Old World Sausage Continues - Part I

The old world, or old country, for many people meanssausage to preserve and transport meat then
a place where their ancestors came from. Thediscovered that dried berries and spices added to the
majority of Americans came from some far offmeat improved the flavor of the sausage. Not only
distant land in search of something new. However,was sausage and sausage making techniques
despite the new atmosphere many people continuedimportant for human survival during this time, but so
carry on their ethnic heritage through food. Not only didwas the mind set of using every part of the animal
food from the old world remind people of the placeand not letting anything go to waste. From this mind
they came from, but also of a former and a moreset unique sausages arose, such as blood sausage
gracious period when things were a little simpler. Manyand head cheese. Both of these sausages do not
foods can be traced to a certain place and ethnicity,have a specific geological origin and can be traced to
such as desserts and side dishes, but most especiallymultiple areas throughout Europe and Asia. There are
meats. While meat is used many different ways toalso a variety of different names which both of these
create classic unique main dishes one style of meatsausages can be call which depends on the area. For
has been carried down through the generation andexample, blood sausage is generally used in the United
remains to be popular, sausage.States while blood pudding is used in Great Britain,
Making sausage can be an intense processing startingboudin in France, and morcilla in Spain. Head cheese is
with a quality cut of meat and grinding it down to theused in America, but in England it is called brawn, in
preferred chunkiness or smoothness. Different grindingGermany Sulze, in Brazil Queijo de Porco, and in
sizes will produce a slightly different flavor. Then spicesHungary disznósajt.
need to be chosen and weight to be proportional withDespite a variety of names the bottom line is that no
the amount of ground meat. When making a dried orone wanted waste any nutrients that were in every
smoked sausage a cure needs to be added whilepart of an animal. For blood sausage the blood of pigs
fresh sausage need to be cooked beforeor cattle was normally collected and cooked with a
consumption. Next a casing needs to be chosen.filler, such as meat, barley, or oatmeal until it was thick
There are both artificial casings and natural casing. Aenough to congeal when cooled. Some blood
lot of people prefer the snap of a sausage with naturalsausages also contain raisins making the sausage
casing along because of the added flavor from thesweet, sweet blood sausage. Head cheese was
casing which is commandingly absent in artificial casingdeveloped with the same mind set and is in fact not a
sausages. However, both are used the same way andcheese, but rather meat from the head of cattle or
yield the same amount of sausage. Then lastly thepigs that has been cleaned; all of the organs have
sausage either has to be cooked, dried, or smokedbeen removed, and simmered. This produces a gelatin
before it can be eaten.from the marrow of the skull. The head cheese will
In spite of the time and effort that goes into makingalso contain any incidental meat that came off of the
sausage it has been made since 600-500 BC in China,head during the simmering process.
Rome and Greece. Early civilization originally developed