Sausage?!

In almost every country and culture around the world, there is at least one type of sausage belonging to that particular community. Sausages are defined as a loaf of meat wrapped in some kind of casing. While beef, pork and chicken are the norms in sausage fillings, there are areas where people would use lamb, horse, duck, and even kangaroo for their sausages. Sausage casings may come from the animal itself, as the intestines are used, or from leaves of various trees, more commonly found in Asia.

But sausages are not simply stuffed meat. In any kind of sausage that has been in existence, there is a good amount of salt in there. Some sausages are made by drying the roll for a good amount of time. It comes as no surprise that sausages often taste significantly different from the animal they came from, due to the meat being chopped, ground and mixed with various spices to enhance the flavor. A good sausage can take days or months to make, and requires much greater effort than cooking meat fresh on the stove.

This begs the question: Why going through this lengthy and time-consuming process and not eating the meat fresh?

Originally, sausages were invented with the aim of preserving unused meat. In ancient times when sausages were not a thing, people were restricted in how far they could travel, based on how many days they could do without meat. As protein is the main source of energy for the human body, travelers require a good and stable amount to keep themselves alive on weeks-long excursions. They could not depend on hunting alone, or villages that they rarely come across.

No one knows for sure when the first sausage came to be, but the first recorded appearance of sausage dates back to around 3100 B.C. The Sumerians in Mosopotamia were at war. Sausage was important as it helped preserving left-over meat to be used days later. Sausages at the time were mostly for survival purposes, so it was a whatever-meat type of sausage: lions, deer, vultures, gazelles, … you name it. Over time, innovations in preserving and spicing techniques allowed sausages to be kept for longer. The Turks came up with their Sujuk – a mixture of beef or lamb with lots of pepper, garlic, and cumin which is then dried under the sun. The Chinese, in 300 A.D, invented lap cheong, a smoked pork sausage that is high in fat content and is still popular in South-East Asia till today.

In more recent history when food isn’t as big of a problem anymore, sausages play another role in the meat industry: reducing food waste. As higher demands of specific cuts of meat increase, companies or even small vendors have to trim their meat well to meet buyers’ expectation. As a result, tons of trimmed and unused meat would go to waste, if it were not for their use in sausage mixtures. With food hygiene and safety regulations in place, sausages are now made with much higher quality, packing a wide selection of herbs and spices for maximum flavor.

Last but not least, sausages are simply fun to eat. They are great party snacks, with some sausages already cured and ready to eat after opening their packages. As every region in the world has their own take on sausage, this dish also reflects the culture, the weather and the lifestyle of people in that area. You are more likely to find dried sausage in Italy and Greece, since the weather is hot and dry, whereas smoked sausages are common in Northern Europe as it is cold and damp. You should encounter a wide selection of spicy sausages in India, aromatic sausages in China (as they have rose water in their sausage mixtures), and softly cooked, herbal infused sausages in Vietnam. Sausage is celebrated all around the world, and their presence is now intertwined with that of humans.