What is Sausage in Food? A Comprehensive Guide to This Meaty Delicacy

Many of our customers want to know what’s in our sausage and how to make it at home. We’ve answered questions for specific people and held classes at our retail shop, but I thought this question would be on a lot of people’s minds, so here’s how we make sausages.

Merriam-Webster says that sausage is “meat that has been minced and highly seasoned, usually pork, and stuffed into casings made of prepared animal intestine.” ” Great, now you know the true definition.

Even though Merriam-Webster says “usually,” I want to point out that sausage can also be made from loose meat that can be shaped into patties. Breakfast sausage is one most people recognize.

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What are sausages made out of?

Most sausage is made from pork, but it can be made out of just about any animal.

The real secret behind making delicious sausage is in the addition of pork fat. A) Because its delicious and provides flavor. B) Because it transforms the texture of the ground meat into a supple and moist product.

We pretty much exclusively make pork sausages at our retail store in Denver. We usually kill one hog a week and make fresh sausages from the picnic shoulder, extra fat, and trim.

We will occasionally make lamb sausage and duck sausage. Lamb sausages will sometimes have the addition of pork fat in the recipe. However, duck sausage is usually 100% duck since the animal is very fatty to start.

Our Summer Sausage is a 60/40 blend of pork and beef that is fermented and smoked. We like the texture and flavor that the lean beef added to the fattier pork shoulder. Our unique blend of spices makes it our most popular sausage. It will be available at all Whole Foods stores in the Rocky Mountain Region in late December!

How is sausage made?

The sausage-making process is relatively straightforward. If they have the right tools and know-how, I think almost any home cook can easily do it.

Lets start with the ingredients!

To make a proper pork sausage, you should use a pork butt or pork picnic shoulder. Both come from the pigs shoulder area and naturally have the appropriate ratio of meat to fat. Picnic shoulders cost less per pound but have more connective tissue and sinew to remove than a pork butt.

Most butcher shops should be able to sell you pork shoulder butts or pork picnic shoulders.

If you can, source heritage breed pork such as Berkshire or Duroc breeds. The meat from these pig breeds will have a beautiful red color and plenty of intramuscular fat. Plus, hopefully, you will be supporting a small local family farm.

Next, make sure to use premium spices. Quality spices are essential to creating a well-rounded flavor that doesnt dry out the sausage.

I suggest seeking out a local spice purveyor, as their spices will be much fresher than anything at your local grocery store. In Colorado, the best local spice purveyors are Italco Foods, Savory Spice Shop, and The Spice Guy.

If you add any wine or beer to your sausage, dont skimp on the quality. Add something to the recipe that you would like to drink.

Sausage casings are a crucial ingredient you should not overlook. I would highly recommend sourcing casings from one of two online resources. The Craft Butchers Pantry and Butcher and Packer offer great products. Both resources provide a wide variety of natural casings for any homemade sausage.

Again, dont skimp on quality ingredients.

A meat grinder (not an attachment for your KitchenAid), a sausage stuffing machine, a good butchering knife, and a sausage pricker are the most important tools you will need.

If you are going to ferment any sausages, they will need to be tied to hang. I recommend using a hemp twine instead of standard cotton butcher twine. Hemp twine is much stronger.

If you want to smoke sausage, you will need a smoker that can hold a few feet of sausage string. You may be able to rig something in your current smoker too.

il porcellino salumis sausage-making process is not drastically different than anybody elses. It all starts with the high-quality ingredients we harped about above.

First, we breakdown the meat. The first thing we do is trim the raw pork, getting rid of any sinew, silver skin, or glands that we don’t want. We cut the pork into 1″x1″ pieces approximately. The pork pieces need to be small enough to go through the meat grinder.

We season the meat accordingly before grinding it. Then the meat is put in the fridge overnight so that the spices and seasonings can really get into the raw pork.

The next day, we grind the pork on the medium die setting of the meat grinder. Then we take approximately ⅓ of the ground meat and grind it a second time. To help the sausage get a strong hold, we grind some of the meat a second time. This makes the meat stick together. The last thing you want is sausage with holes or air pockets in it.

Now its time to stuff the sausage into casings!

Typically, natural sausage casings come packed in salt. Its important to soak the casings under warm, running water to leach the casings of the salt. It usually takes 15 – 20 minutes to have them free and clear of salt. Plus, running warm water through the casings helps “prime” them to be stuffed with meat.

Next, we add the ground and seasoned pork to the sausage stuffing machine. Keep the meat in the stuffer as tight as possible so that there is no air between the pieces of meat. If youre following along, make sure your sausage casings are rolled onto the stuffing tube.

As you slowly turn down the sausage stuffer, the press will touch the meat, and the meat will begin to come out of the tube. When you stuff casings, it’s best not to stuff them too much because you need room to make the sausage links. So, fill your casings with the meat farce rather loosely.

Once the casings are all full, figure out how big you want your sausage links to be. A good point of measurement is approximately 5 inches. You will “pinch and twist” the casing at 5″ with your thumb and forefinger to make the sausage tighter. Repeat and repeat until you have as many links as desired.

Once youve twisted your sausage links, let them cool in the refrigerator. When the sausages cool, they firm up a bit. Once cooled and firmed, cut between the links to make portions that are easier to handle. Or cut them into individual sausage links.

Please wait until the next day to cook them.

As noted above, you can choose to ferment or smoke your sausages at this point. Talking about fermented sausage is a whole other matter, since that’s when we start talking about meat science and lacto-fermentation. We will address that process in a different blog post!.

You can cook raw sausage directly. Because the temperature can stay at 150 degrees, sous vide cooking in a hot water bath is the best way to cook sausage. You can grill raw sausages, but they can over-cook easily due to the high heat. Boiling the sausages in beer (beer poaching) imparts some nice flavor into the sausage. Many people are familiar with beer-poached brats. Beer poaching is a great way to cook them through before crisping the sausage on the grill.

Because there are so many different types of sausage, its hard to generalize whether theyre healthy or not. Overall, sausages are not unhealthy, but different sausages will have different ingredients. Some may have more sugar or salt than others, or they may contain an ingredient that doesn’t work well with a person’s diet. Ill say the same thing Ive said when we discussed other meats health impacts, consult with your doctor.

A brief history of sausages | Edible Histories Episode 8 | BBC Ideas

FAQ

What is sausage made of?

What is sausage meat filled in?

Is sausage healthy yes or no?

Is sausage made with pig intestine?

What is a cooked sausage?

Image Source/Getty Images Cured sausages are what Italians call salumi and the French call charcuterie. They are sausages made fresh and then salted and air-dried for weeks or months depending on the type. The meat gets “cooked” by the salt and air (and, in a way, time).

Is sausage casing healthier option to eat?

Cellulose casings and some natural casings are perfectly fine to eat. Sausage casings are used to hold and shape filling inside so that it can be cooked. There are natural sausage casings and synthetic varieties, and most of them are edible. The healthiest way to cook them is by boiling or baking. Sausages provide high levels of vitamin B12 and iron, both of which are essential for healthy red blood cells and hemoglobin production.

Why is sausage called a sausage?

The name is derived from the Latin word “salus,” meaning “salted,” which was the standard preservation method used for the meat. The sausage was particularly valuable for these early societies because it was a way to use up the less desirable parts of the animal, like the intestines for the casings and the organ means for the fillings.

Why do people eat sausage?

Rather than throw these pieces away and waste food, butchers created sausage to use up the extra scraps. Salt and a variety of other spices were added to the meat to help it last longer and also taste better. As people began to enjoy sausage, it became less a collection of leftovers and more of a desired meat itself.