Sausage

This article is about the prepared meat. For other uses, see Sausage (disambiguation).

Kiełbasa Biała (White Sausage), Szynkowa (smoked), Śląska and Podhalańska styles (Poland)

A sausage is a food made from ground meat, both beef and pork. Also commonly included is ground pork fat (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 afterwards.

Sausage making is a traditional food preservation technique. Sausages may be preserved by curing, drying, or smoking.

History

Sausage making in Hungary

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 and turned inside-out 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.

German Wurst: liver sausage, blood sausage and ham sausage

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 from Réunion

Swojska (Polish)

Krajańska (Polish)

Szynkowa (Polish)

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 Teewurst.
• 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 (Kochwurst) 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 U.S. 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 Mason 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, Slim Jims, and other kippered snacks.

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

• France: Montbéliard, Morteau, Strasbourg, Toulouse,...
• Germany: Frankfurt am Main, Thuringia, Nuremberg, Pomerania, ...
• Austria: Vienna, ...
• Italy: Merano (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

Sausage making in Russia

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

Europe

Britain & Ireland

Sausages, seen in The Covered Market, Oxford.

In the UK and Ireland, sausages are a very popular and common feature of the national diet and popular culture.

British and Irish sausages are normally made from raw pork or beef mixed with a variety of herbs and spices and cereals, many recipes of which are traditionally associated with particular regions (for example Cumberland 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.)

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 labelled 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 labelled '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.

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.

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.

They may also be baked in a Yorkshire pudding batter to create "toad in the hole", often served with gravy and onions.

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.

Battered sausage, consisting of a sausage 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.

As in Europe, regional types of sausage often overlap with puddings such as the black pudding, white pudding, Hog's pudding and Haggis.

Croatia/Serbia

Kulen is a type of flavoured sausage made of minced pork that is traditionally produced in Croatia (Slavonia) and Serbia (Vojvodina), and its designation of origin has been protected. The meat is low-fat, rather brittle and dense, and the flavor is spicy. The red paprika gives it aroma and color, and garlic adds spice. The original kulen recipe does not contain black pepper because its hot flavor comes from hot red paprika.

France

Sausage in a market in the south of 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

A plate of Milzwurst - spleen sausage, served with mashed potatoes, mayonnaise and lemon, in Munich, 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, when smoked and cured, are called kolbász - different types are often distinguished by their typical regions, e.g. "Gyulai" and "Csabai" sausage. As no collective word for "sausage" in the English sense exists in Hungarian, local salamis (see e.g. winter salami) and boiled sausages "hurka" are often not considered when listing regional sausage varieties. The most common boiled sausages are Rice Liver Sausage ("Májas Hurka") and Blood Sausage ("Véres Hurka"). In the first case, the main ingredient is liver, mixed with rice stuffing. In the latter, the blood is mixed with rice, or pieces of bread rolls. Spices, pepper, salt and marjoram are added.

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

Zalzett tal-Malti or Maltese sausage, is typically made of pork, sea salt, black peppercorns, coriander seeds, garlic and parsley.

Netherlands

Dutch cuisine isn't known for its abundant use of sausages in its traditional dishes. Nevertheless the Dutch have a number of sausage varieties, such as the rookworst (smoked sausage) and Slagers worst (lit. Butchers Meat or sausage) mostly found at the specialist butcher shops and still made by hand and spiced following traditionally family recipes. Another common variety in the Netherlands is the runderworst which is made from beef and the dried sausage known as metworst or droge worst. The Dutch braadworst's name might suggest it being a variant of the German bratwurst, but this is not the case and it's closely related to the well known Afrikaner Boerewors.

Nordic countries

Nordic sausages (Danish: pølse, Norwegian: pølsa/pølse/pylsa/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 starch 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.

Finland

Finnish mustamakkara with lingonberry jam

Finnish 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.

One 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.

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 be 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, i.e. salmon sausage, exists.

In general, there is no taboo against eating horse meat in Scandinavia, but the popularity has decreased with decreasing availability of suitable horse meat.

Poland

Sixteen raw sausages in a wooden bowl.

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.

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

Cervelat.

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.

North America

Frankfurter sausage.

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 U.S. 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 that is deep 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 (often similar to hot dogs or Vienna sausages).

Mexico

Salchicha Oaxaqueña, a type of semi-dry sausage from the Mexican state of Oaxaca.

The most common Mexican sausage by far is chorizo. 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, 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 barbecue-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), botifarra (of Catalan origin; spicier, shorter, fatter and moister than cábanos) and salchichón (a long, thin and heavily processed sausage served in slices).

Asia

China

Main article: Chinese sausage

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.

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 Alaska 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 and Cebu 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 also: Chả and Chả lụa

Africa

North Africa

Merguez is a red, spicy sausage from Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia and Libya, North Africa. It is also popular in France, Israel, Belgium, The Netherlands and the German state of Saarland, where it is often grilled on a Schwenker. Merguez is made with lamb, beef, or a mixture of both. It can be flavored with a wide range of spices, such as sumac for tartness, and paprika, Cayenne pepper, or harissa, a hot chili paste that gives it a red color. It is stuffed into a lamb casing, rather than a pork casing. It is traditionally made fresh and eaten grilled or with couscous. Sun-dried merguez is used to add flavor to tagines. It is also eaten in sandwiches.

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 snack at parties.

New Zealand

Sausage rolls are a popular snack and party food, as are savaloys, cheerios, and locally manufactured cabanossi. Traditional sausages similar to English bangers are eaten throughout the country; these are usually made of finely ground beef / mutton with breadcrumbs, very mildly spiced, stuffed into a sheep casing which crisps and splits when fried. These may be eaten for breakfast, lunch or dinner. In recent years, many international and exotic sausages have also become widely available in NZ.

Other variations

Kabosi, Shells, and Cheese

Sausages may be served as hors d'œuvres, 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

• Currywurst
• Kishka (food)
• Kransky
• Linguiça
• Loukaniko
• Lukanka
• Pølsevogn
• Sausage Race
• Tasso ham
• Thuringian sausage
• Usinger's
• White pudding

External links

• Template:Dmoz
• Tested formulations for homemade sausage
• Italian homemade sausages and salami Template:It icon