the product and no attempt is made to imitate meat.

Health concerns

A 2004 analysis published in the journal Neuroepidemiology determined that consumption of cured sausage during pregnancy is correlated with an increased risk of childhood brain tumors.[4]

Quotes

  • "Snorkers are the opium of the masses" - Johnny Marsh, BBC Radio 2.
  • "To retain respect for sausages and laws, one must not watch them in the making."- Otto von Bismarck (attributed; also given as "People who enjoy sausage and respect the law should not watch either being made" and many other variations).
  • "Es geht um die Wurst" - German idiom meaning "now or never", literally translates as "it concerns/goes at the sausage."
  • "Es ist mir Wurst" - German idiom meaning "I don't care" or "It doesn't bother me", literally translates as "it is sausage to me" - compare to the Dutch "het zal me worst wezen."
  • "Alles hat ein Ende, nur die Wurst hat zwei" - German idiom meaning "everything will come to an end", literally translates as "everything has an end, only the sausage has two."

References

  1. ^ USDA Standards of Identity; see Subparts E, F & G
  2. ^ Joy of Cooking, Rombauer & Becker; The Fine Art of Italian Cooking, Bugialli
  3. ^ http://www.lincs-sausage-association.co.uk/protect%20our%20saus%20page.html
  4. ^ "Entrez PubMed". Retrieved July 2. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)

See also

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