A sausage is a type of meat product usually made from ground meat—often pork, beef, or poultry—along with Edible salt, spices and other flavourings. Other ingredients, such as grains or breadcrumbs, may be included as fillers or extenders.
When used as an uncountable noun, the word sausage can refer to the loose sausage meat, which can be used loose, formed into patties, or stuffed into a casing. When referred to as "a sausage", the product is usually cylindrical and enclosed in a casing.
Typically, a sausage is formed in a casing traditionally made from intestine, but sometimes from synthetic materials. Sausages that are sold raw are cooked in many ways, including pan-frying, broiling and barbecuing. Some sausages are Cooking during processing, and the casing may then be removed.
Sausage making is a traditional food preservation technique. Sausages may be preserved by curing, drying (often in association with fermentation or culturing, which can contribute to preservation), smoking, or freezing. Some cured or smoked sausages can be stored without refrigeration. Most fresh sausages must be refrigerated or frozen until they are cooked.
Sausages are made in a wide range of national and regional varieties, which differ by the types of meats that are used, the flavouring or spicing ingredients (e.g., garlic, peppers, wine, etc.), and the manner of preparation. In the 21st century, vegetarian and vegan varieties of sausage in which plant-based ingredients are used instead of meat have become much more widely available and consumed.
An Akkadian cuneiform tablet records a dish of intestine casings filled with some sort of forcemeat.Jean Bottéro, "The Cuisine of Ancient Mesopotamia", The Biblical Archaeologist 48:1:36-47 (March 1985)
The Ancient Greece poet Homer mentioned a kind of blood sausage in the Odyssey, Epicharmus wrote a comedy titled The Sausage, and Aristophanes' play The Knights is about a sausage vendor who is elected leader. Evidence suggests that sausages were already popular both among the ancient Greeks and Ancient Rome and most likely with the various tribes occupying the larger part of Europe. Eleonora Trojan, Julian Piotrowski, Tradycyjne wędzenie AA Publishing. 96 pages.
The most famous sausage in ancient Italy was from Lucania (modern Basilicata) and was called lucanica, a name which lives on in a variety of modern sausages in the Mediterranean. During the reign of the Roman emperor Nero, sausages were associated with the Lupercalia festival. Early in the 10th century during the Byzantine Empire, Leo VI the Wise outlawed the production of following cases of food poisoning.
A Chinese sausage has been described, lap cheong () from the Northern and Southern dynasties (420589).Felicia Lee, Food Republic, Feb. 23, 2024, "What Is Lap Cheong And How Do You Cook With It?" "The first written record in Chinese of sausage production as we know it –- that is, meat stuffed into casings –- dates to 455 AD. The description appeared in a guide titled "Essential Techniques for the Welfare of the People"" The modern type of lap cheong has a comparatively long shelf life, mainly because of a high content of lactobacilli—so high that it is considered sour by many.
In some jurisdictions foods described as sausages must meet regulations governing their content. For example, in the United States, the Department of Agriculture specifies that the fat content of different defined types of sausage may not exceed 30%, 35% or 50% by weight; some sausages may contain binders or extenders.
Many traditional styles of sausage from Asia and mainland Europe use no bread-based filler and include only meat (lean meat and fat) and flavorings. Joy of Cooking, Rombauer and Becker; The Fine Art of Italian Cooking, Bugialli In the United Kingdom and other countries with English cuisine traditions, many sausages contain a significant proportion of bread and starch-based fillers, which may comprise 30% of ingredients. The filler in many sausages helps them to keep their shape as they are cooked. As the meat contracts in the heat, the filler expands and absorbs moisture and fat from the meat.
When the food processing industry produces sausages for a low price point, almost any part of the animal can end up in sausages, varying from cheap, fatty specimens stuffed with meat blasted off the carcasses (mechanically recovered meat, MRM) and rusk. On the other hand, the finest quality contain only choice cuts of meat and seasoning. In Britain, "meat" declared on labels could in the past include fat, connective tissue, and MRM. These ingredients may still be used but must be labelled as such, and up to 10% water may be included without being labelled.
Lap cheong (; also lap chong, lap chung, lop chong) are dried pork sausages that look and feel like pepperoni but are much sweeter. In southwestern China, sausages are flavored with salt, red pepper and wild pepper. People often cure sausages by smoking and air drying.
Due to their habit of often exploding due to shrinkage of the tight skin during cooking, they are often referred to as bangers, particularly when served with the most common accompaniment of mashed potatoes to form a bi-national dish known as bangers and mash.
Pigs in blankets is a dish consisting of small sausages (usually ) wrapped in bacon. They are a popular and traditional accompaniment to roast Turkey meat in a Christmas dinner and are served as a side dish.
In Dublin, sausages are often served in a stew called coddle where they are boiled without first being browned.
There are various laws concerning the meat content of sausages in the UK. The minimum meat content to be labelled pork sausages is 42% (32% for other types of meat sausages). These may contain MRM which was previously included in meat content, but under later EU law cannot be so described.
Since the 14th century, Poland excelled in the production of sausages, thanks in part to the royal hunting excursions across virgin forests with game delivered as gifts to friendly noble families and religious hierarchy across the country. The extended list of beneficiaries of such diplomatic generosity included city magistrates, academy professors, , szlachta. Usually the raw meat was delivered in winter and the processed meat throughout the rest of the year. With regard to varieties, early Italian, French and German influences played a role. Meat commonly preserved in fat and by smoking was mentioned by historian Jan Długosz in his annals: Annales seu cronici incliti regni Poloniae The Annales covered events from 965 to 1480, with mention of the hunting castle in Niepołomice along with King Władysław sending game to Queen Zofia from Niepołomice Forest, the most popular hunting ground for the Polish royalty beginning in the 13th century.
An early example of Italian sausage is lucanica, discovered by Roman people after the conquest of Lucania. Lucanica's recipe changed over the centuries and spread throughout Italy and the world with slightly different names. Today, lucanica sausage is identified as Lucanica di Picerno, produced in Basilicata (whose territory was part of the ancient Lucania).
Mazzafegato sausage ('liver mash', or 'liver sausage') is a sausage typically from Abruzzo, Lazio, Marche, Umbria, and Tuscany regions that includes mashed liver. The style from Abruzzo includes pork liver, heart, lungs, and pork cheek, and is seasoned with garlic, orange peel, salt, pepper, and Bay leaf. Salsiccia al finocchio ('fennel sausage') is a sausage popularised in the Sicily region. These sausages differ from the Tuscan style sausage due the addition of crumbed, dried fennel seeds to the other spices used.
Salsiccia fresca ('fresh sausage') is a type of sausage that is usually made somewhat spicy. It is made from fresh meat (often pork) and fat, and is flavoured with spices, salt, and pepper, and traditionally stuffed into natural gut Sausage casing. Salsiccia fresca al peperoncino ('fresh chilli sausage') is a spicy sausage flavoured with chopped garlic, salt, and chilli pepper (which gives the sausage a redder colour). Salsiccia secca ('dried sausage') is an air dried sausages typically made from either the meat of domestic pigs or from the meat from wild boars. Salsiccia toscana ('Tuscany sausage'), also known as sarciccia, is made from various cuts of pork, including the shoulder and ham, which is chopped and mixed with herbs such as sage and rosemary.
It is served in a variety of ways such as fried with onions atop varenyky, sliced on rye bread, eaten with an egg and mustard sauce, or in "Yayechnia z Kovbosoyu i yarnoyu" a dish of fried kovbasa with red capsicum and scrambled eggs. In Ukraine kovbasa may be roasted in an oven on both sides and stored in ceramic pots with lard. The sausage is often made at home; however it has become increasingly brought at markets and even supermarkets. Kovbasa also tends to accompany "pysanka" (dyed and decorated eggs) as well as the eastern Slavic bread, paska in Ukrainian baskets at Easter time and is blessed by the priest with holy water before being consumed.
Specific kinds of French sausage include:
Other French sausages include the diot.
The name 'loukaniko' is derived from ancient Roman cuisine.
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 (known as Pølsevogn) some people regard pølser as one of the , perhaps along with medisterpølse, a fried, finely ground pork and bacon sausage. The most noticeable aspect of Danish boiled sausages (never the fried ones) is that the casing 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 traditional Swedish falukorv is a sausage made of a grated mixture of pork and beef or veal with potato flour and mild spices, similarly red-dyed sausage, but about 5 cm thick, usually baked in the oven coated in mustard or cut in slices and fried. The sausage got its name from Falun, the city from where it originates, after being introduced by German immigrants who came to work in the region's mines. Unlike most other ordinary sausages it is a typical home dish, not sold at hot dog stands. Other Swedish sausages include prinskorv, fläskkorv, and isterband; all of these, in addition to falukorv, are often accompanied by potato mash or rotmos (a root vegetable mash) rather than bread. Isterband is made of pork, barley groats and potato and is lightly smoked.
In Iceland, lamb may be added to sausages, giving them a distinct taste. Horse sausage and mutton sausage are also traditional foods in Iceland, although their popularity is waning. Liver sausage, which has been compared to haggis, and blood sausage are also a common foodstuff in Iceland.
In Finland, there are a few traditional types of sausages that have become a part of Finnish cuisine, such as ryynimakkara (groat sausage). There's also a blood sausage called mustamakkara (black sausage), which has become a traditional dish in the Tampere region. Usually grilled sausages are very popular in Finland during the summer, especially in juhannus.
After the Revolution, the sausage-making was largely concentrated in large, governmentally controlled meat processing plants, often built from the American examples, which introduced new, medically controlled and industrially made styles such as omnipresent Soviet Bologna sausage — Doktorskaya sausage and its fatter Lyubitelskaya variant, as well as generic Vienna sausage and very status-loaded and scarce smoked sausages and . Traditional sausages continued to be made for local consumption by the farmers and such, often sold on , like the home-style sausage, made from roughly minced pork and its fat, spiced with garlic and black pepper — this was a raw sausage, intended for roasting or grilling, but sometimes cooked by hot smoking for preservation and flavour (this variant is often called Ukrainian).
Since the return of capitalism, all imaginable types of sausage are produced and imported in Russia, but the traditional styles, be it a factory made Doctor's bologna, artisanal links of delicately smoked Ukrainian or boldly red Krakow, or buckwheat-stuffed blood sausage, still endure.
Fresh sausage may be red or white. Red sausages contain paprika (pimentón in Spanish) and are usually fried; they can also contain other spices such as garlic, pepper or thyme. The most popular type of red sausage is perhaps txistorra, a thin and long paprika sausage originating in Navarre. White sausages do not contain paprika and can be fried, boiled in wine, or, more rarely, in water.
Vienna sausages are eaten as an appetizer or in hot dogs (called panchos), which are usually served with different sauces and salads. Leberwurst is usually found in every market. Weißwurst is also a common dish in some regions, eaten usually with mashed potatoes or chucrut (sauerkraut).
Another traditional sausage is the prieta, the Chilean version of black pudding, generally known elsewhere in Latin America as morcilla. In Chile, it contains onions, spices and sometimes walnut or rice and is usually eaten at or accompanied by simple boiled potatoes. It sometimes has a very thick skin so is cut open lengthwise before eating. "Vienesa"s or Vienna sausages are also very common and are mainly used in the completo, the Chilean version of the hot dog.
Several varieties of meat-and-grain sausages developed in the US. Scrapple is a pork-and-cornmeal sausage that originated in the Mid-Atlantic States. Goetta is a pork-and-oats sausage that originated in Cincinnati. Livermush, originating in North Carolina, is made with pork, liver, and cornmeal or rice. All were developed by German immigrants.
In Louisiana, there is a variety of sausage that is unique to its heritage, a variant of andouille. Unlike the original variety native to Northern France, Louisiana andouille has evolved to be made mainly of pork butt, not tripe, and tends to be spicy with a flavor far too strong for the mustard sauce that traditionally accompanies French andouille: prior to casing, the meat is heavily spiced with cayenne and black pepper. The variety from Louisiana is known as Tasso ham and is often a staple in Cajun cuisine and Creole cooking. Traditionally it is smoked over pecan wood or sugar cane as a final step before being ready to eat. In Cajun cuisine, boudin is also popular. Sausages made in the French tradition are popular in Québec, Ontario, and parts of the Prairies, where butchers offer their own variations on the classics. Locals of Flin Flon are especially fond of the Saucisse de Toulouse, which is often served with poutine.
, also known as frankfurters or wieners, are the most common pre-cooked sausage in the United States and Canada. Another popular variation is the corn dog, which is a hot dog that is deep fried in cornmeal batter and served on a stick. A common and popular regional sausage in New Jersey and surrounding areas is pork roll, usually thinly sliced and grilled as a breakfast meat.
Other popular ready-to-eat sausages, often eaten in , include salami, American-style Bologna sausage, Lebanon bologna, prasky, liverwurst, and head cheese. Pepperoni and Italian sausage are popular pizza toppings.
Mettwurst and other German-style sausages are highly popular in South Australia, often made in towns like Hahndorf and Tanunda, due to the large German immigration to the state during early settlement. Mettwurst is usually sliced and eaten cold on sandwiches or alone as a snack. A local variation on cabanossi, developed by Italian migrants after World War II using local cuts of meat, is a popular snack at parties. The Don small goods company developed a spiced snack-style sausage based on the cabanossi in 1991 called Twiggy Sticks.
In Australia it is common to eat a sausage on a single slice of bread topped with onions and either tomato or barbeque sauce. This food item is known as a sausage sizzle.
Nutrition and health effects
National varieties
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Vegetarian versions
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See also
Similar food
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