Sausage

A sausage is a cylindrical meat product usually made from ground meat, often pork, beef or veal, along with salt, spices and other flavourings and breadcrumbs, with a skin around it. Typically, a sausage is formed in a casing traditionally made from intestine, but sometimes from synthetic materials. Sausages that are sold uncooked are usually cooked in many ways, including pan-frying, broiling and barbecuing. Some sausages are cooked during processing and the casing may then be removed.

Sausage making is a traditional food preservation technique. Sausages may be preserved by curing, drying (often in association with fermentation or culturing, which can contribute to preservation), smoking or freezing. Some cured or smoked sausages can be stored without refrigeration. Most fresh sausages must be refrigerated or frozen until they are cooked.

There is a huge range of national and regional varieties of sausages, which differ by their flavouring or spicing ingredients (garlic, peppers, wine, etc.), the meat(s) used in them and their manner of preparation.

The word "sausage" was first used in English in the mid-15th century, spelled "sawsyge". This word came "...from Old North French saussiche (Modern French saucisse)". The French word "saussiche" came "...from Vulgar Latin *salsica "sausage," from salsicus "seasoned with salt," from Latin salsus [meaning] "salted".

Sausage making is an outcome of efficient butchery. Traditionally, sausage makers would salt various tissues and organs such as scraps, organ meats, blood, and fat to help preserve them. They would then stuff them into tubular casings made from the cleaned intestines of the animal, producing the characteristic cylindrical shape. Hence, sausages, puddings, and salami are among the oldest of prepared foods, whether cooked and eaten immediately or dried to varying degrees.

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