Where is sausage from

The manufacture of sausages began over two thousand years ago, and it is still a growing industry. While some of its basic practices are almost as old as civilisation, the industry is constantly adopting new developments in processing in the light of later scientific and technical knowledge. Thereafter the word for sausage occurs with frequency in Greek writings. Sausages were probably first invented as a means of preserving blood, offal, and small scraps of meat in convenient edible containers—the stomachs and intestines of the slaughtered animal.

The earliest known reference to sausage dates to Greece in the eighth or ninth century B. Rolling from side to side as a cook turns a sausage, big with blood and fat, at a scorching blaze, without a pause, to broil it quick. In form, sausages may be patties of freshly chopped and seasoned meat or they may be stuffed in casings, dried, fermented, smoked, or produced using any combination of these techniques. The meats can be ground exceedingly fine weisswurst or simply cut into large chunks headcheese.

Some are eaten cooked, using any of the traditional methods for cooking meats, while some are so heavily cured and smoked that they can safely be eaten raw salame crudo.

The history of the sausage starts at least 5, years ago in Sumeria modern day Iraq. By BC sausages had become the popcorn of the ancient Greek theatre, available from sausage sellers in the aisles. This led to sausages going underground until the ban was lifted.

The sausage was in trouble again nine hundred years ago. An example is Lebanon bologna, a semi-dry fermented sausage made from beef and a unique combination of spices.

You can enjoy several other types of gourmet bologna as a snack or on a sandwich. Technically, any sausage that goes into a smoker as part of its preparation is smoked sausage. Some mass-produced versions may contain artificial smoke for flavor, but traditional varieties of smoked sausage are still hardwood smoked. Slices of smoked sausage are a popular addition to breakfast dishes, potato dishes and bean soups. These sausage links typically contain a mixture of pork and beef, though you can also find all-pork and all-beef versions.

Frankfurters originally hail from Frankfurt am Main, Germany, but they made their way to the U. The first hot dog stand, which introduced Americans to frankfurters served in a long bun , opened in at Coney Island.

Frankfurters continue to be a popular summertime food. Black sausage is any ground meat containing animal blood as part of the recipe. One of the most famous examples is black pudding, a blood sausage from the United Kingdom and Ireland that people commonly serve with breakfast. Black pudding consists of pig blood, fat and oats or groats. Sausage makers typically cook this meat before selling it, and it is very dark in color — hence the name. This recipe may not sound appealing to most Americans, but it is hugely popular across the pond.

Andouille is French in origin and is a prized ingredient in Cajun cooking. This sausage contains coarsely ground pork along with wine, garlic, pepper and other seasonings. The ground meat is stuffed into a casing and double smoked. This cooking technique makes andouille a flavorful sausage perfect for dishes like jambalaya and gumbo. It comes in links or in a rope and is typically sliced and sauteed before being added to meals. Chorizo is a popular type of spicy pork sausage used in Spanish and Mexican cooking.

The Spanish variety is typically smoked and seasoned with garlic and smoked paprika. Mexican chorizo, on the other hand, is raw and seasoned primarily with chile peppers and vinegar. Spanish and Mexican chorizo are not interchangeable, but both are deliciously flavorful and work well in Latin dishes.

One of the most popular chorizo dishes is chorizo and eggs. Loukaniko is the Greek word for sausage. It gets its signature flavor from orange zest, along with seasonings like garlic and cumin. You can prepare loukaniko in various ways, so you may find it sold as fresh, semi-dry, cured or smoked. Depending on how you prepare this ground meat, it may resemble salami or raw link sausage.

Loukaniko pairs well with Greek dishes, but you can also grill the links and enjoy them just as you would a frankfurter or bratwurst. Italy is home to various sausage types, so the term Italian sausage, or salsicca, is relatively broad. Italian sausage is usually sold fresh, either as loose meat or in casings.

It traditionally consists of pork and seasonings like fennel, garlic, anise seeds and other spices. You can grill Italian sausage in individual links and serve them on a bun. The term bratwurst is a generic name for German sausage , which includes seasonings like black and white pepper, mace, rosemary, coriander and nutmeg.

Americans commonly refer to the individual links as brats, and they grill and serve them like frankfurters. Bratwurst is also great with sauerkraut or potatoes.

Beerwurst — also spelled bierwurst — is a type of Bavarian sausage used as sandwich meat. It is not very common in the U.

This deli-style sausage consists of pork, beef and a generous amount of garlic, which contributes to its distinctive flavor. Beerwurst is cooked and smoked, so it is ready to eat. Deli chefs slice it from a large cylinder rather than put it into individual links. Bockwurst is another popular type of German sausage. Bockwurst is especially prevalent in southeastern Pennsylvania, where German culinary traditions influence the local cuisine. Bockwurst is typically sold raw in links.

This sausage includes pork, veal, mild seasonings and fragrant herbs, making it a type of meat that goes well in numerous dishes. Some examples include boiled cabbage and potatoes or breakfast skillet dishes. Bockwurst is also delicious on its own with a condiment like catsup. It is a coarse-textured beef and pork sausage, full of multiple seasonings, such as garlic, marjoram, mustard seed and onion. Cured and smoked sausages are already cooked and can be served as-is or added to a cooked dish.

Sausage can also be made at home. This will allow you to completely control the ingredients and spices. The process is made much easier with a meat grinder and sausage stuffer for links , which are sometimes available as attachments for other gadgets like a stand mixer.

Homemade sausages can be used as-is, smoked, or dried. There are countless varieties and flavors of sausages from all over the world. Some are spicy while others are mild but strongly spiced, some are lightly sweet with ingredients like apple and maple syrup, while others, like blood sausage , tend to have a strong mineral taste. Other sausage flavorings can include fennel, curry powder, wine, peppercorns, paprika, ginger, and much more.

Fresh sausage has a texture similar to compact ground meat when cooked, and is often moist thanks to the addition of fat. The grind of the meat, the amount of fat, and other ingredients like oats and breadcrumbs can impact the texture. Dried, cured, and smoked sausages tend to have a stronger flavor and odor and a tougher, chewier texture. A huge number of cuisines have their own versions of sausage, making the list of varieties a long one.

There are a few major categories of sausage:. While sausage is traditionally a meat dish, a wide range of vegetarian and vegan options are available.

Made using tofu, pea protein, grains, lentils, and more, they can often mimic the texture and flavor of fresh sausage. Sausage has a wide range of uses. Crumbled or sliced fresh sausage adds meaty flavor to soups, stews , pasta , omelets, stuffings , casseroles, and more. Whole cooked sausages are delicious served in a bun with mustard, with mashed potatoes and gravy bangers and mash , or baked into a batter.

Strongly flavored smoked or dried sausages are a tasty addition to a cheese platter or rice dish like jambalaya or fried rice. There are several kinds of sausages made around the world and, chances are, you've had one kind or another.

So how did sausages come about? And what exactly are we eating? If these are the questions you have, then hopefully this can be your answer. There are many types of sausages that originated from different countries and cultures.

There are Italian sausages from Italy, bratwurst from Germany, kielbasa from Poland, Mexican sausages , etc. Historically, Italian and German cultures were typically poor cultures. Families couldn't afford much, so they had to use every part of the animal possible, and they needed an easy way to store the meat.

In Italy, they started producing dried sausages for storage advantages that would ensure the sausages could be kept for months. As for Germany and bratwurst, it is said that 'brat' is an old German word for 'meat without waste. Several generations ago, my ancestors came from Germany to southeastern Ohio where they started farming.