Ingredient: Sausages - National Varieties
Category: Meat - Butchery
Season: All
Many nations and regions have their own characteristic sausages, using meats and other ingredients native to the region and employed in traditional dishes.
Argentina
In Argentina many sausages are consumed. Eaten as part of the traditional asado, Chorizo (Meat and/or Pork, flavoured with spices) and Morcilla (Blood Sausage or Black pudding) are the most popular. Both of them share a Spanish origin.
A local type is the salchicha Argentina, criolla (Argentinian sausage) or parrillera (literally BBQ-style), made of the same ingredients as the Chorizo but thinner.
Vienna sausages are eaten as an appetizer or in hot dogs (called panchos) which are usually served with different sauces and salads.
The weisswurst is also a very common dish, eaten usually with smashed potatoes or chucrut in some regions.
Italy
Italian sausages are often a mix of pork and veal. In the USA, these are defined as having a minimum of 85% meat, and must contain salt, pepper, and either fennel or anise.
Germany
German sausages, or wurst, cover a wide range of cooked, uncooked and unfilled styles (no casing), such as frankfurters, bratwurst, rindswurst, blargenwurst, knackwurst, and bockwurst.
For more on German sausages, click here
Britain and Ireland
British and Irish sausages normally have a significant amount of Rusk, or Bread-Rusk, and are less meaty than sausages in other styles.
So called "Bangers" are also used to make “”Toad in the hole”.
They are an essential part of both a full English breakfast and an Ulster Fry, and are usually offered with an Irish breakfast.
According to Sausagefans.com, in the UK alone there are over 470 different types of sausages.
In some areas"sausage meat" for frying is sold as slices cut from an oblong block of pressed meat without any casing: in Scotland this is known as “Lorne Sausage” or often sliced or square while the usual form is sometimes called sausage links.
There are currently organisations in a number of UK counties, such as Lincolnshire, who are seeking European protected status on their sausages so that, rather like Champagne, they can only be made in the appropriate county.
In England, Saveloy is a type of pre-cooked sausage snack, which is nethertheless served hot, bigger than general hot-dog sausages. To mark this out a saveloy skin was traditionally colored with bismark-brown dye giving saveloy a distinctive red color.
Battered sausage, consisting of a sausage dipped in batter, and fried, is available throughout Britain. It is often sold in Fish and Chip shops.
For more on British sausages, click here
Scandinavia
Scandinavian sausages (Finnish: makkara, Danish and Norwegian: pølse, Icelandic: pylsa, Swedish: korv) are usually made of 60-75 % very finely ground pork, very sparsely spiced with pepper, nutmeg, allspice or similar sweet spices (ground mustard seed, onion and sugar may also be added). Water, lard, rind, potato flour and soy or milk protein are often added for binding and filling.
Virtually all sausages will be industrially precooked and either fried or warmed in hot water by the consumer or at the hot dog stand.
Since hot dog stands are ubiquitous in Denmark some people regard pølser one of the national dishes.
The most noticeable aspect of Danish cooked sausages (never the fried ones) is that the cover often contains a traditional bright-red dye.
They are also called wienerpølser and legend has it they originate from Vienna where it was once ordered that day-old sausages be dyed as a means of warning.
The Swedish falukorv is a similarly red-dyed sausage, but about 5 cm thick, usually cut in slices and fried.
Unlike ordinary sausages it is a typical home dish, not sold at hot dog stands.
In Sweden sausages are often accompanied by potato mash, rather than bread.
In Iceland, lamb may be added to sausages, giving them a distinct taste.
Finland
Makkara is typically similar in appearance to Polish sausages or bratwursts, but have a very different taste and texture.
Most makkara is very light on spices and is therefore frequently eaten with mustard, ketchup, or other table condiments without a bun.
Makkara is usually grilled, roasted over coals, or cooked on sauna heating stones, until the outer skin begins to darken and crack.
A special kind of makkara is mustamakkara, a "Black sausage", which is a speciality of Tampere and its surroundings. It is very close to the Scottish black pudding.
When makkara is eaten inside a sliced, fried bun with cucumber salad, it becomes a “porilainen” after the town of Pori.
Pickled makkara intended to consumed as slices is called kestomakkara. This class includes various mettwurst, salami and Balkanesque styles.
The most popular kestomakkara in Finland is meetvursti, which contains finely ground full meat, ground fat and various spices. It is not unlike salami, but usually thicker and less salty.
South Africa
In South Africa, traditional sausages are known as boerewors (wors) or farmer's sausage.
Ingredients include game and beef, usually mixed with pork or lamb and with a high percentage of fat.
Coriander and vinegar are the two most common seasoning ingredients, although many variations exist.
The coarsely-ground nature of the mincemeat as well as the long continuous spiral of sausage are two of its recognisable qualities.
Boerewors is traditionally cooked on a braai (barbecue).
Boerewors can be dried out in a dry-curing process similar to biltong, in which case it's called droë wors.
North America
North American breakfast or country sausage is made from uncooked ground pork mixed with pepper, sage, and other spices. It is usually sold in a large synthetic plastic casing, or in links which may have a protein casing.
In some markets it is available sold by the pound without a casing. It is commonly sliced into small patties and pan-fried, or cooked and crumbled into scrambled eggs or gravy.
The frankfurter or hot dog is the most common sausage in the US and Canada.
For more on American sausages, click here
Turkey
In Turkey sausage is known as sosis, which is made of beef.
Sucuk (pronounced tsudjuck or soudjouk or sujuk with accent on the last syllable) is a type of sausage made in Turkey and neighboring Balkan countries.
There are many types of sucuk, but it is mostly made from beef.
It is fermented, spiced (with garlic and pepper) and filled in a inedible casing that needs to be peeled off before consuming.
Slightly smoked sucuk is considered superior. The taste is spicy, salty and a little raw, similar to pepperoni.
Some varieties are extremely hot and/or greasy. Some are "adulterated" with turkey, water buffalo meat, sheep fat or chicken.
There are many dishes made with sucuk, but grilled sucuk remains the most popular.
Smoke dried varieties are consumed "raw" in sandwiches.
An intestinal loop is one sucuk.
Smoked sucuk is usually straight.
Malta
Maltese sausage zalzett tal-Malti is typically made of pork, sea salt, black peppercorns, coriander seeds, garlic and parsley.
Sausages - Other variations
Sausages may be served as hors d'oeuvre, in a sandwich, in a bread roll as a hot dog, wrapped in a tortilla, or as an ingredient in dishes such as stews and casseroles.
It can be served on a stick (like the corn dog) or on a bone as well.
Sausage without casing is called sausage meat and can be fried or used as stuffing for poultry, or for wrapping foods like Scotch eggs.
Similarly, sausage meat encased in puff pastry is called a sausage roll.
Sausages can also be modified to use indigenous ingredients.
Mexican styles add oregano and the "guajillo" red pepper to the Spanish chorizo to give it an even hotter spicy touch, and the good old cabeza de pija style.
Certain sausages also contain ingredients such as cheese and apple ; or types of vegetable.
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