You know they are delicious, go great on sandwich with a generous dollop of your favourite sauce, and are exquisite with mash and gravy, but do you actually know what sausage is made of?..
Im sure youve heard the horror stories, right? Theres eyeballs, and feet, and all-sorts in sausage, you know?.. Absolutely WRONG. Lets clear up this misinformation.
First of all, lets define what exactly a sausage is, for anyone whos unaware… A sausage is, according to Google, “an item of food in the form of a cylindrical length of minced pork or other meat encased in a skin, typically sold raw to be grilled or fried before eating.”
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 it’s delicious and provides flavor. B) Because it transforms the texture of the ground meat into a supple and moist product.
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Meat content of sausage
A good breakfast sausage should have around a 55% pork content or more. As sausage is a low cost item, thats really the traditional way it would be made to keep costs down. This is ideal as is produces a nice texture thats not too heavy or gritty. This style of sausage would usually be filled into collagen casings, as these help produce a uniformed size and shape, which is perfect for wholesale production, and for caterers working to costing etc.
A premium sausage should be around 75% pork or more. This produces a nice, firm and meaty sausage, which is perfect for bangers and mash, a posh breakfast, or awesome hotdogs on the bbq. This style of sausage would usually be filled in to natural skins and hand linked into portions. Just like the sausage you see hanging in butchers shops etc. These are much thicker, and thus take much longer to cook. Share Link
What is a binder?
A binder is something used in the recipe to help bring the meat, and other ingredients together. Without a binder the sausage can easily split, leaving in with a rough gritty texture, which would be rather unpleasant to eat. The most common binder used in sausage is rusk, although other binders, such as rice flour, are often used in gluten free versions.
Rusk is mainly made up of wheat flour, which is fortified with calcium carbonate, iron, niacin, and thiamin. It also contains salt, and ammonium bicarbonate, which is used to aid the production process.
A brief history of sausages | Edible Histories Episode 8 | BBC Ideas
FAQ
Is sausage a cow or pig?
What animals can make sausage?
Can sausage be made from any animal or just pork?
Which animal product is used in sausage making?
The most commonly used animal product in sausage-making is pork. Pork is high in fat, which contributes to the delicious taste and texture of sausages. However, beef is also frequently used in sausage-making, especially in regions where pork is less favored.
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.
Where did sausages come from?
The historical record on sausages begins around 4,000 years ago. An Akkadian cuneiform tablet from Mesopotamia, for example, records a dish of intestine casings filled with some sort of forcemeat . In China a type of sausage, lup cheong, is recorded from the Northern and Southern dynasties (589 BC to 420 BC).
What kind of meat is in sausages?
The meat in sausages is mostly pork, although other types of livestock and poultry are also sources of certain types of sausages. Meat sausages involve clean cuts of meat from the animal. Since fat is a very important factor in sausages in terms of consistency and flavor, the leanest cuts of meat are not usually a good choice for making sausages.