A
sausage is a
food made from
ground meat, ground
pork fat such as
fatback,
salt,
herbs and
spices. Typically the sausage is formed in a
casing traditionally made from
intestine, but sometimes
synthetic. Some sausages are
cooked during processing and the casing may be
removed afterwords.
Sausage making is
a traditional
food preservation
technique. Sausages may be preserved by
curing,
drying, or
smoking.
History

Sausage being made.
Sausages are a result of
economical
butchery. Traditionally,
sausage-makers put to use
tissues and
organs which are
perfectly
edible and
nutritious, but not particularly
appealing - such as
scraps,
organ meats,
blood,
and
fat - in a form that allows for
preservation: typically,
salted and stuffed into a tubular casing made from
the cleaned intestine of the
animal,
producing the characteristic cylindrical shape. Hence, sausages,
puddings and
salami
are amongst the oldest of prepared foods, whether cooked and eaten
immediately or dried to varying degrees.
The first sausages were made by
early
humans, stuffing
roasted intestines into
stomachs. As early as 589
BC a
Chinese sausage
làcháng was mentioned consisting of
goat and
lamb meat. The
Greek poet Homer, mentioned a kind of
blood sausage in the
Odyssey, and
Epicharmus
wrote a
comedy titled
The Sausage.
Evidence suggests that sausages were already popular both among the
ancient Greeks and
Romans, and most likely with the
illiterate tribes occupying
the larger part of
Europe.
Sausage in
Italy
has its roots in Lucania,
now known as Basilicata.
Philosophers such as Cicero and Martial stated a
kind of sausage called lucanica, actually widespread in
Italy
, was introduced by Lucanian
slaves during the Roman empire. During the reign of the
Roman emperor
Nero, sausages were associated
with the
Lupercalia festival. 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 cleaned intestines,
or stomachs in the case of
haggis and other
traditional puddings. Today, however, natural casings are often
replaced by
collagen,
cellulose or even
plastic
casings, especially in the case of
industrially manufactured sausages. Some forms of sausage,
such as
sliced sausage, are prepared
without a casing. Additionally,
luncheon
meat and
sausage meat are now
available without casings in
tin cans and
jars.
The most basic sausage consists of meat, cut into pieces or ground,
and filled into a casing. The meat may be from any animal, but
traditionally is
pork,
beef
or
veal.
The meat to 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
United States Department of
Agriculture
defines the content for various sausages and
generally prohibits fillers and
extenders. Most traditional styles
of sausage from
Europe and
Asia use no
bread-based filler and
are 100% meat and fat excluding flavorings.
In the UK
and other countries with English cuisine traditions, bread and
starch-based fillers account for up to 25% of
ingredients. The filler used in many sausages helps them to
keep their shape as they are cooked. As the meat contracts in the
heat, so the filler expands and absorbs the
moisture lost from the meat.
The word
sausage is derived from
Old
French saussiche, from the
Latin
word
salsus, meaning
salted.
Classification of the sausage
Sausages classification is subject to regional differences of
opinion. Various metrics such as types of ingredients, consistency,
and preparation are used. In the
English-speaking world, the following
distinction between
fresh,
cooked, 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 hot
dogs, Braunschweiger and liver sausage.
- Cooked smoked sausages are cooked and then smoked or
smoke-cooked. They are eaten hot or
cold, but need to be refrigerated. Examples include Gyulai kolbász, 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 breakfast 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 cured sausages that are fermented and dried. They are generally
eaten cold and will keep for a long time. Examples include salami, Droë wors,
Sucuk, Landjäger, and summer sausage.
- Bulk sausage, or sometimes sausage meat,
refers to raw, ground, spiced meat, usually sold without any
casing.
The distinct flavor of some sausages is due to fermentation by
Lactobacillus,
Pediococcus or
Micrococcus (added as
starter cultures) or
natural flora during curing.
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 are not
cooked. They are preserved by lactic acid fermentation, and may
be dried, brined or smoked. Most
raw sausages will keep for a long time. Examples include mettwurst and salami.
- Cooked sausages may include water and emulsifiers and are always cooked. They will not
keep long. Examples include cervelat,
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.
In
Italy
, the basic distinction is:
- Raw sausage ('salsiccia") with a thin casing
- Cured and aged sausage ("salsiccia stagionata" or
"salsiccia secca")
- Cooked sausage ("wuerstel")
- Blood sausage ("Sanguinaccio" or "boudin")
- Liver sausage ("salsiccia di fegato")
- Salami (in Italy "salami" is the plural form of
"salame" that is a big cured sausage,
fermented and air-dried)
The US has a particular type called
pickled
sausages, commonly found in
gas
stations and small roadside
delicatessens. These are usually smoked or
boiled sausages of a highly processed
hot
dog or
kielbasa style plunged into a
boiling
brine of
vinegar, salt, spices and often a pink coloring,
then
canned in
wide-mouth jars. They are available in single
blister packs or sold out of a jar.
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:
- France
: Montbéliard
, Morteau, Strasbourg
, Toulouse
, Merguez...
- Germany
: Frankfurt
, Thuringia
, Nuremberg
, Pomerania, ...
- Austria
: Vienna
, ...
- Italy
: Meran
(Meraner
Wuerst), Lucania (luganega),
- UK
: Cumberland, Chiltern, Lincolnshire, Glamorgan, ...
- Slovenia
: Kranjska (klobasa), after the Slovenian name for the
province of Carniola
- Spain
: botifarra catalana
, chorizo riojano
, chorizo gallego
, chorizo de Teror
, longaniza de Aragón
, morcilla de
Burgos
, morcilla de
Ronda
, morcilla extremeña
, morcilla dulce canaria
, llonganissa de Vic
, fuet d'Olot
, sobrassada mallorquina
, botillo de León
, llonganissa de Valencia
, farinato de Salamanca
, ...
- Poland
: kielbasa krakowska (Kraków
-style),
toruńska (Toruń
), żywiecka
(Żywiec
), bydgoska
(Bydgoszcz
), krotoszyńska (Krotoszyn
), podwawelska (literally: "from under Wawel
"),
zielonogórska (Zielona
Góra
), rzeszowska (Rzeszów
), śląska (Silesia), swojska,
wiejska, jałowcowa, zwyczajna, polska, krajańska, szynkowa,
parówkowa, ...
- Hungary
: kolbász gyulai (after
the town of Gyula
), csabai
(after the city of Békéscsaba
), Debrecener (after the
city of Debrecen
).
National varieties
Many nations and regions have their own characteristic sausages,
using meats and other ingredients native to the region and employed
in traditional dishes.
Europe
France
Saucisson is perhaps one of the most popularized forms of dried
sausage in France, with many different variations from region to
region. Usually saucisson contains pork, cured with a mixture of
salt, wine and/or spirits. Regional varieties have been known to
contain more unorthodox ingredients such as nuts and fruits.
Germany
Germany
is known for
its broad variety and long tradition of preparing sausages.
German sausages, or
Würste, cover uncooked and
unfilled things (no casing), like
Frankfurters,
Bratwürste,
Rindswürste,
Knackwürste, and
Bockwürste.
Hungary
Hungarian sausages called
kolbász, are two types, the smoked, cured
sausages like "
Gyulai" and "
Csabai" sausage. The other type are the boiled
sausages called "Hurka". Rice Liver Sausage ("Májas") and Rice
Blood Sausage ("Véres"). In the first
case the main ingredient is the liver and the stuffing consist of
rice. In the other case the blood is mixed with rice, or pieces of
bread roll. Spices, pepper, salt and marjoram are added. See even
winter salami.
Italy
Italian
sausages
(salsiccia- pl."salsicce") are often made of pure
pork. Sometimes they may contain beef.
Fennel seeds and chilli are generally used as the
primary spice in the South of Italy, black pepper and/or parsley in
the North.
Macedonia
Macedonian sausages (
kolbas, lukanec) are made from fried
pork,
onions, and
leeks,
with herbs and spices.
Malta
Maltese sausage
zalzett tal-Malti
is typically made of pork, sea salt, black peppercorns, coriander
seeds, garlic and parsley.
Netherlands
Rookworst (smoke sausage), is a national (although often mass
produced) sausage eaten with stamppot (mash pot).
Nordic countries
Nordic sausages (
Danish:
pølse,
Norwegian:
pølsa/pølse/korv/kurv,
Icelandic:
bjúga/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. In southern Norway, grill and wiener
sausages are often wrapped in a potato lompe, a kind of
lefse.
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, 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 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 baked in the oven
coated in mustard or cut in slices and fried. Unlike 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.
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.
One local
Finnish
variety is mustamakkara, lit. black sausage.
Mustamakkara is prepared with blood
and it is a specialty of Tampere
. It is very close to the Scottish
black
pudding.
Makkara is typically similar in appearance to Polish
sausages or
bratwursts, but have a very
different
taste and
texture.
Nakki is a tinier edition
of
makkara. There's a variety of different
nakkis
varying almost as much as different types of
makkara.
Closest relative to
nakki is the thin
knackwurst.
Most
makkara is very light on
spices
and is therefore frequently eaten with
mustard,
ketchup,
or other table condiments without a bun. Makkara is usually
grilled, roasted over coals or open fire,
steamed (called
höyrymakkara) or cooked on
sauna heating stones.
When a
steak made out of thick (diameter about 10 cm) makkara is
prepared inside a sliced, fried bun with cucumber salad and other
fillings, it becomes a porilainen after the town of
Pori
.
Pickled makkara intended to consumed as slices is called
kestomakkara. This class includes various
mettwurst,
salami and
Balkanesque styles. The most popular
kestomakkara in
Finland is
meetvursti (etymologically this word comes from
mettwurst), which contains finely
ground full meat, ground fat and various spices. It is not unlike
salami, but usually thicker and less salty.
Meetvursti used to additionally contain horse meat, but
only a few brands contain it anymore, mostly due to the high cost
of production. There is also
makkara and
meetvursti with game, like
deer,
moose or
reindeer
meat. Even a
lohimakkara, ie.
salmon
sausage, exists.
In general, there is no taboo against eating horse meat in
Scandinavia, but the popularity has decreased with decreasing with
decreasing availability of suitable horse meat.

Sixteen raw sausages in a wooden
bowl.
Poland
Polish
sausages,
Kiełbasa, come in a wide range of
styles such as Swojska, Krajańska, Szynkowa, Biała, śląska,
Krakowska, podhalańska, and others.
Sausages in Poland are generally made of pork, rarely beef.
Sausages with low meat content and additions like soy protein,
potato flour or water binding additions are regarded as of low
quality. Because of climate conditions sausages were traditionally
preserved by
smoking, rather than
drying, like in Mediterranean countries.
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, voivodes, szlachta and kapituła
. Usually the raw meat was delivered in
winter, but 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 called Annales seu cronici incliti
regni Poloniae covering events from 965 to 1480, where the
hunting castle in Niepołomice
is being mentioned along with King Władysław
sending game to Queen Zofia from Niepołomice Forest, the most popular
hunting ground for the Polish
royalty beginning in 13th
century. It became popular in German occupied Poland in
World War II to soak the sausage ground in goro sprout creme, a
native fermented mayonnaise, and such methods are considered
gourmet nowadays.
Portugal, Spain and Brazil
Embutidos or Enchidos generally contain
hashed meat, particularly pork, seasoned with aromatic herbs or
spices (pepper, red pepper, paprika, garlic, rosemary, thyme,
cloves, ginger, nutmeg, etc.)
In Spain a special kind of embutido called
salchicha is the most similar one to English or
German sausages. Spanish sausages can be red or white. Red sausages
contain
paprika (
pimentón in Spanish) and are usually fried.
White sausages do not have paprika and can be fried or cooked in
wine.
Although Spanish
embutidos as
chorizo or
salchichón
could be called "sausages", they are not "salchichas" for Spanish
speakers at all.
Scotland
Scottish sausages are both distinct and unique. A popular breakfast
food is the
square sausage. This is
normally eaten as part of a full
Scottish Breakfast or on a Scottish
morning roll. The sausage is produced in a rectangular block and
individual portions are sliced off. It is seasoned mainly by
pepper. Despite its unique flavor square sausage is rarely seen
outside Scotland and in fact is still fairly uncommon in the
Highlands. Other types of sausage
include
black pudding (
Scots:
black puddin, similar to the
German and Polish blood sausages.
Stornoway Black Pudding is held in
high regard and measures are currently being taken to bring it
under EU geographical protection. Additionally a popular native
variety of sausage is the
red pudding
(
Scots:
rid puddin). It is
most common in the North-East of the country and is a chip shop
favorite, where it is deep fried in batter as part of a chip
supper. It is similar to other European sausages such as
chorizo or
baloney.
Switzerland
The
cervelat, a cooked sausage, is often
referred to as Switzerland's national sausage. A great number of
regional sausage specialties exist as well.
Sweden
Falukorv is a large traditional Swedish
sausage made of a grated mixture of pork and beef or veal with
potato flour and mild spices.
The sausage got its name from the city of
Falun
where it originates from.
Turkey
In
Turkey
sausage is
known as sosis which is made of
beef.
Sucuk (pronounced tsudjuck or soudjouk or
sujuk with accent on the last syllable) is a
type of sausage made in Turkey and neighboring Balkan
countries.
There are many types of sucuk, but it is mostly made from beef. It
is fermented, spiced (with garlic and pepper) and filled in an
inedible casing that needs to be peeled off before consuming.
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,
water buffalo meat, sheep fat 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.
United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland
In the
UK
and
Ireland
, sausages are very popular. British and
Irish sausages are normally made from pork or beef mixed with a
variety of herbs and spices, many recipes of which are
traditionally associated with particular regions (for example
Bucks sausages). They normally
contain a certain amount of
rusk, or
bread-rusk, and are traditionally cooked by frying,
grilling or roasting prior to eating. Due to their habit of often
exploding due to shrinkage of the tight skin during cooking, they
are commonly 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. (The designation
banger was in use at least as far back as 1919 and is
often said to have been popularized in
World War II, when scarcity of meat led many
sausage makers to add water to the mixture, making it more likely
to explode on heating.) They may also be baked in a
Yorkshire pudding batter to create
"
toad in the hole", often served
with
gravy and onions.
Famously, they are an essential component of a
full English or Irish breakfast.
In the UK alone,
there are believed to be over 470 different types of sausages; some
made to traditional regional recipes such as those from Cumberland or Lincolnshire, and increasingly to
modern recipes which combine fruit such as apples or apricots with
the meat, or are influenced by European styles such as the Toulouse
or Chorizo.
In many areas, "sausage meat" for frying and
stuffing into poultry and meat, is sold as slices
cut from an oblong block of pressed meat without casing: in
Scotland this is known as
Lorne Sausage or often
sliced sausage or
square sausage while the usual
form is sometimes called
sausage
links.
Lorne Sausage is very popular in and
around Glasgow. It is usually grilled, though frying is not
unusual.
A popular and widespread snack is the
sausage roll made from sausage-meat rolled in
puff pastry; they are sold from most
bakeries and often made in the home.
Battered sausage, consisting of a
sausage (almost without exception composed of
mechanically recovered meat or
meat slurry) dipped in batter, and
fried, is sold throughout Britain from
Fish and Chip shops. In England,
Saveloy is a type of pre-cooked sausage, larger than
a typical hot-dog which is served hot. A saveloy skin was
traditionally colored with
bismarck-brown dye giving saveloy a
distinctive bright red color.
A short
variety of sausage, known as the chipolata
or 'cocktail sausage' is often wrapped in bacon and served
alongside roast turkey
at
Christmas time and are known as Pigs in a Blanket or "Pigs in
Blankets". They are also served cold at children's parties
throughout the year.
Due to health concerns over the quality of the meat contained in
many commercially produced sausages (heightened by the
BSE crisis in the 1990s) there has been a marked
improvement in the quality of meat content in commonly available
British sausages with a return to the artisanal production of high
quality traditional recipes, which had previously been in decline.
However many of the cheaper sausages available use
mechanically recovered meat or
meat slurry.
There are various laws concerning the meat content of sausages in
the UK. The minimum meat content to be labeled Pork Sausages is 42%
(30% for other types of meat sausages), although to be classed as
meat, the Pork can contain 30% fat and 25% connective tissue. Often
the cheapest supermarket pork sausages do not have the necessary
meat content to be described as Pork Sausages and are simply
labeled 'Sausages'. These typically contain
MRM which under EU law can no
longer be described as meat.
There are
currently organisations in a number of UK counties such as Lincolnshire
who are seeking European Protected designation of
origin (PDO) for their sausages so that they can be made only
in the appropriate region and to an attested recipe and
quality.
North America
North American breakfast or country sausage is made from
uncooked ground pork mixed with
pepper,
sage, and other spices. It is usually
sold in a large synthetic plastic casing, or in links which may
have a protein casing. In some markets it is available sold by the
pound without a casing. It is commonly sliced into small patties
and pan-fried, or cooked and crumbled into
scrambled eggs or
gravy.
Scrapple is a pork-based breakfast meat
that originated in the
Mid-Atlantic
States. Other uncooked sausages are also widely available in
link form, including
Italian,
bratwurst,
chorizo,
and
andouille.
The
frankfurter or hot dog is the most
common pre-cooked sausage in the US and Canada. If proper
terminology is observed in manufacture and marketing (it often is
not), "frankfurters" are more mildly seasoned, "hot dogs" more
robustly so. Another popular variation is the "corn dog", which is
a hot dog fried in cornmeal batter and served on a stick.
Other popular ready-to-eat sausages, often eaten in
sandwiches, include
salami,
American-style
bologna,
Lebanon bologna,
liverwurst, and
head
cheese.
Pepperoni and Italian crumbles
are popular pizza toppings. In
Cajun
cuisine boudin is popular.
Latin America
In most of Latin America a few basic types of sausages are
consumed, with slight regional variations on each recipe. Beef
tends to be more predominant than in their pork-heavy Spanish
equivalents. These are
chorizo
(moister and fresher than its Spanish counterpart),
longaniza (usually very similar to
chorizo but longer and thinner),
morcilla or
relleno (
blood sausage), and
salchichas (any kind of highly-processed sausage similar
to
hot dogs or
Vienna sausages).
Mexico
The most
common Mexican
sausage by far is the unique chorizo, which is made out of pork or beef salivary
glands. It is fresh and usually deep red in color (in most
of the rest of
Latin America, chorizo
is uncolored and coarsely chopped). Some
chorizo is so loose that it spills out of its casing
as soon as it is cut; this crumbled
chorizo is a popular
filling for
torta sandwiches,
breakfast burritos and
tacos.
Salchichas (essentially identical to
hot dogs),
longaniza (a long,
thin, coarse chopped pork sausage) and
head
cheese are also widely consumed.
Argentina and Uruguay
In Argentina and Uruguay many sausages are consumed. Eaten as part
of the traditional
asado,
Chorizo (beef and/or pork, flavored with spices) and
Morcilla (Blood Sausage or Black pudding)
are the most popular. Both of them share a Spanish origin. A local
type is the salchicha Argentina, criolla (Argentinian sausage) or
parrillera (literally BBQ-style), made of the same ingredients as
the Chorizo but thinner.
There are hundreds of salami-style sausages.
A very popular is the
Salame Tandilero, from the city of Tandil
.
Others examples are: Longaniza, Cantimpalo and Sopresatta.
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 and it is eaten as a
cold cut or a Pâté.
Weisswurst is also a common dish, eaten usually with mashed
potatoes or chucrut (
Sauerkraut), in some
regions.
Colombia
A grilled choizo served with a buttered
arepa is one of the most common
street foods in Colombia.
In addition to the standard Latin American sausages, dried pork
sausages are served cold as a snack, often to accompany
beer drinking. These include
cábanos (salty,
short, thin, and served individually),
butifarra (of
Catalan origin; spicier, shorter, fatter and
moister than cábanos) and
salchichón (a long, thin and
heavily processed sausage served in slices).
Asia
China
Lap cheong (also lap chong, lap chung,
lop chong). Dried pork sausages flavored with
char siu 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.
Japan
Japanese sausages are fewer in variety, but include sausage made
from ground
fish, ubiquitous to
convenience stores.
Korea
Sundae, a form of blood
sausage, is a traditional Korean sausage. A popular street food,
sundae is normally prepared by steaming or boiling cow or pig
intestines stuffed with various ingredients. The most common
variation is composed of pork blood, cellophane noodles, and barley
stuffed into pig intestines, but other regional variations include
squid or
Alaskan
pollock casings. Sundae is eaten plain, in stews, or as part of
a stir-fry.
Philippines
In the Philippines, there are different kinds of sausages called
"Longaniza" or "Longanisa" with mixes dependent on their size of
origin: Vigan Longaniza, Lucban Longaniza are examples.
While Longanisa is widely accepted as the term for native sausages,
in some parts of the Vizayas and Mindanao Choriso is a more common
term. There are regional varieties such as Vigan (with lots of
garlic and not sweet) Lucban (lots of oregano and pork fat is
chunky) Most longanisas contain Prague powder and are hardly smoked
and usually sold fresh. In general there are several common
variants:
- Matamis (sweet)
- Hamonado (with lots of garlic, black pepper and other
spices)
- skinless (sans the usual natural casing instead rolled in
plastic sheets)
- Macao (in reference to Chinese Macao. sweet and dried with lots
of chunky fat and also identified with the red colored abacca
twine)
- Chorizo de Bilbao (with lots of paprika and usually kept in a
can with lard. The best and most popular brand is Marca el Rey, and
contrary to popular belief that it comes from Bilbao Spain, this is
manufactured in the USA. Chorizo de Bilbao seems to be a Filipino
invention and the variant does not exist in Spain.)
Thailand
Thai sausages are of many varieties. Northern famous sausage is
Sai-Ua which fill with minced pork as well as herbs and chilli
paste. Northeastern sausage is fermented sausage with sour taste.
Thai people also eat fresh vegetable, some also eat fresh chilli,
as side salad to sausage.
Vietnam
See
Chả
Africa
South Africa
In
South Africa, traditional sausages
are known as
boerewors or
farmer's sausage. Ingredients include game and beef, usually mixed
with pork or lamb and with a high percentage of fat. Coriander and
vinegar are the two most common seasoning ingredients, although
many variations exist. The coarsely-ground nature of the mincemeat
as well as the long continuous spiral of sausage are two of its
recognisable qualities. Boerewors is traditionally cooked on a
braai (
barbecue).
Boerewors can be dried out in a dry-curing process similar to
biltong, in which case it's called
droë wors.
Oceania
Australia

Australian "snags" cooking on a
campfire
English style sausages, known colloquially as "snags", are popular
at
barbecues and are made in Australia
using traditional meats such as
beef,
pork and
chicken.
European style smoked and dry sausages made with kangaroo meat have
become available in recent years. Sausages made with Australian
game meats typically have a much lower fat content than beef or
pork sausages made by the same methods.
Devon is a spiced pork sausage
similar to
Bologna sausage and
Gelbwurst. It is usually made in a large
diameter, and often thinly sliced and eaten cold in
sandwiches.
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 party snack.
New Zealand
Locally manufactured
cabanossi is a
popular snack and party food.
Other variations

Kabosi, Shells, and Cheese
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.
It can be served on a stick (like the
corn
dog) or on a bone as well. 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.
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.
Certain sausages also contain ingredients such as cheese and apple;
or types of vegetable.
Vegetarian sausage
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,
mycoprotein,
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
such as the
Glamorgan sausage rely
on spices and vegetables to lend their natural flavor to the
product and no attempt is made to imitate meat.
See also
References
- Eleonora Trojan, Julian Piotrowski, Tradycyjne wędzenie AA Publishig. 96
pages. ISBN 9788361060307
- Touring Club Italiano Le città dell'olio, 2001,
Touring Editore pag. 237 ISBN 883652141X
- Joy of Cooking, Rombauer & Becker; The Fine
Art of Italian Cooking, Bugialli
- According to Sausagefans.com
- Sausagelinks - Health & Legal issues on
sausages
- The secret life of the sausage: A great British
institution - Features, Food & Drink - The Independent
- protect the lincolnshire sausage
- Asado Argentina » Sausage-Chorizo
- Argentina - The gastronomy in the World
- La salchicha de viena cumple 200 años
- La inmigración
- Sausage on a bone, a relatively recent
phenomenon.
External links