How sausages are made?

Sausages are made from meat and meat by-products, such as ground pork, beef, or poultry. Sausage makes add salt, spices, and other flavorings to different types of sausages, all of which tend to have distinct tastes.

Some sausages contain ingredients such as grains or breadcrumbs. These act as fillers or extenders and keep the sausage together.

Most sausages are made with the meat filling wrapped with some type of casing. Traditionally, this casing is a cleaned animal intestine. But synthetic casings are gaining popularity, too.

Recipe: homemade sausages.

You can easily get your hands on most of the basic ingredients to make your own sausages. But sausage casing is a different story. Unless your butcher or grocer has stock, you’re fresh out of luck.

To save you the pain of looking for sausage skin, here’s an easy-to-prepare recipe for skinless homemade sausages!

Ingredients

• 500 g 20% Fat Ground Pork, close to room temperature
• 1/2 cup Fresh Breadcrumbs
• 1 large Spring/Green Onion, very finely diced
• 1 Egg, beaten
• 1 small clove Garlic, minced
• 1 tsp EACH dried Sage, dried Parsley
• 3/4 tsp Salt
• 1/2 tsp EACH dried Thyme, Cracked Black Pepper, Fennel Seeds, crushed
• 2 tbsp Olive Oil

Instructions

1. In a medium-sized mixing bowl combine the pork mince with a 1/2 cup of fresh breadcrumbs, 1 tsp dried sage & parsley. Then add 3/4 tsp salt, 1/2 tsp thyme, cracked black pepper & crushed fennel seeds, 1 beaten egg, 1 diced spring onion. Finally, add 1 minced clove of garlic. 
2. Mix the ingredients. You want them to be evenly distributed.
3. If it’s too wet to mold (different pork will have different water contents) then just add a few more pinches of breadcrumbs.
4. Divide the mixture into 6 (around 1/3cup cup portions).
5. Gently roll into sausage shapes about 6″ long. Don’t worry if this seems too big — they will shrink slightly in the pan.
6. Heat 2 tbsp olive oil in a large pan over medium heat.
7. Add in sausages and turn each one over a few times to sear the outside.
8. Continue cooking, flipping the sausages now and then until nicely browned on the outside and piping hot through the center (around 10-12mins).

And there you have it! Skinless sausages made from scratch. Not as hard as it might have seemed, was it?

This recipe courtesy of Don’t Go Bacon My Heart.

Vegan sausage recipe.

But what if you’re vegan? Does that mean no sausages? Luckily for you, it doesn’t, not at all. Here’s a simple vegan homemade sausages recipe that you’ll be making often.

Ingredients

• 1/2 tablespoon canola oil
• 1/2 large white onion chopped
• 1 garlic clove chopped
• 1/2 teaspoon cumin seeds
• 1/2 teaspoon fennel seeds
• 1/4 cup cooked chickpeas
• 1 tablespoon tomato paste
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon thyme
• 1/2 teaspoon smoked paprika
• 1 tablespoon soy sauce
• /4 cup sparkling water
• 3/4 cup vital wheat gluten

Instructions

1. In a large pan with canola oil, sauté the chopped onion and garlic cloves until soft.
2. Add the cumin and fennel seeds. Let it cook for another minute until the spices are toasted.
3. In a food processor, add the chickpeas, onion-garlic-spices mixture, tomato paste, salt, thyme, smoked paprika, soy sauce, and sparkling water. Pulse until it’s saucy. Then add the vital wheat gluten and pulse again until it comes together in a ball.
4. Prepare a large pot (filled with a couple of inches of water) with a steaming basket and bring it to high heat.
5. Divide the seitan into 4 equal chunks. Roll and press the seitan into a sausage shape. Roll each sausage in parchment paper and aluminum foil (roll it tightly). Twist the ends so that the seitan is completely covered in foil. Add the seitan sausages into the steaming basket and let them steam for about 40 minutes, flipping them after 20 minutes.
6. Let them cool off a bit before removing the aluminum foil and parchment paper.
7. You can use them in various recipes (Hot Dogs, Corn Dogs, serve them with mashed potatoes etc.). To warm them up, cook them in a pan or contact grille. You can store them in the fridge for 3-4 days.

This recipe courtesy of Elephantastic Vegan.

Best types of store-bought sausages.

Making your own sausages is a rewarding culinary experience. It’s not even as hard as most people think. But it still takes some time.

So what if time is the one thing you don’t have? Luckily, most grocers and butchers carry a range of sausages.

Let’s look at the five best types of sausages that will work for any occasion.

1. Kielbasa

Kielbasa is also known as Polish sausage. It is a horseshoe-shaped sausage that’s made of pork and is usually smoked. But you can find it partially smoked or unsmoked as well.

If you buy smoked kielbasa, you’ll still have to heat it for the best flavor. You will, however, have to cook partially smoked or unsmoked kielbasa.

You can grill or sauté this sausage. It goes great with other Central European side dishes such as boiled potatoes, braised cabbage, and sauerkraut. If you need something simpler, try serving kielbasa on a bun with mustard, or slice it up and add it to a soup.

2. Andouille

This sausage was originally French, but meat-lovers around the world got to know it from its role in Cajun cuisine. Andouille is a key ingredient in dishes like jambalaya and gumbo. You can use it in any recipe where you’re required to add sausages, but remember — it’s spicy. Andouille brings a bit of heat to the table!

Andouille is a type of smoked sausage. This means it’s precooked, and you can serve it cold. It makes a great appetizer or snack.

If you want to cook it, you have two options. Either slice it and add it to your dish. Or heat the Andouille in a pan, just enough to brown the edges. This latter style is great if you want to enhance the already spicy flavor.

3. Bratwurst

This legendary German sausage is made from pork and veal and may have salt, ginger, nutmeg, and caramel for flavoring.

In their home country, Bratwurst is grilled or sautéed. If you’re grilling them, make sure you get them hot enough to cook through, but not so hot that the sausage gets charred. If you’d rather prefer a sauté, start on a low heat and slowly increase it until your brats are sizzling.

4. Italian sausage

You can find Italian sausages in two varieties, and they only differ by one ingredient. “Hot sausages” are made from pork and seasoned with salt, garlic, anise seeds, and red pepper flakes. “Sweet sausages” are the same — minus the pepper flakes.

You can either grill or sauté Italian sausages. They taste amazing served on a roll with onions and peppers, and make a great pizza topping, too. If you’re ever cooking paste, try adding some sliced Italian sausage to tomato sauce and serve it over pasta. The two Italian dishes complement each other perfectly.

5. Chorizo

Chorizo is a variety of Mexican sausages. They are uncured and are an explosion of taste with their chili, garlic, and spice flavoring.

Vendors usually sell these sausages in casings. But you have to remove the casing before cooking and serving. Chorizos taste best sautéed and used in enchiladas, tacos, and burritos. They work with soups and stews too.

Nutrition and calories of sausages.

The exact nutritional content of sausages depends on the type of sausage and the brand. But we can get a baseline value by looking at pork sausages.

100 grams (3.5 ounces) of pork sausage contain roughly contains:

• Energy: 268 calories
• Fat: 18 grams
• Saturated fat: 7 grams
• Protein: 27 grams

You can also estimate how much fat is in a sausage based on the type of sausage.

• Breakfast sausages are made from meat and meat by-products and contain less than 50% fat by weight.
• Fresh pork sausages are made from pork (but not necessarily pork by-products). They also contain less than 50% fat by weight.
• Italian sausages are usually more than 85% meat by meat. They must be comprised of no more than 35% fat by weight.

It’s worth noting that the nutrition and calories of your homemade sausages may vary depending on the ingredients you use.

Final thoughts.

Making your own homemade sausages doesn’t have to be all that complicated. You can use our recipe, or pick one from among the countless recipes online. And if that doesn’t work, there are plenty of varieties that you can buy from your butcher or local store.

How do you like your sausages made? Let us know in the comments?