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

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

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 USDdefines 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 salt and other flavorings, such as herbs).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 are not 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.