The Case of the Rising Sausage

Date: Friday 12th August 2022
Author: Laura Dodwell-Groves

Did you know...

that sausages are thought to be the first processed food? Before the convenience of refrigeration, almost every culture on earth used some combination of salt and animal intestines to help them keep meat last. Indeed the word ‘sausage’ comes from the Latin for salt (as does the word salary, just fyi).

“Laws are Like Sausages. Better Not to See Them Being Made” – Otto von Bismark

This food tradition seems to be enjoying a surge at the moment. We here at MeatMarket sold more sausage casings than ever before. What was it about the pandemic that saw people rolling up their sleeves and deciding to delight in do-it-yourself sausage stuffing? Perhaps with the world around us feeling more out of our control, it feels good to be able to take control of the small things; to know how the sausage is made. One of the most depressing lists of ingredients I ever read was on the packaging of readymade sausages (more numbers than words).

Natural, collagen or cellulose?

No, I’m not asking about your lips. Cellulose is plant based and made from the calls of green plants. So, if you are making a vegan or vegetarian sausage this is the one for you. Most of it today is used in the paper making industry, but it is increasingly being used researched as a renewable alternative to fuel and plastics.

Collagen is made from animals but has to be quite highly processed to be able to get it into the long tubular shape required for sausaging (yes, it’s a verb. Well, I’m making it one). Natural are the intestines (most often pig, cow or sheep) and this is the traditional method. Sold dried for ease of storing, you do need to soak them and rinse off any salt (varying time frames, between 1-12 hours) to soften them up. After that they ‘become wonderfully pliable (and in the words of a six-year-old recently ‘hehe, squidgy’).

Natural sheep casing

Tell Your Kids to Get Stuffeding

Choosing your stuffing is often the part we fight about most. There’s some lovely blends and recipes to be found online (couple of my favs listed below), but the joy of this is you can use almost anything and it is a wonderful opportunity to be creative. A customer tried with rabbit meat, because of how lean it was, and was trying to be healthy. I followed up with her, asking how she managed to avoid it drying out. Her answer: bacon.

Perhaps everyone can make their own mix, and you can a have a little contest for the most creative (or longest, or shortest, or most colourful). Encourage the family to get down and squidgy with you in the last week of summer holidays.

My favourite sausage recipes:

• Lamb sausage recipe
• Pork sausage recipe